Contribution of ethnomusicology to the debate on music and popular culture

Authors

  • Enrique Guillermo Cámara de Landa Universidad de Valladolid

Abstract

Before pointing out proposals published by ethnomusicologists that maintain an explicit link with popular culture, it is convenient to bear in mind the semantic changes in the terminology used by them over time. In contrast to the abundance of publications dedicated to the study of objects, systems, behaviors, practices and concepts related to the creation/production, interpretation and reception of music by human groups considered as popular (in the various meanings that the term received), in ethnomusicological literature there are few texts that debate the relationship between these musical contents and popular culture (although there are notable exceptions). The most consistent contribution of the discipline in this thematic area lies, more than in the generation of general theory, in the enrichment of that received from other areas of knowledge thanks to its application to highly significant realities for people and social groups.