https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/gateway/plugin/WebFeedGatewayPlugin/atomJournal of World Popular Music2023-12-21T20:51:08+00:00João Silvajoaosilva92@gmail.comOpen Journal Systems<p>This journal<em> </em>publishes research and scholarship on international popular musics, also known as World Music, Global Pop, World Beat or, more recently, World Music 2.0, providing a forum to explore the manifestations and impacts of post-globalizing trends, processes, and dynamics surrounding these musics today. It adopts an open-minded perspective, including in its scope any local popularized musics of the world, commercially available music of non-Western origin, musics of ethnic minorities, and contemporary fusions or collaborations with local ‘traditional’ or ‘roots’ musics with Western pop and rock musics.<a href="https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/about"> Learn more.</a></p>https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/27593Editors’ Introduction2024-01-03T09:45:43+00:00Simone Krüger BridgeJoão de SilvaKimberley CannadyJonathan P J Stock2024-01-03T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/27334Andrew Simon. 2022. Media of the Masses: Cassette Culture in Modern Egypt2024-01-03T09:45:44+00:00Martin Stokes
<p>Andrew Simon. 2022. <em>Media of the Masses: Cassette Culture in Modern Egypt</em>. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 299 pp. ISBN 9781503629431 (hbk).</p>
2024-01-03T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/26759Noel Lobley. 2020. Sound Fragments: From Field Recording to African Electronic Stories2024-01-03T09:45:45+00:00Perminus Matiure
<p>Noel Lobley. 2020. <em>Sound Fragments: From Field Recording to African Electronic Stories</em>. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. 348 pp. ISBN 9780819580771 (pbk).</p>
2024-01-03T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/26384Reflecting on Participation through Livestreaming Music Events in Times of Pandemic2023-07-11T15:03:37+00:00Francesca Cireddu
<p>In January 2020, the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic led to the interruption of a high number of aggregation-based human activities, such as in-presence live music concerts. One temporary alternative to the problem was the organization of livestreaming music events, which allow only a limited degree of interaction; such a solution fit the needs of those performances where there is little or no need at all for participation, but music practices with a participatory nature were at a disadvantage. Another issue pertains to the overall dimension of live experience: how is the “here and now” of a live music performance shaped in an online setting? Analysing two examples of livestreaming music events that took place in 2020 in Italy and England, this article aims to invite a reflection on how “participation” can come to be understood in online music practices.</p>
2023-07-10T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/19955Illusions of Inclusion2024-01-03T09:45:48+00:00James Nissen
<p>In recent years, the issue of gender inequality in music festival lineups has become a major topic of discussion in the industry. In response, some festival organizers have implemented quotas or other regulative policies in an attempt to produce gender balanced lineups. However, by distinguishing between “hard” and “soft” gender balance, I argue that organizers often employ a “soft” definition which masks prevailing gender disparities and I propose that a “hard” approach which encompasses a more fine-grained analysis of the gender dynamics of festival programming should instead be adopted. Using the WOMAD Festival as a case study, I demonstrate the benefits of a “hard” approach for scrutinizing the gender composition of festival lineups and interrogating the claims of progress made by organizers. I also discuss WOMAD’s strategies for fostering greater gender balance, which may offer other festival organizers some valuable starting points for addressing gender inequalities in their own lineups.</p>
2024-01-03T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/22212Polish Hip Hop at Home and Abroad2024-01-03T09:45:48+00:00Kamila Rymajdo
<p>Taco Hemingway is one of Poland’s most popular rappers, becoming the first Polish artist to be streamed a billion times on Spotify. Often described as a fresh voice in the Polish hip hop scene, Hemingway also offers a new perspective due to his status as a return migrant, having lived in the United Kingdom. As such, this article positions Hemingway’s output in the context of migration studies and, specifically, the impact migration has on sending countries. Through Hemingway’s music, the article examines the various stages of migration, from experiences abroad to return and circular migration, while also appraising Hemingway’s work within the context of social remittances—the impact that return migrants have on stayers. It also posits that Hemingway’s oeuvre represents the failure of the “Grand Narrative” of Polish migration, as well as the dissatisfaction that return migrants can feel upon return, choosing ultimately to go back to the country to which they emigrated. </p>
