Music as social life: the politics of participation

TLDR

Music has historically been used worldwide to express emotions, connect spiritually, influence politics, and mark life events. The book investigates why music and dance are central to personal and social experiences, developing conceptual tools to analyze their connective properties. Turino applies these concepts to case studies of indigenous Peruvian, Zimbabwean, and American old‑time music, as well as to the Nazi Party and the American civil rights movement. The book offers an accessible, wide‑ranging introduction to music’s societal power, supported by a companion CD.

Abstract

People around the world and throughout history have used music to express their inner emotions, reach out to the divine, woo lovers, celebrate weddings, inspire political movements, and lull babies to sleep. In Music as Social Life, Thomas Turino explores why it is that music and dance are so often at the center of our most profound personal and social experiences.Turino begins by developing tools to think about the special properties of music and dance that make them fundamental resources for connecting with our own lives, our communities, and the environment. These concepts are then put into practice as he analyzes various musical examples among indigenous Peruvians, rural and urban Zimbabweans, and American old-time musicians and dancers. To examine the divergent ways that music can fuel social and political movements, Turino looks at its use by the Nazi Party and by the American civil rights movement. Wide-ranging, accessible to anyone with an interest in music's role in society, and accompanied by a compact disc, Music as Social Life is an illuminating initiation into the power of music.