Pop culture, more alive than ever

Ginés Miñano

These two-day sessions aimed to "explore the evolution of pop culture figures in recent years, from the 1980s—when the famous Movida Madrileña took place—especially in the realm of music and its dissemination through the media," stated Rafael Gómez. In addition to the two coordinators, the event featured presentations by other URJC professors such as Ricardo Roncero and Ismael Molero, as well as fanzine creator and collector Javier Astudillo, podcast professional Carlos Cavestany, and journalist and music writer Jesús Ordovás.

The conference was aimed at students from the Faculty of Communication Sciences, researchers, and those interested in the evolution of pop culture in Spain. According to Professor Gómez Alonso, “the student profile most closely related to the event is that of audiovisual communication students, but also students from other degree programs within the faculty, who are interested in learning how visual and audiovisual representation has changed in recent decades, especially since the beginning of the 21st century, both in traditional and new media.”

The mechanics have been dynamic and interactive, throughout the congress “round tables have been made up of professionals from the music industry (Ana Curra, José Battaglio and Toni Marmota from La Frontera, Edi Clavo from Gabinete Caligari or Víctor Coyote from Los Coyotes) as well as journalists, musicians, event promoters and researchers from the academic world and directors of cultural foundations,” says Rafael Gómez.

Once again, URJC is witnessing how the art, music, culture - and subcultures - of a phenomenon like the Movida Madrileña continues to spark interest among students, and the spirit of that movement, iconic in the history of the capital, will clearly not die as long as there are projects like this one.