This chapter examines the contemporary redefinition of Galician folk music during the political transition to democracy and the establishment of Galician autonomy, as well as the role contemporary Galician folk music has played in the construction of a modern Galician cultural identity in the global age. Since the mid-1970s the recovery of Galician musical and cultural heritage has gone hand in hand, somewhat paradoxically, with innovation, transformation and hybridization. Parallel to this process, contemporary Galician folk music has become one of the key cultural expressions of a modern Galician identity that is to a large extent based on the distinctness and richness of its traditional music, even if this genre has undergone a complex process of hybridization entailing the merging of old and new forms, rural and urban manifestations and local and global trends.

This redefinition of Galician folk music has developed in parallel with the major political and social changes that have occurred in Galicia during this period, and the significant cultural developments in literature, audio-visual arts, rock music and fashion, which have all played a key role in the process of collective self-discovery and self-construction. Two major historical events have governed these developments: the process of cultural normalization as a result of the establishment of Galician political autonomy after the Transition, on the one hand, and the globalization of the cultural industries with Galicia's response to the new cultural climate and economic currents of our global age, on the other.