Sounding Latin Music, Hearing the Americas

Latin American music is a complex array of concepts that constitute "Latin Americanism," with Jairo Moreno's innovative analysis showing how and why music emerges as a necessary but insufficient shorthand for defining and understanding Latin American, Latinx, and American experiences of modernity. It reveals diverging understandings of music's social and political possibilities for participation and belonging, through the stories of musicians such as Rubén Blades, Shakira, Arturo O'Farrill, and Miguel Zenón.

Format: Hardback
Length: 376 pages
Publication date: 02 June 2023
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

Many in the United States hold the belief that Latin American musicians create "Latin music," which is accompanied by a multitude of assumptions, definitions, and contradictions. These expatriate musicians may evoke immense national pride in their home countries or raise suspicions of "national betrayals." The creation, sound, and perception of "Latin music" bring forth the intricate web of concepts that constitute "Latin Americanism," encompassing its fissures and paradoxes, as well as its universal aspirations. Jairo Moreno offers an innovative analysis of how and why music emerges as a necessary but insufficient shorthand for defining and understanding Latin American, Latinx, and American experiences of modernity.

This in-depth examination of the emergence of music-making by Latin American and Spanish-speaking musicians in the United States at the turn of the twenty-first century unveils contrasting perspectives on the social and political potential of music for participation and belonging. Sounding Latin Music, Hearing the Americas explores how artists utilize music to create worlds and senses of the world at the ever-evolving intersection of Latin America and the United States through the narratives of musicians such as Rubén Blades, Shakira, Arturo O'Farrill, and Miguel Zenón.

Weight: 666g
Dimension: 159 x 238 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780226825663