Julietta Patti’s band, The Tyets, Mushkaa and Figa Flawas flew solo.

When historians talk about the decade between 2010 and 2020, they will explain that it was a politically turbulent decade with great agitation in the streets. The great demonstration against the reduction of the statute, the movement of the indignados, the demonstrations of the power of the ANC during the days, the assumption of the independence project by the Catalan institutions, the governments of change in Valencia and the islands, the fall of 2017, the great mobilization of the CDR in 2018 and the protests against the ruling of the Spanish Supreme Court. A decade of extreme political intensity that had its own soundtrack in groups like Now Opening step, Charango, deaf dog, Aspencats, poster, Helps, Zoo I Hebrew KnightThe musical groups were, at the same time, a vehicle for political debate and attracted many young people to political and social mobilization. But as always happens with cultural trends, this musical impulse began to lose its strength towards the end of the decade, and the scene showed signs of exhaustion. Many of those legendary bands dropped out, and when Catalan music seemed to be orphaned, a new generation of musicians emerged, eager to reform the bands they had listened to during their adolescence. tits, Juliet, niche, Vega Flawas, Shiny ice cream, 31 families, Genesta, trick, to die and many others that make up what has become known as “”Patty’s Gang“A phenomenon that 3Cat has tried to uncover in a documentary of the same name that premiered on TV3 and can now be watched on the digital platform.

Through interviews with the new generation of musicians, the previous generation, cultural journalists and people from the environment, Patty’s Gang He analyzes the distinctive features of the new music scene and compares it to the previous one, where they recognize the work done, but they come to tell us that it is already starting to get tired. “We came from a few years ago with groups that were all men, a lot of people, very stormy and festive, and that dominated a certain part of Catalan music; then there was also the independent part. […] The young people had to cut through what was there before.” Adria Salesthe singer of Pegatina who released his first album almost twenty years ago. Now, instead, there is a scene with a wide range of genres, but with a strong presence of what has been agreed to be called “urban music” – a still vague designation for everything that includes sound combinations and electronic bases –, where solo or duo projects enjoy a space that did not exist before, more feminized and avoiding political message.

The name “La banda del pati” to talk about this scene came from someone Public Playlist Dr’Oriol de Ramonsinger of The Tyets, where he poured all that Catalan music that he thought fit into this new musical scene. The recognition of colleagues is actually one of its hallmarks, with collaborations between singers and a mix of styles that lead to hits like “El tonteo” by The Tyets and Mushkaa. This Christmas, several of these artists have already shown their cohesion by publishing a collective album of modern Christmas songs, and in the summer, going to one of these festivals is a great sensation as they program them one by one “the other and listen to them”. The same songs are now performed in one concert, and now in the other, because they all feel like they are their own.

The documentary mentions that those who dominate the scene now are The Tyets, Mushkaa, Julieta and Figa Flawas, but it is insisted that it goes much further and that it reaches into styles such as indie, rap, reggaeton and octopus. At the same time, we also have messages like that of Trikel, who punctures the balloon of enthusiasm when he warns: “It is true that we are specialists and we have our own circle. It has reached a point where we are copying ourselves, and as soon as someone makes something successful, everyone copies them. I have seen some very important self-tongue dynamics.

the rootsproducer of projects such as The Tyets, Mushkaa, Double and Santa Salut, puts the turning point in the new music scene during the pandemic, the perfect time to compose songs alone in front of the computer, when some of these artists start composing the music they love to listen to. In fact, Figa Flawas revealed that they composed the first songs in Spanish (although they could not publish them), but they found the way when they wanted to create a reggaeton song and felt the challenge of doing it in Catalan, a language in which musical genres of Latin American origin have been little explored.

“It’s a moment to break the barriers, the traditions and the stigma that exists in Catalan music,” he says. Paul Giancanawritten by Flashy Ice Cream, which highlights the acceleration of musical change in just a few years. In this vein, the documentary does not forget classics like Pawn Gangwho were already making trap songs about drugs and violence when Catalonia sang Txarango, and other proposals. UndergroundLike now behind They have gonewho claims to be “Catalan Macaroni”: “I want to show that powerful music can also be composed in Catalan. With attitude and two necks.”

Anti-politics

One of the characteristics that the documentary highlights when defining the new music scene and overcoming the old is the absence of a political message in the lyrics. “When we were teenagers, all the festivals were politicized, everything was politicized. independent“,” says Oriol de Ramon, of The Tyets. And his partner, Xavi CocaHe goes further: “There’s a generation of artists now who are tired of being told what to think of a song.”

Against this, references like now stomachzoo singer, and Serge Carbonellfrom Txarango, expressed his disagreement. “Music without a message is a musical theory, and I don’t know the music of music. I make music and express myself artistically. Everything is politics, in everything we do and say,” says the singer from Gandia. Even Carbonell shows his disappointment at the beginning of the new scene, and says that in Txarango they have always had the desire to change society as the driving force behind the musical project: “I am sorry and it scares me a little that the new generations and the new groups do not realize this responsibility, that they do not take advantage of the speaker to try to contribute to the good of society.”

But, still, as much as they want to ignore the political conflict, it is something that comes into its own, especially when you sing in Catalan in a country like Spain. “I have realized over the years that singing in Catalan has become a kind of exoneration,” says Lildamy, who is tired of the constant comments he receives online asking him to write lyrics in Spanish. “Catalan”Now, six years ago. “When you grow up you see artists in bars singing in Catalan, but you see them taking the step of singing in Spanish for a purely commercial and economic moment.”

Mickey NunezWhich was announced in the Spanish TV competition Operation Victory He has one foot in the Catalan music scene and one in the Spanish one, and he also explains in the documentary how he has encountered some hostility: “When I do concerts outside Catalonia, I continue singing in Catalan and on Spanish radio I perform in Catalan and there is no problem… but they say ‘Oh, this is in Catalan’. Well, Dua Lipa came to give you one in English, which is not Spanish. Why is there this rejection? Because in Catalonia, Catalan music has been used as a means of transmitting Catalan values ​​and so on, which is something wonderful and wonderful that Spain lacks.”

On the contrary, we also see statements in the opposite direction, such as Julieta, who says that the second city where she is heard the most is Madrid. “I did a concert there recently and people love the music in Catalan. They love it. Obviously they also love the songs in Spanish, but they have become attached to me because of the music in Catalan.”

Standard Catalan

Related to this is the question of the linguistic model. In this case, there is greater consensus and most of the groups interviewed say that Standard Catalan is soft and that it is necessary to have wide sleeves with Castilian or English barbarism. “The change has happened in the code, as it did when it was issued Brut paintings“People who talk deadly and communicate in a more authentic way, without pretending to do something over-the-top and loaded with linguistic density,” he says. Klaus Strunkby Stay Homies.

“How do we want to talk, like in the Middle Ages?” he joked. Guillem Solerfrom the owl. He says: “It is better not to speak Catalan perfectly, but to speak it.” Sooo“I don’t go into the studio with an encyclopedia, I go there to channel my feelings.” to lildham. He says: “Catalan costs.” Kid byefrom 31 FAM, who adds: “It is very complicated to sound good in certain types of musical genres. I find Catalan to be the most beautiful language in the world, but it sounds very Felician.

At this moment, when more than one is about to pull their hair, Mishkat ponders the weight of the linguistic responsibility placed on singers and asks not to criminalize them if they do not put a weak conscience in place of touch: “If you are so perfect, it is natural that they ask a lot of you.” The idea that marion battlesinger Vegetarianism I am the program manager Gates“It’s very sad that musicians have to memorize the language,” says ICat FM.