ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an overview of geographical and historical factors drawing on existing research to account for the geographical distribution of flamenco and its close links with the historical development of regionalism in Andalusia. It deals with a synthesis of the current debates regarding flamenco and regionalism situating the author's own research as a continuation of this area of scholarship in flamenco studies. The actual origins of flamenco are the subject of much scholarly debate, and competing narratives foreground different social groups and privilege different historical epochs. The emergence of flamenco cannot be divorced from regional and national identity tensions that existed in Spain during the early-to-mid nineteenth century. This was a time when modernisation, rural depopulation and the emergence of a strong middle class began to transform popular culture throughout the country. From the 1950s onwards, a neoclassical revival movement emerged under the auspices of the Franco regime that sought to revive and revalorise traditional songs, practices and aesthetics.