2024-01-03T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/26374Introduction2023-07-10T12:30:15+00:00Daniele Palma
<p>.</p>
2023-07-10T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/26375It’s All About “Being There”2023-07-10T12:30:13+00:00Juan Bermúdez
<p>Ethnomusicologists often move into the field to observe, analyse, and describe the knowledge creation and negotiation practices of a musical tradition. However, the scenarios caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have proven to be a challenge to the practice of our ethnographic work. We were prevented from going to the field and musicians could not meet physically to develop their musicking, partially transferring their practices to various digital platforms. Although the pandemic confronts us with previously unthinkable challenges, some of these situations are not new if we think about musical practices like those of TikTok. Beyond the time of the pandemic, these practices have already shown to be a challenge for various theoretical and methodological conceptions of our ethnographic work, since they do not materialize in concrete practices in a given place. In this article, drawing on my ethnographic research on TikTok musicking from an Austrian perspective, as well as my reflections as an ethnomusicologist during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, I will discuss the idea of musical geography through practice, as well as the concepts of presence and co-presence, to critically reflect on the ideas of “being there” or “being present”, so important in ethnographic work. In addition to these reflections, I will examine and discuss various experiences lived throughout the musicking of TikTok under a multimedia reality before and during the pandemic, in order to discuss the idea that musical geography through practice can change our perspectives on the field pre- and post-pandemic.</p>
2023-07-10T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/26376Going “Viral”2023-07-10T12:30:11+00:00Ilaria MeloniElisha Orcarus Allasso
<p>Wayang kulit (traditional shadow puppet theatre) is one of the most important performing arts in present-day Java. Even during the pandemic, performers did not abandon their vocation and employed various online platforms to share their art. Although the use of social media for advertising and, occasionally, livestreaming traditional performances was not entirely unprecedented, the circumstances of 2020 have clearly contributed to the significant acceleration of these trends. Issues of global mediatization and virtual participation have become crucial elements within the shadow puppet theatre of the so-called jaman now (“the time of now”). Some <br />of the most famous puppeteers of Central Java, Ki Cahyo Kuntadi and Ki Seno Nugroho, invented new formats, such as wayang elektrik and wayang climen, and adopted new marketing strategies to meet a new audience demand in a time of social distance. These new forms contributed to confirm and speed-up transformation processes already embryonal to the wayang art and drastically changed the function and fruition of one of the most important Javanese performing arts. Uniting practice-led research and digital ethnography, this article intends to offer an example of how oral traditions are affected by the social and technological reverberations of the pandemic era.</p>
2023-07-10T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/26385Becoming Sustainable, Underground2023-07-10T12:30:07+00:00Giacomo Bottà
<p>In the pandemic summer of 2020 in Helsinki, UG (underground) outdoor parties were able to disengage electronic live music practices from profit making and the logics of cultural extractivism, offering a sustainable practice by and for the local techno music scene. In this article, the UG parties are understood as a learning experience, in which sustainability gave access to a different way to produce and consume culture, in particular thanks to: (1) safe space and pedagogy, (2) ecological awareness, (3) no-profit and community building, (4) music curating, and (5) randomness and exploration. The UG party scene moved outdoors, with no profit to be made, and mostly on public land located in wastelands, shorelines, and forests. This operation suspended cultural extractivism through means that had been previously developed, but that acquired a new dimension because of being performed outdoors. The physical borders of indoor private spaces, and their real-estate dimension, is the key issue in relation to music extraction. When played in public natural settings, with no clear borders or limitations, music is able to regain a political dimension. The mixed-methods approach I used here involves interviews, digital ethnographies and post-party on-site explorations and was based on a thoughtful reflection on how to overcome ethical research issues on one side, and the fear of contagion on the other. A scene as a local actor in times of crisis plays a significant role in keeping social practices alive, and in defining ways to overcome and learn from difficult times.</p>
