Rock català
Rock català ( German Catalan rock ) is a genre of music that describes various musical groups at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century who sing in Catalan. Although the term “rock” includes, it can also be used to encompass styles such as pop music. He specifically refers to a number of groups that appeared in the 1970s that wanted to sing in Catalan the popular musical styles that were in vogue at the time. Until then - in the period shortly after the dictatorship - they could only hear them in other languages, mainly songs in English.
Historical context
The term began to become popular around the old Zeleste concert hall in the 1970s , which was used to protect a movement called rock laietà . This current includes names such as Pau Riba, Jaume Sisa, Om, Oriol Tramvia, Companyia Elèctrica Dharma, Grec, Atila, as well as groups that made use of English such as Maquina !, Pan & Regaliz etc. In 1975 the Canet Rock Festival was celebrated for the first time , the took place three more times. This scene is described in the book "History and Power of Catalan Rock" by Jordi Sierra i Fabra (1977).
The first punk rock-style song to be produced in Catalan was by a band that hails from the outskirts of Barcelona. It is Ciutat Podrida (German: "Verrottete Stadt") by the band Trapera del Río .
Later this style continued, in the 1980s and early 1990s, with groups and performers of rock music and other genres in Catalan. The term is also used to refer to the whole phenomenon that has arisen in music and culture, especially among young people. In this regard, groups such as Sopa de Cabra , Sau , Sangtraït , Lax'n'Busto, Els Pets, Obrint Pas, Whiskyn's, Brams, La Gossa Sorda, Gossos etc. emerged. These groups had both social and commercial effects, increasing the presence of the Catalan language in the everyday lives of the younger generations.
The musical “boom” reached its peak in the early 1990s when many groups appeared and numerous concerts were held, as well as festivals throughout the Catalan countries. Catalan rock has not been excluded from criticism since this decade: Many music critics criticized the fact that the Generalitat de Catalunya allegedly subsidized and promoted this movement or this musical phenomenon with political goals.
history
The 1970s
The forerunner of Rock Català is the Ona Laietana of the 1970s, promoted by the Zeleste Concert Hall and related to the Nova Cançó as well as to artists who were part of the Grup de Folk . The largest demonstration by the Laietana was the Canet Rock counterculture festival , held between 1975 and 1978. Among Ona's artists , the greatest rockers were Pau Riba and the fusion group Companyia Elèctrica Dharma , which later became part of Rock Català in the 1920s . Ciutat podrida (German: "Verrotete Stadt"), a title by the band Trapera del Río , which was released in 1979, is considered the first rock song in Catalan. In the 80s, when the Madrid movement, Castilian expression, was rampant , bands like Duble Buble, N'Gai N'Gai, GREC, La Madam or Detectors created rock in their own language.
The 1990s
The success of Rock Català is linked to the generation of the 90s. Young people born in the 70s had almost no native musical references, had taken the first steps in the transition period and were being taught in Catalan. Since Franco's death, Catalan was also present in other areas, such as administration and the media. The most emblematic groups in the movement came from outside Barcelona. The massive breakthrough came about through a direct connection to the public, thanks to uncomplicated pop rock, an image and a very close language with which the Catalan youth could identify - far removed from the progressive figure and the dissident message of Nova Cançó. The trigger for this was the spectacular success of Sopa de Cabra in 1989, which occurred almost simultaneously with that of Sau, Els Pets, Lax'nBusto and Sangtraït . These bands filled pavilions and large venues with between 50 and 100 concerts in Catalonia and took advantage of the musical opportunity at large celebrations.
The concert at Palau Sant Jordi
The social phenomenon called Rock Català triumphed on June 14, 1991 at the Palau Sant Jordi (multifunctional arena) in Barcelona with a concert by four of the largest and most popular groups: Sopa de Cabra, Sau, Sangtraït and Els Pets . It was attended by more than 22,000 people, who made the act a European hit with audiences considering an indoor musical show. It was organized by the managers of the groups as well as the organ of the promotion of music of the Generalitat and broadcast by TV3 (Catalan television channel).
The rock band from Girona, Sopa de Cabra , which has a style between the Stones and Springsteen, existed since 1986 under the direction of Gerard Quintana. One of her classics was the song L'Empordà . Since 1987 the band Sau consisted of Pep Sala from Osana and Carles Sabater from Barcelona. They made pop-rock music and are with titles like És inútil continuar (German: "It is unnecessary to continue"), El tren de mitjanit (German: "The midnight train") or Boig per tu (German: "Crazy about you") ) known. The band Sangtraït from Empordà, founded in 1982, was led by Quim Mandado and triumphed with medieval pieces such as El vol de l'home ocell (German: "The flight of the bird man"). Els Pets from Tarragona, which was founded in 1985, represented by Lluís Gavaldà, celebrated a rural pop-rock festival with songs like Vine a la festa (German: “Come to the festival”) or Tarragona m'esborrona (German: “Tarragona bores me").
