Questionable Tastes

Women, Love Songs and Gender Subalternity

Authors

  • Carolina Spataro National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, CONICET)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.33206

Keywords:

women, romantic music, aesthetic, sexism, femininities, mass culture

Abstract

This article analyses the social uses of romantic music among poor and working class women in Argentina. The analysis is based on fieldwork with a fan club of Ricardo Arjona, a Guatemalan singer-songwriter whose songs have topped the charts across the Spanish-speaking world for two decades. In a constant reworking of the debate on “good” versus “bad” music, Arjona’s musical production is the target of an aesthetic and ideological critique that defines it as poor quality music that fosters sexism. These value judgements are also applied to Arjona’s fans, making the women who enjoy his music into what we will call “cultural ditzes”. The article proposes to explain the connection between music and the configuration of contemporary femininities.

Author Biography

  • Carolina Spataro, National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, CONICET)

    Carolina Spataro holds a PhD in social sciences, a Master’s in communication and culture, and a Bachelor’s in communications (Universidad de Buenos Aires). In addition to her post as a CONICET
    researcher, Spataro is Assistant Professor of Popular and Mass Culture at the School of Communications and coordinates the graduate programme in “Communication, Genders and Sexualities” at the School of Social Sciences (UBA).

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Published

2017-12-06

Issue

Section

Music and Subalternity in Argentina and Brazil

How to Cite

Spataro, C. (2017). Questionable Tastes: Women, Love Songs and Gender Subalternity. Journal of World Popular Music, 4(2), 226-244. https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.33206