'What's Going On'

This book begins from the premise that we are living in an age in which the social is in a continuous process of reinvention. The book is also grounded in the assumption that music is a perennial key player in the processes of reinventing the social since music holds the power to stimulate and transport visions of change through its appeal to all human senses. Chapters address the intersection of music and identity politics, the role of music in social movements, music's presence in commodity and tourist culture, music in the context of museum culture, music's presence in literature and the visual arts, and music documentaries as alternative sonic historiography. The intention behind this book is to open the reader's eyes to music's omnipresence in our social life beyond the muzak sound in shopping malls, the background music in bars and restaurants, and the spatially marked distance of music from the audience in exclusive concert halls. It further wants to illustrate how music from the Americas keeps reinventing the social within and beyond the American hemisphere.