Music of the Latin American Outlaws

Catalog description

Music sounds loud and clear at the edge of law. From bandits to illegal immigrants, from underdogs to drug dealers, people who subscribe to their own rules reach out to our ears through song and dance. Their stories and sounds both fascinate and scare audiences well beyond their immediate surroundings, making their way to mass media and live events big and small. In this class, we will focus on Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking regions in the Americas, and our point of entry will be the music produced by and for groups or individuals who live(d) at the margin of law in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Your study time will be equally divided between learning and practicing aural skills and musical terminology, and critically reading texts of historical significance. In the long term, I hope that this course helps you look at any outlaw groups in new, more informed ways. I invite you to let the musics we will study challenge our preconceptions about Latin American cultures.