British New Wave

El presente artículo tiene por objeto problematizar la relación entre baile y letras con contenido social interpeladas por las canciones de Los Prisioneros durante los años ochenta en Chile, atendiendo la narrativa de sus propios integrantes. Tomando distancia de interpretaciones que suelen focalizarse en las letras de las canciones de la banda, se analiza la compleja postura adoptada por el trío chileno de pop rock respecto al baile y el compromiso social -documentada principalmente en revistas de la época- con el propósito de hacer legibles problemáticas en torno a la relación de sujetos jóvenes con el cuerpo y la memoria durante la década. En el desarrollo de esta investigación convergen tanto la influencia de la new wave norteamericana y británica en Los Prisioneros -especialmente en lo concerniente a la recuperación de estilos de rock de los años sesenta- así como la influencia musical y discursiva de la Nueva Ola chilena en la agrupación -prestando especial atención a los términos de su antagónica relación con la Nueva Canción Chilena durante los años sesenta.

Mecano fue un grupo de pop formado por los hermanos José María e Ignacio (Nacho) Cano, y la cantante Ana Torroja, que destacó dentro de las escenas de la música popular urbana en España tanto por su éxito de ventas y su amplio número de público, como por ser uno de los iconos de los ochenta. El trío partió de una propuesta que emulaba el pop anglosajón, y que más tarde absorbió clichés asociados a lo español que facilitaban la conexión y la identificación de la audiencia española con la banda.

El objetivo de este artículo es analizar cómo Mecano logró plasmar en su trabajo el discurso de modernidad de la new wave –que permeaba el fenómeno de la Movida–y los new romantics, así como presentar una propuesta interesante en términos de género que Jorge Pérez (2014) ha definido como queer. Para ello, se ha utilizado una metodología interdisciplinar, que combina los estudios de género (Halberstam, 2008 [1998]), con los estudios culturales (Grossberg, 1992) y sobre músicas populares urbanas (Cateforis, 2011). Así, se ha estudiado el discurso subyacente en temas representativos de la banda como No es serio este cementerio, Hijo de la luna, o Mujer contra mujer, atendiendo a cuestiones musicales, textuales y visuales. Igualmente, se ha contrastado la propuesta de género de Ana Torroja con la de otra mujer icono de los ochenta, Alaska. Mediante un discurso queer, Mecano ayudó a que cuestiones como la homosexualidad o la visibilidad y el empoderamiento femenino entraran a formar parte del imaginario cultural español, ayudando a articular los cambios políticos y culturales que el país estaba atravesando.

Parts of this have since appeared in publications elsewhere. Posting the file because it contains additional detail/ ideas/ correspondence on various topics. Discussion of Lennon, McCartney, Duchamp & Stockhausen is unique to this, though selections from sections on 'Norwegian Wood' appear in the articles 'Where You Once Belonged' & 'The Beatles' Uses of Literacy'. Discussion on Hoggart & Melly appear in my review of Hoggart (1957/2009). The rest is fresh.

Before trying to address this question we should discuss the concept of " realism ". The realist tradition always tries to showcase the world the way it really is. It usually focuses primarily on the working-class, is unapologetically political and has a left tendency. Nonetheless, we should not think about realism as a style. As John Berger says, each time an art form has a need to revitalise after a formalist period, artists return to reality, but their attitude towards it and the way they interpret it changes in order to adapt itself to the moment's necessities. Hence, we cannot talk about a " realist style " nor assume it as a conformist comeback to a previous realist tradition (Berger, 2001). The British cinema from the late 50s and early 60s suffered a great change and it gave birth to what we now know as " free cinema " or " the British new wave ". This new cinema was committed to showing the reality of British people that were not usually represented in films. One of its greatest influences was documentarist Humphrey Jennings, for his work didn't just care for the political content but also for the aesthetics. This way, the new cinema relied not only on realism but also on the poetic movement, where the political is nuanced and the personal, emphasized. This is a characteristic that should be stressed because it has a great impact in the way these films have portrayed the working class culture and it will be considered further on in this essay. The UK was at this time going through a period of what political leaders called " affluence ". After the austerity that followed WWII, the wages were rising, there was plenty of consumer goods available, etc. Some believed the working class was becoming a new middle class, a process which was called " embourgeoisement " , and although social differences had not disappeared, the general political motto was Macmillan's " you've never had it so good " (Murphy, 1992). The first area in the culture that responded to this was theatre. Authors like John Osborne, Colin Wilson, John Wain, etc. wrote plays in which they criticised the changes that had come along with the new consumerism. They were known as the " Angry young men " and they were a great influence on the Free Cinema. The Free cinema showed two conflictive views on the working class: on the one hand, it respected the traditional working class and the idea that the part must subordinate to the whole and on the other one, it showed the decline of the working class, caused by an economic emancipation at the expense of a cultural subjection to the hollow banalities of mass entertainment. One of the main concerns for the Free Cinema, as it had been for the theatre scene, was the unease about the quality of leisure in urban society. Some authors argue that this movement's focus on the cultural side of things led to a not so accurate nor radically new representation of the working-class.

Starting from John Osborne’s negative reaction to theatre critics’ and journalists’ perception of "Look Back in Anger"’s idiosyncratic language as “angry”, as well as their perception of the protagonist Jimmy Porter as a representative of the Angry Young Man movement, this paper considers sarcasm as one of the key aggressive rhetorical devices used in the language of the play. Osborne thought that the specific, even revolutionary rhetoric of his play was in most cases misunderstood and wrongly conveyed in theatre adaptations as “angry”, which made the performance lose the edge that the language of the play had the potential for. "Look Back in Anger" provides an insight into the Porters’ lower-class mundane dailiness, charged with verbal aggression and intertextual allusiveness stemming from deeper political, historical and social issues of mid-twentieth-century Britain. This paper focuses on Jimmy Porter’s prevalent use of sarcasm as a weapon in his personal battle, by taking John Haiman’s "Talk Is Cheap: Sarcasm, Alienation, and the Evolution of Language", to illustrate how the language of "Look Back in Anger" coincides with Haiman’s conclusions on the theoretical and applied characteristics of sarcasm in contemporary society.

Keywords: theatre, verbal aggression, sarcasm, intertextuality.

Mesajın, hedefin, mizansen, mekan ve karakterlerin açık bir şekilde tanımlanabildiği İngiliz Yeni Dalga filmleri, toplumsal gerçekçi tekniğe birebir uyum sağlar. Gerçekçiliği üst düzeyde tutmayı amaçlayan yönetmenler, gerçek mekanlarda, coğrafyalara ait sosyokültürel işaretleri koruyarak yalın bir anlatımla filmler yapar.

this short chapter examines the period 1978-1980 in North West England (principally the Liverpool-Manchester-Sheffield axis) when analogue recording equipment was used alongside experimental digital 'toys'. This haphazard bricolage created a special aural result that contributed strongly to the 'post-punk' aesthetic.

VI Congreso Internacional de la Sociedad Española de Estudios Literarios de Cultura Popular (SELICUP)“La cultura popular en los procesos de transformación social”, Universidad de Oviedo, Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura (Gijón), entre el 15 y el 17 de Octubre de 2014.