For most of us, music offers an escape from everyday troubles. We don’t often stop to think that music is subject to the same concerns: making money, finding a place to thrive, and staying true to itself within a rigid, often ruthless, industry. Some music prefers to avoid such mayhem. It parties on the fringes, sending an occasional dispatch for our edification. This primer on Cuban music and a socialist approach to the art of sound is one such report.
For New American Media, Greg Landau and interviewer Jacob Simas explore themes in contemporary Cuban music, illuminating a dynamic art that is at once traditional and experimental, a forum for both critique and celebration. Landau and Simas offer insights into trends in Cuban music while nonchalantly, almost inadvertently, exposing the effects of capitalist ideology on the music industry. If you can, listen to the audio version of the interview, which has examples of the music.
Source: New American Media.
Image by Jorge Royan; licensed under Creative Commons.
