| dc.description.abstract | This thesis is a qualitative study of the ways in which young people of Mexico engage and appropriate narcocorridos music in everyday life.
Narcocorridos music emerged in the late 1960s, and its narratives mostly speak approvingly of drug trafficking, violence, weapon carrying, and alcohol and drug consumption as signs of power and respect. The music often portrays the narco-trafficker as a rebel who dodges the capitalist order and achieves social mobility through illegal activities.
The existing research on this controversial music genre has prominently focused on the textual analysis of lyrics, and some sociological approaches have addressed the organisational and discursive aspects of these cultural objects. In contrast, my research is focused on studying the role of musicking (engagement/appropriation) in the production of meaning, and its use in relation to the production of dispositions for collective agency in the public space. Using the idea of aesthetic ecologies as a theoretical framework, as well as the theory of mediation, I aim to show the interactions (of spaces, materials, and people) involved in the processes of production of meaning and agency.
For this study, I implemented a multi-sited ethnography, aiming to capture different forms of engagement and appropriation in settings such as detention centres for youth, cantinas, street markets, and music venues. I also used the concept of patchwork ethnography, which allowed me to put together thin and thick descriptions of different forms of data, weaving together a richer description of the meanings and actions that emerged from this ethnographic work.
This work moves away from establishing causal relations between narco/corridos music and negative behaviours. Instead, it shows -through grounded accounts- the multiple uses and practices that narcocorridos music affords, and how these practices are used in relation to dispositions of collective meaning and action. I show how musicalised micro-actions (such as choosing certain drinks, carrying weapons, and preventing women from performing), are connected to macro-structural forms of power such as the marketisation of alcohol, the reproductions of gender inequalities, and violence. | en_GB |
