Disconnections
Subtitle: popular music audiences in Freetown, Sierra Leone
By: Michael Stasik
Publisher: Langaa Research & Publishing CIG; African Studies Centre
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Bamenda, Cameroon; Leiden
Language: eng
Number of pages: 237
ISBN-13: 9789956728510
Subjects: Popular music; History; Popular music fans; Discotheques; Music; Social aspects
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [229]-237).