Circular currents: Experience of time in the songs by Los Planetas

Abstract

This article focuses on the representation of time in the lyrics of the Spanish indie pop band Los Planetas, from Granada, from their first album Super 8 (1994) to the last one, Una ópera egipcia (2010), which incorporate fl amenco influences into their sound. Here, as suggested by the title of one of the songs, time seems to move in circular currents, always returning to the starting point, while the lyrical subject attempts unsuccessfully to break the temporal cycle, to forget an unhappy love, to overcome the paralyzing presence of memory or to change his life. These attempts, however, oft en are only vain hopes that themselves fade away. The only alternative seems to be an escape to another time, which seems to have no effect on the level of experience. The experience of time in these lyrics is proposed, firstly, as a representation inherent to mass culture, which is itself a temporary break from linearity. It is also linked to the imagery of the generation who were young at the beginning the 90’s (my own), which is the one that experienced in Spain the disappointment of failed change, and which stopped believing that the future would necessarily be better.