2023-07-10T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/26386Changes and Chances in a Multipart Singing Community and Its Tradition, before and throughout the Global Isolation2023-07-10T12:30:05+00:00Delia Dattilo
<p>The Sacred Harp community was among the groups most affected by pandemic seclusion. Their multipart singing practice is a cultural heritage that includes both oral and written traditions, and creates a strong interaction between people through formalized music codes and behaviours that emerge, develop, and manifest in highly iconic communal spaces. Since global isolation made live singing impossible, this trans-cultural community tried to preserve the continuity of its multipart singing tradition by developing a set of strategies based on virtual singing and online activities. Although the fundamental elements were drastically affected by the isolation, participants represented missing sound environments using all possible means to recreate the spirit and gestation of social singing. After participating as a singer with a local group during fieldwork, I had to reshape my research methods to the pandemic, focusing on aspects of music dissemination that are less evident during physical gatherings.</p>
2023-07-10T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/26373Preface2023-07-10T12:30:15+00:00Maurizio Agamennone2023-07-10T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/25998Andrew Mall. 2020. God Rock, Inc.: The Business of Niche Music2024-01-03T09:45:45+00:00Daniel Thornton
<p>Andrew Mall. 2020. <em>God Rock, Inc.: The Business of Niche Music</em>. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. xxiv + 298 pp. ISBN 987-05-203-43412 (hbk).</p>
2024-01-03T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/25695Reconstructing Afrobeat as a Scene-Based Genre2024-01-03T09:45:46+00:00Aaron Carter-ÉnyìDavid ÀìnáQuintina Carter-ÉnyìO’dyke Nzewi
<p>In 1960s–70s Lagos, a nascent musical movement formed fusing West African highlife and American popular music, fortified by James Brown’s 1970 tour of West Africa. Political corruption was confronted by music, catapulting Felá Kuti to international fame and silencing ?égún Bucknor. Kuti’s positive impact is diminished because Afrobeat became more of a brand than a genre among international audiences. Evidence from an audio survey (n=168) conducted in Nigeria, musical analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, the blogosphere and a reexamination of the scholarly literature and music journalism supports an alternate history of Lagosian music, contesting the accounts of musicologist Chris Waterman and sociologist Jennifer Lena, among others. Based on converging evidence, we offer a resolution to the competing claims of creating Afrobeat from Orlando Julius and Felá Kuti: the genre developed as part of a new social scene that emerged in Lagos during the Nigerian Civil War.</p>
2024-01-03T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/298Jason Toynbee, Catherine Tackley and Mark Doffman, eds. 2014. Black British Jazz: Routes, Ownership and Performance2024-01-05T15:07:20+00:00Lawrence Davies
<p>Jason Toynbee, Catherine Tackley and Mark Doffman, eds. 2014. <em>Black British Jazz: Routes, Ownership and Performance</em>. Farnham: Ashgate. 244pp. ISBN 978-1-4724-1756-5 (hbk)</p>
2016-06-21T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2016 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/295Christopher A. Scales. 2012. Recording Culture: Powwow Music and the Aboriginal Recording Industry2024-01-05T15:49:43+00:00Carolyn Chong
<p>Christopher A. Scales. 2012. <em>Recording Culture: Powwow Music and the Aboriginal Recording Industry</em>. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 368pp. ISBN 978-0-8223-5338-6 (pbk)</p>
2016-07-21T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2016 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/300Jon Stratton and Nabeel Zuberi, eds. 2014. Black Popular Music in Britain Since 19452024-01-05T15:24:34+00:00Tony Mitchell
<p>Jon Stratton and Nabeel Zuberi, eds. 2014. <em>Black Popular Music in Britain Since 1945</em>. Farnham: Ashgate. 256pp. ISBN 9-781-140949-413-1 (hbk)</p>
2016-07-21T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2016 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/301Not Just Boys and Rock ’n’ Roll2024-01-05T11:37:15+00:00Liz Giuffre
