HISP 350 - Qué flow: Music, Culture, and Politics in Latin America

FC ARHU CD

4 credits
This course offers a survey of the main trends in 20th- and 21st-century Latin American popular music through an engagement with its cultural and political life. We will study the sexual politics of the bolero (Daniel Santos, La Lupe, Luis Miguel), the relationship between nueva trova (new folk) and the revolutionary politics of the mid-20th century (Silvio Rodríguez, Mercedes Sosa), the diasporic origin of salsa (Celia Cruz, Héctor Lavoe), the emergence and comercialization of “rock en español” (Soda Stereo, Cafe Tauba, Aterciopelados), the politics of the “Latin Explosion” of 1999 that offered the “crossover” as global trope (Ricky Martin, Shakira), the emergence of reggaetón (Daddy Yankee, Ivy Queen, Tego Calderón), the recent return to folklore and roots (Natalia Lafourcade), and the linguistic politics of contemporary trap (Bad Bunny, J Balvin). Taught in Spanish.

Prerequisites: HISP 304.