Spanish Punk

Screaming for Democracy in a Postdictatorial State

David Vila Diéguez

• Publisher: PM Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9798887441047
• eBook ISBN: 9798887441146
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: European History

What does democracy sound like when it's shouted through a distortion pedal?

In 1975, Spain emerged from the long shadow of Franco’s dictatorship, stumbling toward democracy amid uncertainty, unrest, and unhealed wounds. In the same moment, a raw, raucous, and radically irreverent cultural force exploded onto the scene: punk.

Spanish Punk: Screaming for Democracy in a Postdictatorial State is the first in-depth study to trace the uniquely political trajectory of punk in post-Franco Spain. Far from just a musical genre, Spanish punk became a rebellious cultural matrix—a defiant, DIY response to the contradictions of a state trying to reinvent itself. Through fanzines, lyrics, testimonies, and subcultural style, punks posed urgent questions: What kind of democracy was being built? Who was being left out? And how do you scream dissent in a newly “free” society?

Blending historical, philosophical, musicological, and textual analysis, this book shows how punk served as both a glue for oppositional movements and a generator of alternative political identities. It’s a long-overdue exploration of how cultural resistance helped shape a generation’s answer to dictatorship—and its uneasy aftermath.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Making Sense of Spanish Punk
• Chapter 2: The Movida Madrileña Versus Spanish Punk Culture
• Chapter 3: First Negationist Topos: Punk as Anti-Transición
• Chapter 4: Second Negationist Topos: Punk as Anticapitalism and Antineoliberalism
• Chapter 5: Sí hay futuro (Yes, There Is a Future)
• Works Cited
• Index
• About the Authors