<p>Histories of early Australian music television, like histories of early music television from around the world, tend to focus on performances by young men and the development of rock 'n' roll. This article seeks to add to these histories by drawing attention to the women who participated in these music television programmes during the formative years of the genre in Australia. Unfortunately there is very little remaining footage of the actual programmes left, so the "rediscovery" offered here is based on the written archives and photographs that remain from the production files of the 1950s television programme <em>Six O'Clock Rock</em>. However, even remaining publicity photos for the programme can reveal how much women were involved with the show as performers and presenters, and the inclusion of a wider variety of musical styles and collaborations than historical accounts have suggested. The visual styling of these women and their promotion in women's magazines suggests they were used to bring a more domestic audience to the programme, indicating an important place for women in the early audience for rock 'n' roll in Australia. The presence of these women in 1950s and 60s Australian television suggests that this was a time that was more diverse than contemporary audiences and producers may otherwise remember.</p>
2016-07-21T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2016 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/303She-Riffs2024-01-05T14:24:44+00:00Catherine StrongIan Rogers
<p>This article uses analysis of media articles and archival materials to pursue two aims. First, we investigate the effect of Riot Grrrl and grunge's gender equality impetus in the Australian context. In pursuing this, we discuss the rise of female musicians in Australia around the time of grunge and into the late 1990s, particularly in women-only or mostly-women bands, and bands for whom gender was a key defining factor. Second, in keeping with the goals of feminist historians (although this is not a historical paper, as such) we aim to document the activities of some of the female musicians who were active in Australia during the 1990s. Given that this area has been otherwise neglected in academic accounts of Australian popular music and of Riot Grrrl/grunge, it will provide an important starting point for further studies to expand upon. We demonstrate here that the Australian intersections between feminism and rock music are unique, as are the dialogues, debates and solutions proffered, as they combined immediate, local grassroots activity with support from international acts who themselves, while notable in their celebrity, had similar ties to the type of direct action cultural communities exemplified by the Rock'n'Roll High School concept.</p>
2016-07-21T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2016 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/304“Don’t Worry, it’s Just a Girl!”2024-01-05T14:35:52+00:00Rachael Gunn
<p>In this article, I analyse how bodily potential is culturally regulated in Sydney's breakdancing (breaking) scene through drawing both on my breakdancing practice and interviews conducted with prominent figures in this scene. I critically examine my lived experiences as one of only a few female breakdancers ("b-girls") in Sydney through analytic autoethnography, and use the theoretical tools of Deleuze and Guattari to unpack and challenge normative gendered narratives. With breakdancing culturally inscribed as masculine ("b-boying") and its conventions interlocking with broader patriarchal restrictions that inhibit female participation and bodily expression, I argue that the Sydney breaking scene is both a site of transgression and regression for the female body. This paradox confronting the b-girl sees her participation as "othered", while also challenging normative assumptions of gender. Through situating specific practices of breaking within broader Australian culture and gender norms, I examine how the performances of b girls and b-boys in Australia disrupt the stability of binary logic on which the organization of bodies is so heavily reliant and, in doing so, allow for the experience of breaking as a site of "pure" difference.</p>
2016-07-21T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2016 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/305Sophisticated Lady2024-01-05T14:50:59+00:00Lauren Istvandity
<p>Like many popular music genres, jazz has historically been dominated by male figures, while female musicians, despite their contributions, are often overlooked. This article takes for its focus female vocalists, arguing that they frequently face compounded issues of discrimination based on gender. Contextualized in the jazz scene of Brisbane, Australia, the author describes a situation in which, reflective of historic practices, women are generally not taken as seriously as men. Further to this, vocalists, who in this scene are more likely to be female, are often compared negatively to instrumentalists in terms of knowledge and application of jazz theory and musicianship. As a result, female vocalists are ensnared by their gender and may have difficulty building a profile as respected musicians. Using autoethnographic methods, the author explores how vocalists need to carefully manage their performance of gender through a fluid approach to expressions of femininity, dependent on their performance for an audience or for other musicians.</p>
