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Music from Spain: From flamenco to Hispanic rock
We explore Spain's musical heritage, from the ancient origins of flamenco to today's most famous bands. Do you know them all?
The historical tradition of Spain entails a cultural richness comparable to few other countries. One of the aspects that has also benefited from this fact is music. Despite what might be thought, flamenco is not the only Spanish musical heritage, although its importance has been paramount since its practical origin in the 18th century.
Flamenco is a musical style based on Andalusian folklore, which is based on singing (cante), dancing (baile), and guitar playing (toque). Its geographical origin is centered in Cádiz, although it is currently practiced throughout the country with different characteristic styles.
Somewhat more recently (in the mid-20th century), the so-called Spanish pop developed, in which women were primarily the ones accumulating all the spotlight, with the prominent figure of Rocío Dúrcal among them all. However, the men who excelled in this genre have reached incomparable levels of success, such as Julio Iglesias or Raphael.
In the 60s, this style of Spanish pop evolved into the so-called Ye-Yé movement, known for the performances of the singer and actress Concha Velasco. It is a mixture of British pop and rock with national folklore, most notably flamenco. With even greater fame if possible, another singer who exploited the genre at the time was Marisol (Pepa Flores).
Towards the 90s, a genre emerged in the province of Valencia known as Bakalao, which was electronic music with a Valencian touch and was known for the macro-discos that played it for entire days.
At the end of the decade, rap began to gain prominence and found its own style in Spanish through which to manifest itself. Groups like El Club de los Poetas Violentos, La Mala Rodriguez, or SFDK are the main exponents of this style.
To all these styles, we must add Spanish music based on rock and heavy metal or hard rock. The richness of styles and bands in these genres dates back to the 50s and, up to the present day, brings together an impressive number of artists.
The genre is handled by these bands in all its facets, from the most extremist heavy metal to humorous rock-pop, passing through necessary social protest. Some of the best-known artists and bands in Spanish rock are Miguel Ríos, Los Suaves, Rosendo, Marea, Héroes del Silencio, Los Inhumanos, or Mojinos Escozíos, among many others.