Abstract

This article focuses on an unexplored topic of the Spanish Civil War: popular music as an active factor of social and cultural transformation in the major cities. The conflict of 1936- 1939 did not brought about a very significant decline of jazz in Barcelona and Madrid, but transformed music spaces and audiences, in parallel with workers' collectivization of theatres and ballrooms. In a context of populist exaltation, need for entertainment, and strong economic crisis, jazz was part of discourses and events strategically used by trade unions, cultural institutions and the media. As a result, jazz became a legitimate entertainment, a form of propaganda and fundraising, and a mediation of social revolution. The consequences of this process are essential to understand the considerable presence and negative connotations of jazz in the early Franco regime.