2016-07-21T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2016 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/306We are the Sons of the Southern Cross2024-01-05T15:00:15+00:00Catherine Hoad
<p>Australia's extreme metal scenes have developed largely in isolation from not only the rest of the world, but also one another. Nonetheless, extreme metal scenes throughout the Australian continent share common sentiments of national identity that allow for the formation of an imagined community across disparate locales. Such nationalistic sentiment, realized through the reiteration of the masculinist master symbols of Australian identity, enables an imagined community to be sustained across extreme metal scenes. This article explores how music functions as a medium through which communities can be imagined and boundaries between them drawn. Australian extreme metal scenes construct and maintain a sense of nationhood and community in exclusionary, rather than conciliatory ways. The particular experience of belonging offered by Australian extreme metal scenes is hence marked by rigid parameters of what, or who, may constitute "Australianness" in the image of such communion.</p>
2016-07-21T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2016 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/307“Spark and Cultivate”2024-01-05T15:03:47+00:00Catherine StrongEvelyn Morris
<p>LISTEN is a Melbourne-based feminist collective focused on improving the position of women in the music industry, in part achieved through improving the documentation of women’s contribution to music. This article includes an interview with founder Evelyn Morris and gives an overview of the development and achievements of LISTEN, whilst placing it in the context of feminist activism in Australia. Morris discusses how LISTEN gave form to the dissatisfaction that was being felt by many women in the Melbourne music scene, and quickly became a hub for a variety of feminist activity. She also elaborates on her own perspectives on what feminism entails, and the recent increase in activism in this area.</p>
2016-07-21T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2016 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/21308Andrew F. Jones. 2020. Circuit Listening: Chinese Popular Music in the Global 1960s2023-07-10T12:30:19+00:00Nathanel Amar
<p>Andrew F. Jones. 2020. Circuit Listening: Chinese Popular Music in the Global 1960s. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. ix + 304pp. ISBN 978-1-5179-0207-0 (pbk)</p>
2022-08-02T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/22427Local Music in Curitiba (Paraná, Brazil) and the Impacts Generated by the COVID-19 Pandemic2024-01-03T09:45:47+00:00Gabriel Barth da SilvaNicolas Fish Garcia
<p>This article is an exploratory study of the local music scene in the city of Curitiba in the state of Paraná, in Brazil, and the impact Covid-19 has had on local musicians. A case study was carried out, in which three participants answered a semi-structured interview on how the dynamics between musicians and concert-goers have changed during the pandemic. The participants were selected using purposeful sampling and a thematic analysis was conducted through data interviews that were transcribed and analysed. It was possible to note how the music scene crosses different spheres of the lives of its participants, how their social lives and connections with the city are related to local music, and how the pandemic directly affected this consumption, mainly from the difficulties arising from transitioning the local experience to the digital world.</p>
2024-01-03T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/18333Editors’ Introduction2020-10-15T23:00:53+00:00Simone Krüger BridgeJonathan P.J. Stock
<p>.</p>
2020-10-13T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2020 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/18334Samba and Choro in the Classroom 2020-10-15T23:00:34+00:00Colin Harte
<p>This article examines how the performance of samba and choro becomes a process of student enculturation within a Brazilian formal educational context. Musical enculturation is defined as the process of gaining music skills and knowledge through immersion in the music making and music of one’s social environment. While the processes of enculturation involve both formal and informal education, this study primarily focuses upon the formal instruction at Colégio Pedro II (São Cristóvão), a federally funded public school in Rio de Janeiro. This research shows that samba and choro were selected by Colégio Pedro II music instructors as culturally important musical forms representative of Rio de Janeiro, historically excluded from formal, public education. The recent inclusion of samba and choro in formal education was made possible by progressive, post-1988, Brazilian educational legislation. I argue that the teaching of samba and choro in the school environment provides students with the necessary participatory skills to engage with the rich musical traditions of samba and choro that are pervasive in Rio de Janeiro as cultivated through the enculturative processes demonstrated at Colégio Pedro II (São Cristóvão) grupo de samba and grupo de choro.</p>
