Euskal musika popularraren komunikazioaGeneroa, lurraldetasuna eta hizkuntza 1990etik 2019rako abestietan

Abstract

Music is a cultural expression with the capacity for social transformation. Its communication affects people¿s mood, personality, and human identity. In fact, songs can make us dance one day and cry the next. Its power lies in its communication-dimensions: rhythms, melodies, silences, instruments, voices, and lyrics. This work is based, precisely, on the analysis of the communication of pop song lyrics. In other times and places, especially in Anglo-Saxon areas, it has been common to analyse the written messages conveyed by popular music. At the Basque Country, however, there has not been much research into musical texts. One only has to look at Euskal Kantagintza Berria (New Basque Song) or Euskal Rock Erradikala (Basque Radical Rock) to see that music has historically been understood as a socio-political movement and that critical analysis of lyrics has not been a dominant method. Moreover, the analysed period of most research on Basque music dates back to around 1990. Nevertheless, this study has taken a different direction. Looking at the window of opportunity and trying to contribute to the recent history, we asked ourselves what Basque popular music has communicated in the last three decades. Thus, by using content analysis, we have analysed the lyrics of 301 songs released between 1990 and 2019, the most successful or famous ones that have been broadcasted year after year in Gaztea radio station. Following the qualitative method, the analysis distinguishes three aspects: the content of the song or the themes through which they can be classified, the discourses or attitudes of the lyrics, and the symbology used in different verses. In addition to the evolution through those decades, three main variables have been taken into account throughout the study: gender, territory, and language. In this way, we have been able to bring up, for example, the image of women that the songs convey, what are the ways of approaching romantic-affective relationships, what are the characteristics that can help to define Basque music, and what has been the role of Euskara in the last 30 years of Basque mainstream music.