Music is an underestimated tool in facilitating and making change. Whether that change be on the communal, political, or societal level, music is a way to connect and encourage dialogue. The context and structure of music is unlimited and that is one potential source of its power.
The question of identity among refugees in President Trump’s modern America is a significant area of concern as displacement levels increase.
Tropicália
O que é Tropicália? Tropicália foi um movimento artístico no Brasil que aconteceu no início da ditadura militar brasileira (começou em 1967 e terminou em 1969). O movimento tropicalista teve muitas influências e incluiu muitos meios artísticos. Os artistas do movimento misturaram poesia, dança, literatura e música, que foram uma forma de “antropofagia.”
Anybody who tuned into their local radio station this summer could tell you that there was one song that reigned supreme; Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s remix of ‘Despacito’ featuring Justin Bieber took the U.S. by storm and its popularity only continued to heat up as the months passed. In fact, the song is tied with Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men’s “One Sweet Day” for being atop Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for the longest consecutive stretch at 16 weeks in the No. 1 spot (Trust 2017).
“To make it you have to be fully alive. I do my best to do that. I enjoy every moment because I believe that once we die, that’s it. We’re not coming back. Lovers come back. Styles come back. But time? It never comes”1.
Ranchera, a style of music that grew out of the Mexican revolution, highlights the beauty and simplicity of Mexican life for all citizens. Known for its drama, passion and patriotism, this style of music elicits images of Mexican ranch life. The most famous ranchera singer is inarguably Vicente Fernandez, who has become a national icon in Mexico in the same manner as Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley in the U.S.(1).
La antroposociología nos señala que ciertas condiciones materiales y espirituales inducen la aparición de determinado tipo de producción estética. La correspondencia entre lo material y lo espiritual, expresado en el mundo del arte, no es ya, pues, una sorpresa para nadie. Si echamos una mirada, aunque leve, a Antonio Cándido, a Ángel Rama o a René Wellek y a Austin Warren en su Teoría Literaria, para señalar sólo a tres, podemos corroborarlo.
El pasado 12 de Junio, en medio de la gran celebración con que se inició oficialmente el Mundial de Brasil, pudimos ver y oír a Jennifer López, Pitbul y Claudia Leite interpretando We Are One (Ole Ola). De esta manera, los tres artistas seleccionados por la FIFA se unieron a una tradición que ya hace parte de la historia de la Copa del Mundo.
Over the last several years I’ve conducted extensive research in Brazil focused on the multiple and complex intersections of race, music, and space.
Cuban music has been described as a marriage (successful) between the guitar and the drum. An excellent metaphor, but not entirely accurate because they forgot to mention the piano since there are few countries who have pianists as gifted as Cuba. From the 19th century, with the likes of Cervantes, Saumell, and Espadero to the 20th , Cuba was blessed with figures such as Roig, Romeu, Lecuona, Lilí Martínez and Peruchín, not to mention Bebo Valdés, Rubén González, and Frank Emilio Flynn.
