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Juan Habichuela
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BarkellWH
Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
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 RE: Juan Habichuela (in reply to Piwin)
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quote:
Don't be so sure. Either in Spain or elsewhere, you will find people who look down on any given aspect of flamenco, or flamenco from any given period of time. There's plenty of looking-down-on to go around!
Actually, just how popular is flamenco in Spain, not just parts of Andalucia but in all of Spain? My impression, just anecdotally, is that the majority of Spaniards are indifferent to it. They may or may not look down on it, but they prefer pop, world, and classical music like everyone else. I seem to recall a thread several years ago (I think Anders may have commented, but I don't want to misquote him) that indicated flamenco has little appeal throughout Spain.
Anyone have more anecdotal or other evidence to either confirm or refute the above?
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."
--Rudyard Kipling
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Date Jun. 29 2016 21:59:38
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Piwin
Posts: 3562
Joined: Feb. 9 2016
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RE: Juan Habichuela (in reply to BarkellWH)
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quote:
My impression, just anecdotally, is that the majority of Spaniards are indifferent to it
I agree. I'm not aware of any reliable evidence to support this but it is the general feeling I have here.
Flamenco is very much recognized as part of Spanish culture and most people I've talked to know at least about Pdl and Camaron.
That being said, even in Cano Roto, most of the music you hear nowadays in the street, from passing cars or from open apartment windows is either latin music or rumbas revamped with heavy beats. I remember a friend of mine in Salamanca expressing nothing less than hatred for flamenco. But it was part of a broader distaste for gitanos in general, something that is more common and more intense outside of Andalusia. That being said, of the people I've met during my time here in Madrid, I haven't met anyone who looked down on flamenco. Mainly indifference or a kind of polite curiosity about it.
The professional flamenco artists I've met in Spain pretty much all agree that they couldn't do what they're doing without foreigners and the tourism market. There simply aren't enough Spaniards interested in flamenco to book enough shows and pay the bills of a professional artist. And in current times, there is the sense that even those Spaniards who are interested just aren't affluent enough to keep the business going. Of what I've gathered so far, many of the local penas in and around Madrid are in a constant state of competition to obtain regional subsidies. Some of them have either closed or reduced their business to a strict minimum to get by. To be fair though, the entire arts industry is going through a rough patch in Spain, not just flamenco.
So, in a nutshell, I'd have to go with:
- more awareness of flamenco than abroad,
- but mainly indifferent to it.
_____________________________
"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."
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Date Jun. 29 2016 23:05:05
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ViejoAmargo
Posts: 39
Joined: Jun. 29 2016
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RE: Juan Habichuela (in reply to Piwin)
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Barkell and Piwin, yes I'd also agreed that flamenco it's not "mainstream" in Spain. I've never been to Spain (yet) but I have a sense that it's something that the majority of the Spanish people (non-flamencos) sort of respect because so many foreigners have an interest to it, but it's not something they would listen to, on a daily basis (if ever...). In that sense, I think there's a big parallel with Blues in the USA... Blues is a genre well respected by serious musicians around the world, but you'd never ever hear Blues on mainstream US radio. Both genres are more like "gourmet music", enjoyed by people for whom music is more than just "having fun" and stuff, people who appreciate the beauty in human souls striving for a measure of happiness, against the harsh realities of poverty and loss. Neither of these two genres are feel-good or "easy listening" (personally I'd think that any "happy"or "fun" blues is not really blues, but I digress...). OK, there's alegrias, rumbas and tanguillos for a happier mood, so I guess my whole point about flamenco reflecting the "harsh realities of poverty and loss" is a bit off... 
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Date Jun. 30 2016 2:52:37
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