User:Darko1974/Bakalao
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Bakalao, is the name given for an association of electronic genres, mainly EBM (Electronic Body Music), techno, new beat and acid house, which used to be played alongside indie pop and rock in some clubs around Valencia, Spain during the second half of the eighties and first nineties. This term was subsequently including techno and EBM songs produced locally, or in other countries like Belgium and Italy, with more or less quality and success, eventually shifting to a speedy techno which was finally known as mákina.
History
The birthplace of this term was Valencia, Spain. In the middle eighties there were two big clubs called Chocolate and Spook Factory, which taking over from an eclectic Valencian club called Barraca, which ruled the first half of the eighties in this city, adopted the same musical eclecticism, freedom and transgression (with a mix of after-punk, new romantics, synth-pop and indie rock and indie pop), adding up more electronic styles, such as electro, EBM, techno, and afterwards new beat and acid house. Other clubs followed: Espiral, Isla, Bravatta, ACTV, and even the same Barraca were the main ones.
Valencia was experimenting a glittering musical culture in the eighties, which instead of the scene in Madrid, whose main sources were the Spanish rock and pop, or Barcelona, flooded by the commercial disco sounds, was feeding from the sounds the disc-jockeys and music gurus brought from the UK, the US, Germany and Belgium mainly. The combination of guitars, from high-pitched (A Flock of Seagulls, Gene Loves Jezebel, The Cult) through acoustic (Sad Lovers & Giants, Simple Minds, U2, The Smiths, The Cure) to dark (Sisters of Mercy, The Cramps, The Mission, A Popular History of Signs), together with synth-pop (B-Movie, New Order, Depeche Mode, Scary Thieves, Pet Shop Boys, Devo), and the final addition of more pure electronic sounds, eminently dark (Front 242, A Split Second, Front Line Assembly, Alien Sex Fiend, Cabaret Voltaire, Invincible Spirit, Psyche) was gradually attracting people from Madrid, Barcelona and other Spanish cities. In 1987 the Valencian scene was very famous throughout Spain, yet these clubs and related night bars still remained alternative. Even the former deejays from Ibiza clubs such as Ku and Amnesia were partially inspiring from the clubs in Valencia they visited off-season, previous to the called British invasion of the island in 1988.
In the last quarter of the eighties, many people who frequented the Valencian alternative clubs adopted a name for those hard electronic sounds to somehow group them and difference them from the sounds with guitars and softer synth-pop. It was called bakalao.
The origin of this term is confuse. There are 3 main hypotheses:
- A guy from an important music store in Valencia said after hearing this music: "Esto es bacalao de Bilbao!", in English: "This is codfish from Bilbao!", meaning this music was quality as codfish from Bilbao.
- Other sources talk about an old night bar in a town near Valencia called Vacalao.
- Lastly some people say it came from the Spanish phrase "cortar el bacalao" which means "to rule the business".
The word adopted a more radical look changing the 'c' for a 'k'.
Drugs had a notable influence in this scene as well. The main one was called mescalina, which was not real mescaline actually, but a mixture of MDA, an hallucinogenic amphetamine, and caffeine. They were popularly known as "mescas". It was gradually replaced by ecstasy (MDMA) and speed.
The more popular was becoming the scene in Valencia, the more was ruling the bakalao music over other sounds in these clubs, getting harder and harder. Local musicians started to produce their own bakalao sounds, such as Megabeat, or Chimo Bayo, with his hit "Así me gusta a mí", which sold millions of copies even in countries like Japan. Italy and the Netherlands were gradually becoming, together with Spain, the most important sources of music for the bakalao conglomerate.
At the beginning of the nineties, guitars were pushed into the background and they finally disappeared, whilst bakalao was evolving to harder sounds. It was at this time when the media and politicians invented the term "Ruta del Bakalao" (Route of Bakalao) to refer to the roads the people used to drive through to get to these clubs, and from one to another. Most of them used to be close to each other. There was another term called "Ruta Destroy", because many people used to spend many weekends from Friday night to Monday morning from club to club, as there was always some of them open, night or day.
When the media echoed this movement, the politicians started repressive measures to cut it off, especially from 1993. The word bakalao became very stigmatized, and the work mákina was beginning to be widely used instead, especially in Barcelona, which strongly adopted a similar scene for low and low-middle classes.
The so called Ruta del Bakalao faded out in 1996 with the closure of some of the main clubs remaining in the scene. Others still survived, evolved and adapted themselves to the modern and more restrictive times. The main case is Barraca, one of the best clubs in Spain nowadays.
References
- Documentary "72H", produced by Emeeme Videoproducciones
- Book "En Èxtasi", by J.M.Oleaque. Editorial Ara Llibres [1].
- Book "La Ruta. Una historia a ritmo de música bacalao", by David Sáenz.
External links
- What to see in Valencia
- Bakalao in the Spanish Wikipedia
- Route of Bakalao in the Spanish Wikipedia
- RutaDestroy.com