Quinta-feira 21 Jun 2007, 19h:01
The term horteradas has been an argument in several meals in company of my family: how to translate it to English? Well, in actual fact, you simply cannot. Something like mainstream, or common, perhaps.
In Spanish music, "las horteradas" have a place of their own. When summer time approaches, record companies launch quite a few dancing horteradas, so that all happy Spaniards can all sing them in the cars, pubs, at the beach, ipods, while having a shower. Every Spaniard has a Summer milestoned with a canción hortera.
Yesterday, El Fary died of a lung cancer. He was a media phenomena, brought to fame by his smile and the performance of la Copla, a Spanish genre. No Spaniard will forget his song from his post-Copla era Torito Bravo (the translation is easy to work out, oder?
And not so long ago - best to see their biographies in last.fm pages -, Manzanita and beautiful Rocío Jurado also left us for better life. Both come from real Flamenco roots, the first one from Malaga, the latter one from Chiclana.
Why do I post about these guys? Well, it shocks me how real masters of the most complex music genre, jumped to the horterada genre. It is obvious that they were seeking money, but there is more than that. The way they sing horteradas and flamenco just inspires something that the rest of the singers simply cannot immitate. The "quejío" they stick out their voices, no matter the song, is something exceptional that no other artist can improve.
Also, they are well known for their extreme sensitivity of their philosophy, as well as for a controversial private life (just for the sake of comparison, think of James Brown). Yet, you will find real horror songs of these guys, as well as fantastic ones.
Definately, something inherent in their genes. Masters of all masters, I sincerely admire them all, and have them in my personal musical olympus.
To give you an idea, Alejandro Sanznowadays would be the equivalent to these guys. However, he belongs to a globalized era, which stops him from having the flare of the other artists mentioned in this post.
Ole!