In the morning, we had our customary round table about music with ‘Acknowledging the value of a successful phenomenon: recalling the Ruta del Bacalao’. The artists that have joined us to talk about this topic are: Fran Lenaers (DJ) and Luis Costa (author of “¡Bacalao!: Historia oral de la música de baile en Valencia 1980-1995”), who were interviewed by Coloma Fernández Armero, CEO of OEO.
Back in its time, the Ruta del Bacalao was a musical movement despised by many, while we are now starting to truly value it. For Fran Lenaers, one of the key points that led to this change in the social attitude was its jump from ‘club culture’ to a mainstream movement with millions of followers.
They recalled how back then they were not focused on taking photographs, which has led to the lack of documents of that time. Coloma compared this with Buda’s definition of happiness : any gerund word, and in this case dancing. One of the subjects talked about was drug abuse, specifically mescaline, that allowed them to dance for hours without rest.
Lenaers points out how they used to deejay back then: ‘I mixed full fragments of songs’ putting one song over another in an almost subliminal way. This way, the public felt like they knew the song but did not know why. Using emotions was part of the movement: from putting sad music on session, to working close to the public to connect with them better’.
