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The ‘routes’ and ‘roots’ of danzón: a critique of the history of a genre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2011

Hettie Malcomson
Hettie Malcomson
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, PPSIS, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

In this article, I examine the history of a genre that spans several continents and several centuries. I bring together material from Mexico, Cuba, France and the UK to create anew, expand upon and critique the ‘standard’ histories of danzón narrated by Mexico's danzón experts (and others). In these ‘standard’ histories, origins and nationality are key to the constitution of genres which are racialised and moralised for political ends. Danzón, its antecedents and successors are treated as generic equivalents despite being quite different. From the danzón on, these genres are positioned as being the products of individual, male originators (and their nations). ‘Africa’ is treated as a conceptual nation, and ‘Africanness’ as something extra which racialises hegemonic European music-dance forms. Political leanings and strategies determine whether these music-dance forms are interpreted, adopted or co-opted as being ‘black’ or ‘white’.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 30 , Special Issue 2: Crossing Borders: Music of Latin America , May 2011 , pp. 263 - 278
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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