Ethnic Identity Politics, Transnationalization, and Transculturation in American Urban Popular Music.
Organizers: Prof. Dr. Wilfried Raussert (Universität Bielefeld)
Professor Dr. Michelle Habell-Pallán (University of Washington)
May 18th-May 20th 2009
Zif, Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Bielefeld
As a vital expression of U.S. American pop culture, U.S. American popular music has demonstrated its tremendous potential to cross cultural, ethnic and political
boundaries in its multiethnic origins, its capability of reaching a diverse and multilinguistic audience at home and abroad, and, thirdly, in its embrace of
anti-authoritarianism. Within our approach to trace the routes of music and music?s impact on identity formation we take the popularity of U.S. American Popular music
more or less for granted. We aim to explore its impact on identity politics within the Americas and beyond, the music's interconnectedness to the emergence of new
ethnicities (Hall) in urban contexts, and the music's historical links to processes of intercultural exchange. A major emphasis lies on the ethnic impact on U.S. American
Popular music with a specific emphasis on Latino/a influences both on music within the United States of America and on the migration of sounds and music genres beyond
national borders. Hence the conference aims at differentiating and rewriting existing histories of the emergence of U.S. American Popular music which focus primarily on
intercultural exchange between European and African as well African American forms by exploring the yet absent Latino/a presence within these musical histories.
At the same time the conference intends to counter concepts of so-called world music, a label often used to homogenize fusion forms of music in times of globalization
by emphasizing elements of ethnic as well aesthetic differences in U.S. American Popular music and its global/local variations. In order to track the migrations of people,
ideas, and cultural practices one of the conference's goal is to re-think spatial configurations and our understanding of identity politics within discussion of popular
music. We will explore the interconnections and blurred distinctions between seemingly unrelated musical genres from jazz, R&B, Tejano, Pachuco Boogie, Chicano Rock,
country, Salsa, Son Jaracho, Disco, Reggaeton, and punk that migrate and mix in urban centers and we will analyze new narratives of post-national musical identity that,
in the continuously increasing phenomenon of border-crossings in times of globalization, ask for a redefinition tropes such as race, ethnicity, and culture in the context
of mobility.
We ask for paper that will address a broad range of questions that include among others:
- What effects do music and its migration have on (ethnic) identity formation?
- How do border-crossings shape music?s development aesthetically, culturally, and politically?
- What are (some of the) major sites and contact zones in which the transformation of music occurs?
- What roles does music take on as a 'global player'?
- What does the migration of music tell us about the emergence of new ethnicities (Hall)?
- How does the study of popular music contribute to transnational area studies and transnational American Studies?
- What are the Latino/a influences on U.S. American Popular music?
- How are Latino/a influences on U.S. American Popular music reflected in global/local variations?
- In which ways do we have to re-write the histories of U.S. American Popular music when we attempt to trace its Latino/a influences?
Please send short cv and abstract (300-500 words) to :
Wilfried Raussert.
Deadline: September 30, 2008.
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