Autonomy, Submission or Sound Hybridization? The Construction of the Aesthetic Canon of the Spanish Pop-Rock

Abstract

This paper provides an approach to the aesthetic canon of Spanish
pop-rock, which is understood as being the musicians, bands and works
which have had the most infl uence on this musical genre in Spain. Using
Bourdieu’s sociology of art and its application to popular music studies,
surveys have been analysed that were carried out by both Spanish music
critics and musicians. The hypothesis posed is whether an autochthonous
aesthetic canon exists, and whether this is determined by an Anglo-
American infl uence. From lists or rankings published whether in books or
in general or specialist magazines, these data were combined to obtain a
meta-ranking, which was tested by using certain statistical tests. From
this, some characteristics particular to the Spanish aesthetic canon have
been obtained, as well as some which are shared with the Englishspeaking
canon.