Cultural memory and ties carried across borders by music and other sound recordings

What is it about?

This article looks at the new meanings that sounds can take on when recordings and music move from one place to another, across borders and oceans. What is subversive in one context can become part of a disciplinary culture in a new context, or vice versa. I examine the use of Michael Jackson's Thriller by prison officials and inmates in Cebu City, the practice of sending recordings of vodou ceremonies to Haitians in Florida, and the travels of the Fisk University Jubilee Singers to Europe and South Africa.

Featured Image

Photo by Namroud Gorguis on Unsplash

Photo by Namroud Gorguis on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This article connects to work that views culture as a dynamic, inevitably non-singular phenomenon and to postcolonial studies that seek to highlight the ways in which colonial histories continue to influence and shape the present; the argument is that paying attention to the transnational travels of sound provides new avenues for analysis and research in these existing fields.