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Introduction: Crossing Borders

Over the years, Popular Music has produced a substantial number of Special Issues, some thematic, others focused on the music of particular social-geographical areas. It so happens that the first of these, which came out in 1987, focused on Latin American music. At the time this reflected the area interests of the now longstanding board member Jan Fairley (who was joint editor of that issue with David Horn), and the changing boundaries between ethnomusicology and the emerging ‘popular music studies’ in academia, as well as the boundary between ‘traditional’ and ‘world’ musics in the sphere of music distribution and marketing. It brought on board emerging scholars and activist musicians in Latin America alongside colleagues in other countries. It is also important to reflect on how this issue grew out of the intersection of personal experience and political involvement (Jan was teaching at the Catholic University in Temuco, Chile at the time of the 1973 coup état, and several authors wrote from direct experience of music under musical engagement with political struggle and also music under authoritarian rule). As we put together this issue in 2010 it is impossible not to remark on how much Latin America has changed. In the mid-1980s various countries were still living through or just emerging from brutal dictatorships and their devastating aftermath. The end of the overt Cold War was not in sight, and in Latin America critiques of US and European cultural imperialism and neo-colonialism were deep rooted and widely held. Nationalism and regionalism were relevant concepts in explaining the relationship between music, place and politics there. The main focus was on understanding emerging and contested political systems within a historical and political context and how popular music was integral to such processes. With this new issue 20 years on, it is clear that migration and diaspora have changed the very scope and definition of ‘Latin America’, quite apart from the political shifts consequent on the ‘return to democracy’ in the neo-liberal world and the rise of ethnic and other social movements in many countries. Our idea is therefore to explore the musical routes and social links between Latin America, Spain, Portugal and other parts of the world, which challenge conventional musicological and geographical categorisations. The papers broach dialogues in Latin American music that break with conventional ideas of a geographically bounded music, instead looking at music ‘at the borders’ both aesthetically and culturally. They re-examine accepted perspectives, looking at music that happens at the meeting points between cultures, at the blurring of boundaries, and at ideas of change and transformation. These are themes which we hope will open up opportunities for dialogues within Latin American music production and scholarship. The subjects addressed in this issue explore the relationship between music, place and identity at both a theoretical and methodological level by giving voice Popular Music (2011) Volume 30/2. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011, pp. 171–174