Our relationship with music is a portrayal game that starts with the awareness of bodily and biological rhythms and with the percussive adventures of the hominids.
Back then, the concept of an individual
human being as oneself had yet to be established. Humans lived under an all-inclusive, collective consciousness
similar to that of pack of animals. This communitarian condition has led the way for the development of collective forms
of human expression (later to be described as culture), including sonic ones such as music.
In this context, the rise of Western cities in the Modern Era represents a landmark for a specific form of music, the popular song, and along with it, the consolidation of the concept of a uniquely human “self”. My goal is to present cities as cradle of the modern pop song. In the streets of Lisbon, Naples and Paris, distinct musical heritages are blended together under newly developed forms of intellectual, social, political and economic organization to forge the Brazilian/Portuguese lundus and modinhas, the canzone napoletana
and the Parisian vaudeville chanson and,
with them, the modern concept of being.
Author
Cespedes, Fernando Garbini
Keywords
canção popular moderna,
música popular,
modernidade,
cidades,
indivíduo,
subjetividade,
modern pop song,
popular music,
modern era,
cities,
being,
subjectivity