Mecano: modernidad y discursos de género en el pop español de los ochenta

Abstract

Mecano was a successful pop band formed by Cano brothers, José María and Nacho, and the vocalist Ana Torroja. Mecano stood out within the Spanish popular music scene due to a high level of sales and listeners, as well as for being a Spanish eighties’ icon. The band began with a British-pop style, widely influenced by new wave and new romantics artists. Mecano also added clichés to its works associated with Spanish culture, easing the connection with the Spanish youth. The main goal of this research is to analyse how Mecano reflected new wave´s discourse of modernity, which also permeated cultural phenomenon known as Movida. On gender issues, Mecano presented a new romantics discourse, namely, an interesting proposal that can be defined as queer, according to Jorge Pérez (2014). In the development of this research, I have used an interdisciplinary methodology that joined fields of gender studies (Halberstam), cultural studies (Grossberg) and popular music studies (Cateforis). For the analysis I have taken songs such as No es serio este cementerio, Hijo de la luna or Mujer contra mujer, and paying special attention to musical, textual and visual elements. Likewise, I contrasted Ana Torroja's queer gender identity proposal with Alaska’s approach, also a Spanish eighties’ popular culture icon. Mecano aimed to display issues such as homosexuality or female empowerment within the frame of Spanish popular music. Thus, the band articulated and reflected the political and cultural changes taking place within Spanish society at that time.