Based on this consecration of Rock Català as a social phenomenon, tens of thousands of copies of the CD's of the main groups sold, released both national and multinational labels, and concerts in Catalonia and the rest of the world of the Catalan-speaking area increased. The popular and media outbreak of the movement meant that the number of fans of these groups increased and their lead singers became idols, which most young people - in addition to the singers of English descent - admired and imitated. As a result of this panorama, Enderrock appeared in the early 1990s , a magazine specializing in Catalan music, which had spawned an editorial group. Another product of the movement, which in this case disappeared, was the annual compilation El tec i la teca. Also in 1990 Josep Cassart, who had been a music promoter in Zeleste years earlier, published the book Nou Rock Català (German: "New Catalan Rock"), which contains songs by dozens of groups such as: Sopa de Cabra, Tancat per defunció, 080 , B-30, Detectors, Duble Buble, Els Pets, Grec, La Madam, N'Gai-N'Gai, Sangtraït and Sau .
The subsequent support of the phenomenon by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia, which at the time consisted of the autonomous coalition Convergència i Unió (CiU) , chaired by Jordi Pujol, encountered some social areas that orchestrated Rock Català as the result of an orchestration Operation of Nationalism looked to criticism. A large part of the groups, including many, rejected any partisan reading of their activities and even distrusted the same trademark they shared in order to cultivate styles of contemporary music in their mother tongue. In any case, the leading groups of Rock Català became a fundamental reference in the imagination of the independent youth, who were made aware of the concerts with songs, stars, columns, banners, etc. In addition, it can be said that some of the song texts of two groups by Sant Jordi ( Els Pets and Sau ) belong to Catalanism.
Other groups
The four groups of the Macro Concerto were added to other groups in the 1990s, some of which also achieved great popularity. Founded in 1986 and from Penedès, Lax'n'Busto, who are seen as the band's grandchildren, became known for songs like Tinc fam de tu (German: "I'm hungry for you") or Miami Beach and remained active, but with a change of singer: Salva Racero replaced the singer Pemi Fortuny in 2006. The group Umpah-pah , founded in Girona in 1996 and dissolved again in 1996, was headed by Adrià, now Josep-Puntí, who later pursued a solo career. La catximba (German: "The Cat") is one of her most emblematic creations. Another successful band is Tancat per Defunció [7] (German: “Closed due to death”), the band of Jaume Papell, who performed songs like Com Vols que T'ho Digui (German: “How should I tell you? "), Amor d'Estiu o Coses que fit (German:" Summer love or things that happen ") gave several concerts in 1990, 1991 and 1992, but then disappeared due to recording problems. Another of the most talented and iconic bands today is Kitsch , which was associated with the darker after-punk . Ja T'ho Diré , who comes from Menorca, became known between 1986 and 2003 with songs like Si véns (German: "When you come"). The singer of this band, Cris Juanico, now works alone and on projects like Menaix a Truà , a band that was formed in 1999 with Toni Xuclà and Juanjo Muñoz.
The rock group Brams , which called themselves openly independent, was active between 1990 and 2005. Her early repertoire includes compositions such as El president (German: "The President"), which is dedicated to the head of the Catalan government, or Vull per demà (German: "I want for tomorrow"). Your leader, Titot, now leads projects with groups like Mesclat or Aramateix , as heir to Brams .
The second generation
A second generation of rock català emerged in the mid-nineties with Gossos , Whiskey'ns and Gluacs . With Joan Masdéu as the still existing front voice, Whiskyn's, later Whiskey'ns Cullons, was founded in Reus in 1992. Broker and Lila are among their first popular songs . The quartet Gossos from Manresa, which was founded in 1993, is only accompanied by acoustic guitars and celebrated its first successes with Rera teu (German: "Behind you") or Mira'm bé (German: "Look at me well") . The group has been electric since 2002 and has a drum kit (Santi Serratosa). The Glaucs from the Empordà, which existed between 1994 and 2003, took their name from one of their first songs, Els teus ulls glaucs (German: "Your greenish white eyes"). The leader of the band, Jofre Bardagí, switched to the solo business in 2006.
The turn of the century
Like most of their successors, three of the four groups of Sant Jordi, the pioneers of Rock Català , disbanded at the turn of the century . The leader of Sau and one of the icons of the movement, Carles Sabater, died of cardiac arrest at the end of a concert in Vilafranca in 1999. His partner, Pep Sala, has since worked alone or with La Banda del Bar .