2020-10-13T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2020 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/18335From Here, There and Everywhere2020-10-15T23:00:16+00:00Brent Keogh
<p>From soundscape studies to ethnomusicology and popular music, the production and study of field recordings is usually framed in terms of their role in archival research, in cultural revivals, and the politics of engaging with the sonic other both “in” and “out” of the field. Few studies, however, have addressed the use of field recordings as a tool for actively constructing authenticity in contemporary global popular music. In the popular music industries, field recordings provide a musical experience that appears less “mediated”—less interfered with by producers, audio engineers, high-tech recording equipment and environmental noise purged by the studio. Such recordings help to authentically position the artist with respect to the fan in a reactionary move against the incessant progression of “new” technologies, technologies that have the ability to convert any performance into an acceptable product of mass consumption. This article critically explores such field recordings as an important site of the construction of “authenticity” in contemporary popular music.</p>
2020-10-13T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2020 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/18336“The Pro Tooling of the World”2020-10-15T22:59:58+00:00Brent KeoghIan Collinson
<p>The “Pro Tooling” of the world and the democratization of recording technologies, made possible by the affordances of the internet and technological innovation, have been praised for the ways in which prohibitively expensive production tools have been made available to anyone with an internet connection and a laptop. The echoes of a utopian, perhaps even Marxian, tune can be heard in the positivist accounts of the affordances of such technologies: finally, the means of production have been made available to the masses. And not only the means of production, but also dissemination: one can use a “free” digital audio workstation (DAW), download a multitude of “free” plug-ins emulating expensive analogue and digital gear of the past, and upload their song to SoundCloud or a number of different streaming services for consumption by anyone around the globe with an internet connection. However, the overly positivist accounts of the democratization of recording technologies often obscures the anxieties concerning the material conditions and environmentality of these newer technological forms. The digital realm is often (mistakenly) set against the material, a realm of infinite creative and even political possibilities. However, the digital realm is thoroughly material, and inherently dependent on material resources. The explosion in music production made possible through the development of digital technologies disseminated as affordable commodities, has also produced deplorable social and environmental conditions that significantly undermine any utopian narrative. This article thus critically examines the environmentality of contemporary music production technologies and argues for the vital relevance of an ecomusicological approach to all stages of the production process.</p>
2020-10-13T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2020 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JWPM/article/view/18337The Kalunga Project2020-10-15T22:59:44+00:00Mariana Barreto
<p>This article explores how musical culture is created and recreated in multi-dimensional flows and cultural transfers between two countries, Brazil and Angola, and in spaces that extrapolate national boundaries and confound cultural hierarchies. It will discuss the encounter between two national fields of musical production through the Brazilian Kalunga Project, which helps to understand how musical movements are organized between transnational popular cultures. I adopt field theory, which comprehends fields of meaning as relational principles, whose heuristic force is shaped by their historicity and temporality, rather than by their spacial characteristics. With my focus on the Kalunga Project, I am interested in the cultural transformations that operate in such fields of cultural exchange as these are fostered by national and international flows of goods and symbols, and are shaped by various mediators, such as musicians, producers, critics, journalists and others between Brazil and Angola. In other words, the article focuses on cultural practices and productions in artistic production as a whole, rather than on individuals, institutions or specific national contexts.</p>
2020-10-13T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2020 Equinox Publishing Ltd.