Karush, Matthew B.
2020-10-27T19:32:18Z
2020-10-27T19:32:18Z
2017
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12010/14983
In 1994, on the eve of his appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, the Argentine rock star Fito Páez was asked to consider the place of Latin
American popular music in the world. In response, he claimed that musicians
from the global South had a distinct advantage over those from the North:
“I could enjoy the Beatles, but they never heard [Chilean folksinger] Violeta
Parra. They have missed out on a part of the world.”1
Páez’s wry observation is
a reminder of the inequality that structures global cultural exchange. Popular
music produced in the United States and Britain has been elevated to universal status, a cultural product that is consumed and emulated everywhere
in the world. By contrast, the music of other societies is of more particular,
local significance; when it circulates internationally, it is often packaged as a
novelty. North American musicians can indulge a taste for the exotic or they
can simply ignore the music of the rest of the world, a choice that is typically
not available to musicians from elsewhere who want to attract even a local
audience. In other words, while Latin American musicians like Páez have been
forced to compete directly against Elvis Presley, the Beatles, or Michael Jackson, the reverse has never been true. Páez interprets this apparent weakness as
a strength: Latin American musicians have greater resources at their disposal.
They can and do draw on local, regional, and global styles in order to forge
their own music.
281 páginas
application/pdf
eng
Duke University Press
Popular Music
Globalization
Argentina
Musicians in transit : Argentina and the globalization of popular Music
Música popular -- Argentina
Música popular - América Latina
Música y globalización
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Abierto (Texto Completo)
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_2f33