«The world of future»? The early reception of rock and roll in Spain (1956-1959)

Abstract

The arrival of rock and roll in Spain in the late 1950s has been studied as the beginning of musical modernity under the Franco regime, a radical break with the Spanish musical past on an economic, social and even physical and body level. However, its reception took place between 1956 and 1959, in a still precarious and strongly interventionist phase of the dictatorship, and not only through the usual media and spaces founded in its historiography, such as military bases, cinema, radio, or sound recordings, but also through unconventional shows and formats. Moreover, the adoption of rock and roll did not follow a linear process from an initial mimesis to original creation. Drawing on the Spanish case, this article argues that modernity, the canonical narratives of popular music, and the classic periodisation of Francoism naturalise certain temporalities, ontologies, and mediations, marginalising others that diverge from hegemonic accounts about rock and its internationalisation.