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DISCOnnections [electronic resource] : popular music audiences in Freetown, Sierra Leone / Michael Stasik.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublication details: Bamenda, Cameroon : Langaa Research and Publishing Common Iniative Group ; Leiden, The Netherlands : African Studies Centre, [2012] 2013) 2015)Description: 1 online resource (1 electronic text (xv, 237 p.) :) col. ill., col. maps, digital fileISBN:
  • 9789956728572
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Additional physical formats: Print version:: No titleLOC classification:
  • ML3503.S5 S734 2012
Online resources:
Contents:
Acknowledgements -- 1. Introduction -- pt. I. The music/society nexus : some introductory reflections and observations -- 2. Introducing the city and its sounds -- 3. Music and society : a preliminary theoretical outline -- 4. Revisiting methods of socio-sonic inquiry -- pt. II. From class to mass : Freetown's music and society in historical perspective -- 5. Introduction -- 6. Early developments : the 19th century -- 7. Socio-musical approximations : 1900s to 1930s -- 8. The heydays of local popular music : 1940s to 1970s -- 9. Popular music in the time of decay : the 1980s and 1990s -- 10. Post-war boom and post-election decline -- 11. Conclusion : beyond the ephemerality of style -- pt. III. Disconnections : social dynamics in the spaces of music -- 12. Introduction -- 13. (Night)life at the edge of chaos -- 14. The seasonality of music -- 15. Building, binding and dividing -- 16. A topography of Freetown's social imaginary -- 17. The Politics of price, prestige and consumption -- 18. The king and his followers -- 19. Conclusion : dis/connections -- pt. IV. Topia of utopias -- 20. Dreams vs. reality -- References.
Summary: This book offers an intriguing account of the complex and often contradictory relations between music and society in Freetown's past and present. Blending anthropological thought with ethnographic and historical research, it explores the conjunctures of music practices and social affiliations and the diverse patterns of social dis/connections that music helps to shape, to (re)create, and to defy in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown. The first half of the book traces back the changing social relationships and the concurrent changes in the city's music life from the first days of the colony in the late 18th century up to the turbulent and thriving music scenes in the first decade of the 21st century. Grounded in this comprehensive historiography of Freetown's socio-musical palimpsest, the second half of the book puts forth a detailed ethnography of social dynamics in the realms of music, calibrating contemporary Freetown's social polyphony with its musical counterpart.
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Issued as part of UPCC book collections on Project MUSE.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [229]-237).

Acknowledgements -- 1. Introduction -- pt. I. The music/society nexus : some introductory reflections and observations -- 2. Introducing the city and its sounds -- 3. Music and society : a preliminary theoretical outline -- 4. Revisiting methods of socio-sonic inquiry -- pt. II. From class to mass : Freetown's music and society in historical perspective -- 5. Introduction -- 6. Early developments : the 19th century -- 7. Socio-musical approximations : 1900s to 1930s -- 8. The heydays of local popular music : 1940s to 1970s -- 9. Popular music in the time of decay : the 1980s and 1990s -- 10. Post-war boom and post-election decline -- 11. Conclusion : beyond the ephemerality of style -- pt. III. Disconnections : social dynamics in the spaces of music -- 12. Introduction -- 13. (Night)life at the edge of chaos -- 14. The seasonality of music -- 15. Building, binding and dividing -- 16. A topography of Freetown's social imaginary -- 17. The Politics of price, prestige and consumption -- 18. The king and his followers -- 19. Conclusion : dis/connections -- pt. IV. Topia of utopias -- 20. Dreams vs. reality -- References.

This book offers an intriguing account of the complex and often contradictory relations between music and society in Freetown's past and present. Blending anthropological thought with ethnographic and historical research, it explores the conjunctures of music practices and social affiliations and the diverse patterns of social dis/connections that music helps to shape, to (re)create, and to defy in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown. The first half of the book traces back the changing social relationships and the concurrent changes in the city's music life from the first days of the colony in the late 18th century up to the turbulent and thriving music scenes in the first decade of the 21st century. Grounded in this comprehensive historiography of Freetown's socio-musical palimpsest, the second half of the book puts forth a detailed ethnography of social dynamics in the realms of music, calibrating contemporary Freetown's social polyphony with its musical counterpart.

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