Parody, Nostalgia, Irony, and New Forms of Feminist and Queer Representations through the Spanish “Indie” Music Video: Cariño, Shego, Zahara, Ginebras, and Aiko el Grupo

Abstract

This text examines how the music videos of various recent all-female bands—such as Cariño, Zahara and Shego, Ginebras, and Aiko el Grupo—are expanding the boundaries of Spanish indie rock and pop. Since 2015, this “new wave” has adopted a direct and metaphor-free approach, frequently using parody, irony, and humor as narrative strategies. Alongside these subversive tools, there is also a conscious use of nostalgia—not to idealize the past, but to reinterpret it through a critical and contemporary lens. This ironic nostalgia enables the recovery of aesthetics, sounds, and cultural references from past decades, re-signifying them through the realities and sensibilities of the present. Through their audiovisual materials, these artists offer alternative visions that make queer identities visible, present images that challenge traditional gender roles and the place of women in music and society, and thereby expand the network of the independent music.