LA LUPE, LA INDIA, AND CELIA: TOWARD A FEMINIST GENEALOGY OF SALSA MUSIC

Frances R. Aparicio*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Eliding the conceptualization of gender as a social construct, scholarship on Latino/a popular music continues to ignore female participation in the salsa musical industry and focuses only on male musicians, producers, and interpreters, naturalizing the unmarked masculine privilege underlying the selection of their objects of study. This gender ideology is less clearly at work, yet equally embedded, in the politics of citation as well as in the logic behind academic and cultural events on popular music, for which female scholars are invited " to take care of the gender thing.” 1 I do not question the need-which still looms large-to study and unearth the participation of women in the Latin music industry, a task that necessitates further collaborative work and that, indeed, fuels my own approaches to music scholarship. This area deserves our serious scholarly analysis precisely because it has been neglected by masculinist writings on popular music. Yet the logic that defines gender exclusively as “women” leaves masculinity-as a gendered ideology and social constructuntouched by analysis. It also relegates women to an exceptional category in the musical industry, as if their presence and participation were the exclusive result of a feminist politics of inclusion on the part of scholars.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationSituating Salsa
Subtitle of host publicationGlobal Markets and Local Meanings in Latin Popular Music
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages135-160
Number of pages26
ISBN (Electronic)9781135725341
ISBN (Print)9781315054773
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2013
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Arts and Humanities

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