The most popular group of the phenomenon and the hook for the poster of the macro concert, Sopa de Cabra , disbanded in 2002 after they had big hits like Camins (German: "Weg") or El far del sud (German: "The lighthouse of the south") had produced. Shortly after he left, guitarist Joan Cordana, Ninyín, died. His two comrades, Gerard Quintana and Josep Thió, continued as soloists and other members of the group continued their activities in Kabul Babà. Years later, in 2011, they announced their return and in 2015 they published their latest project Circles (German. "Kreise"). Their group phase, which also took place in Spanish in 1993 with the CD Mundo infierno (German: "Hell World"), met with rejection from some of the supporters who held a political reading. Some even spread rumors about the concerts. The fact that the group sang some pieces in Catalan on Castilian soil caused similar incidents - but with opposite signs. In 2002 Sangtraït disbanded . The singer Quim Mandado released his solo album Eclosión (German: "Schlüpfen") in 2003 and some of the former members are involved in other projects.
Twenty years after the macro concert, there is only one group left: Els Pets . The band from Constantí, which has become a classic, continued to triumph thanks to their development from the agricultural rock, which they practiced in the mid-eighties, to an intimate and mature rock, which has formed since its rebirth in 1997 with the album Bondia and is under the influence of Britpops . Thus the band was able to sell 85,000 copies.
Since the mid-nineties and especially around the turn of the century, the factors that had combined to promote the rock català phenomenon disappeared . There was still rock in Catalan, but it was a far cry from what it had been understood for the past decade and had less public and commercial vitality.
For Sant Jordi 2005, fourteen years after the macro concert, 18,000 people returned to fill the stadium, which hosted a concert in favor of Catalan music and Catalan culture in general, organized on April 23 by the Commission to differentiate Bringing together units that promote their own language and culture. The event staged a relief of the generations of rock of the country's language and included performances by the young groups Obrint Pas , Mesclat , Dept and La Carrau , the veterans Lax'n Busto , the soloists Lluís Llach and Quimi Portet and the young singer-songwriter Feliu Ventura.
In 2008 Enderrock produced the documentary La gran nit del Sant Jordi (German: “The great night of Sant Jordi”), which 17 years later recalled the first 15 years and 150 issues of the magazine. It was directed by Batabat (Catalan production company).
The presence
Catalan music remains a minority in the English and Spanish-influenced music scene, which is the language of most of the country's singers and top performers, some of whom work in Catalan on occasion. The mother tongue is mainly represented at festivals such as Senglar Rock , which was launched in 1998, or popArb , which was created in 2005, and has now become somewhat present there. However, those who prefer Spanish or English have little or no access. The language is not really present in the media, which on the other hand have moved away from music. The 1998 Language Act obliges all broadcasters to broadcast at least 25% of the songs in Catalan or Aranese (Occitan); a quota that most do not achieve. Ràdio 4 des Ràdio Nacional d'Espanya (RNE) has specialized in this since 2009 and broadcasts 15 hours a day.
Around 500 albums are released in Catalan every year. The relative normalization of the language in the world of rock has gained political importance due to the simple fact of its use and already in the 21st century, with the crisis of record labels, the careers of groups like the Mallorcans Antònia Font , the Barcelonians Mishima, Manel and Els Amics de les Arts or, those from Sabadell, Rauxa and Ix! favored. Successful Catalan groups in the 1990s came from counties, followed earlier models and were linguistically tagged; the current ones come from metropolises and local areas, harmonize with the musical moment and prioritize their style. They appreciate the criticism and the melodies, an unreleased '90s thing, which shows their maturity. However, these are elite products and not mass-produced.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Elfilldelwebmestre: El cabaret galàctic: "Història i poder del rock català", edició 2007. In: El cabaret galàctic. May 6, 2007, accessed July 16, 2018 .
- ↑ MUNSTER RECORDS -. Retrieved July 16, 2018 .
- ↑ 'rock' català | enciclopèdia.cat. Retrieved July 16, 2018 (Catalan).
- ^ Nicolás, Miquel ,: Història de la llengua catalana . Nova ed. Revisada i ampliada. Editorial UOC, Barcelona 2011, ISBN 978-84-9029-054-5 .
- ↑ Albert M. Forcadas, Vicenç Riera Llorca: Això aviat farà figa . In: World Literature Today . tape 59 , no. 2 , 1985, ISSN 0196-3570 , pp. 259 , doi : 10.2307 / 40141516 .
literature
- Josep Cassart: Nou Rock Català (en català). català. Moià (Barcelona): Edicions Raima, SA, 1990, p. 93. ISBN 84-86573-27-0 .