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BarkellWH -> RE: Who are the prodigys and genios of our time? (Sep. 23 2020 19:45:14)
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quote:
Flamenco de verdad will probably be dead in 20 years. At the moment there are still a few nucleos, such as el Barrio de Santiago, Lebrija/ Utrera when the cante is still de familia.
The music of today: rap, frap, crap, hip hop reduce all music to basic rhythm. When I was young I listened to the Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker, Elmore James. When I discovered flamenco, I listened to El Sordero, Terremoto, Tomás Pavón.
To young people of today, the citizens of tomorrow, this "music" has no relevance, neither within España nor without. Welcome to the Brave New World.
I agree with your prediction about the eventual demise of flamenco as we have known and loved it, Morante. There will always be an underground, so to speak, that will appreciate it, but it will be lost for all practical purposes, relegated to something like the Folger Consort in Washington, DC, which plays medieval and renaissance music on period instruments. There is a sliver of aficionados who appreciate their efforts and enjoy the music, but most people don't even know about it.
First fusion, then, and I hate to think about it, homogenization into a version of "World Music," whatever that is at any given time. People are too busy with "social media" to take the time to really organize their thoughts on the arts, literature, and music. This phenomenon is not just a product of our time. One of the finest Spanish authors was Jose Ortega y Gasset. He was a philosopher, author, and a member of the Republican government in Spain in 1936. In Ortega y Gasset's classic work, "The Revolt of the Masses," he takes on the issue of how "mass man," with his shallow approach to everything, reduces everything to the lowest common denominator, whether it be art, literature, or music.
Bill
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