Year: 2014
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: As the chapters in this edited volume attest, tango is a rich and diverse cultural phenomenon.Global audiences have been familiar with tango from its circulation in films, television, musical recordings, and other media going back at least to the Parisian tango "craze" of 1917 if not earlier (Matsuda).In these circulatory contexts, tango has served as a conduit for the creative misunderstandings and cross-cultural fantasies that are at the heart of cultural globalization as it is envisioned today (Tsing).At the same time, such global circulations have not eroded the deep meanings the genre has in local contexts.In Argentina, for instance, tango has been drawn upon as a potent symbol of the nation throughout modern Argentine history, contributing at different times to the project of national consolidation (Bergero), the projection of the nation within global politics and economies (Goertzen and Azzi), the local rearticulation of musical modernism, and current efforts to promote Argentina as a destination for cultural tourism (Marchini).This complex narrative of cultural production and creativity was turned on its head by the devastating Argentine economic crisis of late 2001.The economic crisis caused tremendous hardship in Argentina, the severity of which is difficult to overstate: during the crisis the nation's gdp rapidly dropped 15 percent, the open unemployment rate rose to 25 percent, and the number of households living in poverty reached nearly 50 percent (Felix 2002).In the context of the widespread human suffering represented in these statistics, music might not seem particularly important.But debates going on within tango nevertheless engage the crisis and the broader contours of
Source: Duke University Press eBooks
Author: Morgan James Luker
Language: English
Topic: Music History and Culture
Subfield: Music
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W3081896337