"Flamenco" Music In The Present: Urbanization, Diverse Roles And Imagination

The central topic of the dissertation is the discussion on the current situation and development of flamenco music facing the social revolution. Nowadays, the scope of flamenco music has been extended into wider space. This, finally, embody the various facets and meaning of flamenco in distinct contexts and environments. However, people still have the stereotype impression on flamenco, which has big differences from the fact. The author believed that the situation was formulated by the musical communication, the changes have been happening among the music itself, its meaning and values are the results of the alterations between the communication subjects and receivers besides the richer in communication medium. Consequently, the research will absorb the theoretic thoughts from Communication, Sociology and Cultural Study.As a traditional music with historical origin, flamenco’s structure and system are complicated considerably. First of all, we need to clarify the components of the flamenco music, whose palos and improvisation are the essences. In the first chapter, the author will elaborate the music with the related experiences, knowledge, scores and videos obtaining in the fieldwork. The examples here will closely relate the musical events of flamenco in the latter chapters.How flamenco has survived and developed in the cities, as a kind of urban folk music? Is any relationship between the music and the urban environment? And if it is, how they effect and influence each other? These are the questions the chapter two wants to answer, using the case study of the situation in Seville in Spain.The urbanization of flamenco, which made the multiple music forms of flamenco with the gather of various groups. The function of flamenco, frequently, transformed from the self-entertainment to the commercialized music products.The chapter three is the detailed analysis of the living situation of the flamenco in the city with multi-site research method. The flamenco under different performance spaces, including the virtual internet has all sorts of appearances and social values. Naturally, the interaction modes between the performers and audiences are varied, which are the diverse consequences of the environments in the transmission.The multiple roles of flamenco not only manifested in the diverse performance space, but also have gone through the times with the changing and overlapping of the cultural roles. The flamenco has been transit from a local music as subculture, to the national art form as superculrure, till present world music as interculture. This procedure provides an excellent instance to understand the traditional music facing the globalization for us. Today, enormous medium have affect us quite deeply. The flamenco under the advertising propaganda from medium is a patterned notion for its origin and status, which is humanly organized. The imaginations, for instance, are consisted of the mystery of the Gypsies communities, the miserable life. Even so,during the beginning and the development of the flamenco, it can’t be ignored that the non-gypsy people have contributed a lot. No needless to say, the wide range of the people who have evolved in the flamenco. This point is the musical phenomenon and characteristics the dissertation is willing to illustrate and interpret.