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In On Site, In Sound Kirstie A. Dorr examines the spatiality of sound and the ways in which the sonic is bound up in perceptions and constructions of geographic space. Focusing on the hemispheric circulation of South American musical cultures, Dorr shows how sonic production and spatial formation are mutually constitutive, thereby pointing to how people can use music and sound to challenge and transform dominant conceptions and configurations of place. Whether tracing how the evolution of the Peruvian folk song "El Condor Pasa" redefined the boundaries between national/international and rural/urban, or how a pan-Latin American performance center in San Francisco provided a venue through which to challenge gentrification, Dorr highlights how South American musicians and activists created new and alternative networks of cultural exchange and geopolitical belonging throughout the hemisphere. In linking geography with musical sound, Dorr demonstrates that place is more than the location where sound is produced and circulated; it is a constructed and contested domain through which social actors exert political influence.
List of contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction. Thinking Site in Sound 1
1. Sounding Place Over Time: On the Sonic Transits of "El Cóndor Pasa" 25
2. Putumayo and Its Discontents: The Andean Music Industry as a World Music Geography 64
3. (Inter)national Stages, Mujeres Bravas, and the Spatial Politics of Diaspora 95
4. "You Can't Have a Revolution without Songs: Neighborhood Soundscapes and Multiscalar Activism in La Misión 145
Epilogue. Musical Pirates, Sonic Debts, and Future Geographies of Transit 175
Notes 189
Bibliography 217
Index 236
About the author
Kirstie A. Dorr is Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego.
Summary
Focusing on the hemispheric circulation of South American musical cultures, Kirstie A. Dorr examines the spatiality of sound and the ways in which the sonic is bound to perceptions and constructions of geographic space, showing how people can use music and sound to challenge and transform dominant conceptions of place.
