Sonorama Ribera 2023. The Prologue

In a cursory examination of the Sonorama schedule published yesterday it becomes apparent that the Spanish indie music landscape is changed. The chances are it's changed forever. Sonorama always was a rock-oriented event, but now at least 25% of performers are the urban- and trap-related artists. If to include the rock bands than implement the elements of urban styles into their music (Cupido, Jimena Amarillo, etc) the percentage would be even higher narrowly reaching one third of the lineup. What does it mean globally? The trap, reggaeton and other related subgenres are the music of the young. The persons into their forties may still be listening to rock, but the festivals make their living out of the younger people. If you want to follow the future you need to align to the youngsters' tastes. I may not like it but I am not a target market anyway.

Another considerable part of the Sonorama 2023 lineup is the "festival indie". Festival indie is the negatively connoted entity within the music business of Spain. It describes the zillions of the same-sounding rock bands that more or less follow the template of the Big Three (Love Of Lesbian, Izal, Vetusta Morla) casting aside the theatrical grandeur of the former and the genre-bending tendencies of the latter. Briefly, this is the generation of the rock bands more concerned about reaching the festival headliner status than the creative validity and innovation. What does that mean globally? It means that the "burbuja de festivales" (festival balloon, or festival bubble) is not over yet, and the possibility of performing deep in the night and/or seeing your name printed in largest typeface possible is still a ripe target for the young rockers, even if it not necessary entails any substantial commercial success. This ain't necessarily bad but the common lack of imagination within this category is, say, disappointing. The only thing they are as vocal as inventive in is the brief summary in their Spotify profile.

The last thing I'd like to emphasize is the direct consequence of the previous two. There is so little space left for the 'non-aligned' artists or the bands hard to allocate to any distinct category. There was absolitely no issue for me to sellect 10 to 20 "the most interesring smallest font size bands" out of the festival's billboards of the previous editions. This year it's neither 20 nor 10. It's, like, six. Six bands. Dani, 30s40s50, Martina Efedra, Jimena Amarillo, Victorias, Vera Fauna - and even then, none of them I'm 100% assured of, as long as at least three of them are flesh and blood of "indi festivalero". Thank goodness there are some better-known bands in the lineup (Kitai, Niña Coyote eta Chico Tornado, León Benavente, L.A.) there's no doubt about.

Am I any depressed based on these reflections? Nope. 

There's one thing that makes me looking forward to these 4,5 days of music and wine (and calimocho as an option). Just imagine: it's 2:00 a.m and you walk from the food court to WCs left of one of the secondary stages. As you walk along to the front side of that stage the sound is reaching you - and then in a matter of a second you are stunned. You forget where you're walking to. You don't mind the late hour as well as your growing fatigue. There's nobody else around you in this world. It's only you - and the band onstage. I'm sure it's gonna happen because it happened to me many times before.

Because it always happens in Sonorama.

The Blog Is Back

The last three years were the silent ones for this tiny little blog. Some time ago I switched to my Russian-speaking Telegram channel https://t.me/rockspain where I’ve been posting regularly (1150+ posts overall) thus making this Blogspot facility kind of unattended. But this doesn’t mean it’s dead, it was never intended to be dead. I really do hope I’ll keep it going until I’m dead. So I’m gonna try to revive it in the closest time taking in mind there is some weighty reason behind this decision.

10 years ago I started this blog upon visiting Sonorama fest for the first time. That event made such an impact upon me I could say it changed my life forever. Since then I had visited Aranda de Duero 7 times more before this annual tradition was cut short by covid-19 pandemic and then by the ongoing war Russia started against Ukraine.

The last year I returned to Aranda having been spent double amount of time and triple amount of money as compared to the years ‘before war’. This year, as the war doesn’t seem to cease in the foreseeable future, it would be most likely my last visit to Sonorama. Taking this into account, I’m gonna spend the next week to the fullest surrendering completely to the music, trying to soak every bit of sunlight, every sound of the live performances up with my skin and my memory. And then, upon returning home, I will post here a string of reports as I did it before hoping this blog would be connecting me over the years to the places I love, to my Spanish friends, to the persons I respect the most.

Later I will try to attend Phe Festival in Canary Islands for the first time. It’s kind of a moot point as of now cos my financial credibility might not be able to bear an additional travel to Tenerife. But hope dies last.