Joan Oleaque (Catarroja, 1968) is Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Communication of the International University of Valencia, VIU; but he is also probably the person who has most and best analyzed the phenomenon of the Ruta del Bakalao. His book En éxtasis (Barlin Libros) is considered the best text to understand this form of leisure that triumphed in the 80s and 90s. Now, temples of the Route such as Spook, Barraca or Chocolate are reactivated and Oleaque comments on this return to the past .
You knew well the leisure of the 80s and 90s, especially the so-called Bakalao Route. How do you observe this process of recovery of the temples of the route such as Barraca, Chocolate or Spook? Is it a passing fad or is there really a revaluation of that phenomenon?
There is a revaluation, this is evident, although it is also fashionable to carry it out, so to speak. I think that what is recovering the most are brands, the myth that surrounds them even today, after having been banned for so long. Another thing is that the recovery of this concept is in line with the avant-garde that characterized them for many years, and with its social incidence. In these aspects, we will have to wait for its evolution.
A few days ago we spoke with the people from Spook and they told us that there is a desire to return to a vintage leisure model but with the current musical context, obviously.
As regards the fact that current leisure is very depersonalized, very diluted and totally globalized, it is logical to opt for a more authentic leisure, more with a native denomination of origin, as was what happened in that room during the 80s, especially . However, what is done now at the level of leisure and music should be united with what was done then, which still remains to be discovered for many; That would be, in my opinion, something distinctive, uniting today’s electronic music with the foundations that were laid around electronic music in Valencia during the 80s, in order to find a new discourse.
They added that the pleasure of listening to bands returns as well as following the DJs, that the taste for live sessions is spreading. Is it so?
Possibly. Those movements are pendular. Depending on the season, it tilts more to one side or the other. The younger generation has grown up with the djs; I understand that they value the role of the bands; in fact, before it was the other way around, because the dj was understood as a new conceptual fact. Both options can and should coexist naturally. In fact, for a long time, this happened in Valencia.
How would you rate current leisure, its main characteristics?
As I have previously said, I see it as very homogenized; Now it is closely linked to commercial urban music (above all), to Latin music, etc., far removed from the underground in that area, which also exists, and very raw and interesting; Surprisingly, there is a return to hardcore techno, which was unaffordable by previous generations because it was tacky, hard and unbearable, and now it is venerated; the trends push towards a certain sonorous debauchery, where the commercial and the elitist are diluted, dissolved, without much difference. It is a good reflection of the current times, convulsed, strange, in which sometimes it is difficult to find a certain meaning…
Another phenomenon that does not seem to be solved is that of the bottle. But young people say that with the prices of regulated entertainment it is impossible to enjoy the night.
I am afraid that the answer is based on whoever says it, but, logically, for the leisure sector it is not a plan. The large bottles are problematic, this is so, and each time they have derived more into a mass of drunkenness. I think that a better price adjustment, and a control on this phenomenon should help. Also, an offer of places of interest, to which it was unavoidable to go….
Do you think that there is, with regard to leisure, a kind of generational break, a strong misunderstanding of the elderly regarding the needs of the young?
Yes, unfortunately; what they do is criminalized, belittled, etc. You look at what they do from a very distant vantage point, in which it is compared with the leisure that existed long ago. It is done by the generation, precisely, that starred in the disruptive leisure of the 80s, and who were very misunderstood. You have to have an open mind…
By the way, Vicente Pizcueta, whom you know well, told us that the “boomers” are also being protagonists of leisure, with profuse participation in that phenomenon called “tardeo”.
Well, this is successful, as everyone knows by now; after the pandemic it has become hegemony and allows people for whom the night was already far away for many reasons to go out. I think it is a new strip that will not stop expanding; It is only worth remembering that in Ibiza there are massive spaces that have taken that strip for a long time.
Let’s talk about drugs. Is there more consumption now than in the past? What kind of drugs succeed in the leisure of young people?
I am afraid that the usual ones dedicated to this type of affairs, if we talk about the usual, and without going into eccentricities. Ecstasy (granulated or pill) and its variants, and cocaine of very low purity, generally more than cut. At the same time, in certain underground environments, speed, the sniffable amphetamine compound that seemed to have gone off the map a long time ago, has been normalized. And marijuana, this is very present in very diverse environments.
