Abstract

This thesis examines the punk genre's evolution into commercial mainstream music in Spain and Mexico. It looks at how this evolution altered both the aesthetic and gesture of the genre. This evolution can be seen by examining four bands that followed similar musical and commercial trajectories. In Spain, Kaka de Luxe and Radio Futura; in Mexico, Size and Ritmo Peligroso. Since punk music's gesture is both visceral and political, various methods of suppressing or containing the punk gesture arise. For both Spain and Mexico, containing the punk gesture was a matter of government censorship in the early years of punk. By the late 1980s, neoliberalism, global tastes, and capitalist interests controlled the punk gesture more than governmental crackdown. The thesis concludes that while the punk gesture was contained for both political and economic reasons during the 1980s, the resurgence of the punk gesture in the 1990s is evidence of the genre's resilience in a capitalist and hegemonic environment.

Degree

College and Department

Humanities; Spanish and Portuguese

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