Strangers in a Strange Land: Anglophone Black Musicians in Spain (1960-1980)
| Dates: | 25 November 2020 |
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| Times: | 17:00 - 18:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Arts, Languages and Cultures |
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| Speaker: | Stuart Green |
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While a number of Afro-Spanish musicians enjoy considerable commercial success nowadays – including on an international scale in the case of singer Concha Buika and rapper El Chojín - this first generation of autochthonous recording artists was preceded in the 1960s and 1970s by a not insignificant number of Black musicians born elsewhere. In this paper, I explore how a number of those from Anglophone countries came to live and work in Spain over the course of these decades. Drawing on archival work online and on-site, I note how the careers of the earliest to arrive involved attempts at linguistic integration on record, before a fuller embrace of their mother tongue in the context of desarrollismo and developments in audience tastes. I also examine how such musicians increasingly drew on genres of Black origin, even if such recordings were niche interests and not the foundation for significant commercial success. I end by locating Spain within the transatlantic circulation of Black cultures with an analysis of the recording history of Pop Tops’ “Oh Lord, Why Lord”.
Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/95942101007
Meeting ID: 959 4210 1007
Passcode: 240420
Speaker
Stuart Green
Role: Senior Lecturer in Spanish Studies
Organisation: University of Leeds
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