MODERN SPANISH MUSIC (or How to Get About in Conversations on modern Spanish music without looking like a “guiri”)
Present day Spanish music is a very generic term which comprehends styles that range from the more classical flamenco (or flamenco-tinged) to urban music (trap, reggaetón, etc.).
In the first half of the XX century the mainstream were styles like copla, flamenco, ….. In the 50s, Spanish singers would imitate Italian and French melodic singers. In the late 50s-60s, rock’n’roll and The Beatles arrived and, despite the Franco regime, a new revolution in Spanish music came about. The 70s saw the arrival of singer songwriters, protesting about the lack of freedom under the dictorial regime, and rock bands would arise. The 80s was the Golden age for Spanish pop. The 90s was big time for indie bands and neo-flamenco singers. The 00s would see the return of great singersongwriters and electronic music. And the 2020s is the time for urban music worlwide stars like Rosalía.
About the lecturer:
Paul Mroček Delclós (Coventry, UK; 1963), BSc in Biological Sciences (University of Málaga), MA in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language (UNED, Madrid), and PhD in Microbiology (University of Surrey, UK), has lived and worked in several places in Spain and the UK for the last 40 years. Presently, he is a Teacher of English as a Foreign Language at the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas (EOI) in Fuengirola (Málaga).
But his big passion has always been music. This probably came from his parents’ love for Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, Acker Bilk, and the likes; his elder brother’s taste for rock bands such as Triana or Pink Floyd; and his sister’s constant playing of Simon & Garfunkel, Cat Stevens, or Jose Luis Perales. From the very first cassette he was given as a present (“A Hard Day’s Night”, The Beatles) he has been acquiring music in different formats, having now a collection of more than 300 vinyls and over 20,000 CDs, from all styles of music (rock, pop, blues, soul, new age, R&B, etc.), plus numerous books on music.
For the last 9 years he presents a radio music programme called “En la corte del rey carmesí” on two radio stations: Onda Joven El Rosario (Tenerife), and Radio Mijas (Mijas, Málaga), also available as podcasts on iVoox. For three years he has run an online course for 55+ at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid on the story of Modern Music. And he also is in charge of a Music Club at Fuengirola Library.
