Rocking the Boat

Silvia Bermúdez’s fascinating study reveals how Spanish popular music, produced between 1980 and 2013, was the first cultural site to engage in critical debate about ethnicity and race in relation to the immigration patterns that have been changing the social landscape of Spanish society since the late 1970s.

Silvia Bermúdez is a professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

"Beyond its usefulness in the classroom this trailblazing monograph will undoubtedly appeal to scholars across the disciplines and lead to new modes of inquiry."

Stuart Green, University of Leeds:

"The ambition of the monograph should be applauded."

Angela Acosta, The Ohio State University:

"Silvia Bermúdez’s latest book Rocking the Boat offers a timely look into how musical narratives produced in Spain serve as cultural responses to legislative measures to secure entry into Europe, and portray the experiences of transnational migrants from the early 1980s to 2011… Bermúdez’s thorough close reading and clear prose make Rocking the Boat a good selection for undergraduate seminars and graduate course syllabi, and Hispanists and music specialists will also appreciate her multidisciplinary approach."

Gema Pérez-Sánchez, Associate Professor of Spanish, University of Miami :

"Written in a highly accessible prose, which makes this work perfect for the undergraduate classroom, this unique cultural study of song lyrics will not only appeal to scholars of contemporary Spanish culture, but also to anybody researching migratory flows, transnational subjectivities and solidarities, European racism, music as a social and political force, and the power of contemporary lyrics both to reflect political ambiguities about race and to denounce systemic racism ingrained in long histories of coloniality."

Anthony L. Geist, Department of Comparative Literature, Cinema and Media, University of Washington.:

"Silvia Bermúdez rocks the boat with her original analysis of immigration and race relations in contemporary Spain through her brilliant reading of popular songs over the last four decades. It is destined to become an indispensable reference for all future studies of Spanish popular culture."

Jose Colmeiro, Prince of Asturias Chair in Spanish, School of European Languages and Literatures, University of Auckland, NZ:

"Rocking the Boat represents a major contribution to research. Silvia Bermúdez’s work is the first book that analyses extensively and profoundly the impact of immigration in contemporary Spanish popular music, providing a fascinating look at cultural complexities of race, class, gender, and surrounding immigration in globalized Spain. Using both a panoramic wide-angle lens and a well-focused macro lens, Rocking the Boat provides a ground-breaking critical analysis of a new area of study, as well as an in-depth and insightful close reading of well-selected popular songs and relevant texts."

Jorge Pérez, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Texas at Austin:

"Rocking the Boat is an exciting read about a timely topic. The detailed analyses of popular songs (their lyrics, music, context of production, and reception) demonstrate how the Spanish society of the last three decades has conceived a racialized image of the migrant subject that has triggered a number of emotional reactions including fear, anxiety, and solidarity. The scholarship is impressive and so is Bermúdez’s critical acumen."