Spanish folk revival as social transformation: analysing gender and performance

Abstract

This paper will focus on the performances of groups labelled "folk" or "feminist folk" from the last decades in Spain. These musical practices are part of the process of folk revival, revitalizing a countercultural movement, which shows a context of clash of ideologies and identities. ldentities and ideologies related with feminism are acted out through aesthetics of performance and its staging. This reconceptualization of folk music illustrates how folk is constantly adapting to its context, in different ways, tapies, lyrics, aesthetics ... This movement grows out from a context of dictatorship and social repression which motivates the search of new cultural identities. In this case, research is focused in rebounding and reconstructing gender imaginaries of women through music. The field of musical production from the sixties to the present shows the development of this music as counterculture and as an open domain for social critique. Looking into the social changes that took place from the sixties in Spain, specially in the social field, 1 contemplate music as a reflection and reproduction of these changes.