Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology
2 total works
When thinking of indigenous music, many people may imagine acoustic instruments and pastoral settings far removed from the whirl of modern life. But, in contemporary Peru, indigenous chimaycha music has become a wildly popular genre that is even heard in the nightclubs of Lima. In Making Music Indigenous, Joshua Tucker traces the history of this music and its key performers over fifty years to show that there is no single way to "sound indigenous." The musicians Tucker follows make indigenous culture and identity visible in contemporary society by establishing a cultural and political presence for Peru's indigenous peoples through activism, artisanship, and performance. This musical representation of indigeneity not only helps shape contemporary culture, it also provides a lens through which to reflect on the country's past. Tucker argues that by following the musicians that have championed chimaycha music in its many forms, we can trace shifting meanings of indigeneity-and indeed, uncover the ways it is constructed, transformed, and ultimately recreated through music.
Exploring Peru's lively music industry and the studio producers, radio DJs, and program directors that drive it, "Gentleman Troubadours and Andean Pop Stars" is a fascinating account of the deliberate development of artistic taste. Focusing on popular huayno music and the ways it has been promoted to Peru's emerging middle class, Joshua Tucker tells a complex story of identity making and the marketing forces entangled with it, providing crucial insights into the dynamics among art, class, and ethnicity that reach far beyond the Andes. Tucker focuses on the music of Ayacucho, Peru, examining how media workers and intellectuals there transformed the city's huayno music into the country's most popular style. By marketing contemporary huayno against its traditional counterpart, these agents, Tucker argues, have paradoxically re-inforced ethnic hierarchies at the same time that they have challenged them. Navigating between a burgeoning Andean bourgeoisie and a music industry eager to sell them symbols of newfound sophistication, "Gentleman Troubadours and Andean Pop Stars" is a deep account of the real people behind cultural change.