Exploring Different Styles of Popular Music

Exploring Different Styles of Popular Music

In this project, I aim to explore the different styles of popular

music that have been successful from the 1960s to the present in

Spain, why they have been popular, where they originated from, their

history and what the music is actually like. To find out a type of

music's origins, it is sometimes helpful to know where the country is

to find out where influences could have come from, and even a certain

amount about the country's history. So here is a map of Spain in

context with part of its neighbouring countries.

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Chapter 1RockMusicMany people have listened to the music included in

this project, as it spans more than two generations. It has always

been targeted at teenagers and young people, but, as is the case in

many countries, it is being targeted at younger and younger people, so

that now much of the music produced is targeted at 'tweenagers' or

older children. The younger the target audience, the younger the band

members or singers become, so much of the music produced now is sung

or played by younger people than in the 1960s, where this project

begins.

Most older music (from 1960 to about 1985) was always played by

professional musicians and singers, whilst much modern music has been

sung by people who were singled out as having the potential to break

through the charts not purely based on their singing or playing

ability but also by the fact that they conform to a certain image

which is popular with the target audience. Also, traditionally (but

especially recently) Spanish rock has been played by older people than

those playing or singing pop.

Popular mode...

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...to be sung by

Spanish singers, not to mention the fact that many of the songs in the

Spanish top 40 are not Spanish, but American or English. I also like

the fact that Spanish pop and rock is so distinguishable, and not just

because of the language, but the fact that it has managed to retain

some of the features of traditional music even up to the present

(although not in all cases!) but certainly until well into the 1970s.

But one of the things that I admire the most is the fact that it

managed to develop at all in the 1960s and 1970s, when General Franco

placed many restrictions on what people could and could not do- and

tried to make everybody in Spain stereotypical. The fact that groups

like 'Los Brincos' and 'Los Pekeniques' managed to transform music in

the 1960s and early 1970s seems to me a major achievement.