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New generations, older bodies: danzón, age and ‘cultural rescue’ in the Port of Veracruz, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2012

Hettie Malcomson
Hettie Malcomson
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, PPSIS, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RQ, UK E-mail: hhm22@cam.ac.uk
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Abstract

Understandings and discourses about age have tended to be instrumental to popular music in terms of production, promotion and consumption, and many studies of popular music have taken younger people, and especially ‘youth’ cultures, as their subject matter. Where older people have been considered, the focus has mostly been retrospective, that is on their experiences when young and their attitudes to contemporary ‘youth’ cultures, rather than relationships between the temporal dimension of the life course and music. As the case of danzón illustrates, stereotypes that older people are resistant to novelty, change and possibility are ill founded. Moreover, where age is used to justify rescuing ‘cultural traditions’, caution may be called for and analysis required to assess what lies behind such claims and why. In Veracruz, the older age of the majority of danzón performers is evoked to ‘authenticate’ this local ‘tradition’, and justify its ‘rescue’ and promotion by Veracruz's culture industries. Yet, older people are not considered repositories of ‘tradition’ or sought out as ‘authentic’ practitioners. Instead, many older performers are new to danzón.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 31 , Special Issue 2: As Time Goes By: Music, Dance and Ageing , May 2012 , pp. 217 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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Discography

Acerina y su Danzonera. Centenario Del Danzón Vol. 1. Orfeon Estereo CDL-16578 (includes a recording of Las Alturas de Simpson composed by Miguel Faílde Pérez)Google Scholar
Danzonera Alma de Sotavento. Danzones Clásicos Vol. I y II. Lalo Records (includes recordings of Almendra composed by Abelardo Valdés, Cecilia by Gilberto Guzmán Concha, Isora Club by Coralia López, Mozart's La Flauta Mágica [Magic Flute] arranged by Antonio María Romeu with Alfredo Brito, La Mora by Eliseo Grenet, Masacre by Silvio Contreras Fernández, Mocambo by Emilio Renté, Nereidas by Amador Dimas Pérez Torres, Pulque para Dos by Gustavo Moreno, and Teléfono de Larga Distancia by Aniceto Díaz)Google Scholar
Danzonera La Playa. 55 Años en el Danzón. Ediciones Pentagrama, APCD 459. 2001 (includes a recording of Mi Consuelo es Amarte composed by Leopoldo L. Olivares)Google Scholar
La Danzonera Joven de México del Chamaco Aguilar. Vol. 1 La Danzonera Joven De México. Ecofon FNCD-4041. 2003 (includes a recording of Yesterday composed by Lennon/McCartney, arranged by Alejandro Chamaco Aguilar Alcántara)Google Scholar

Filmography

Bracho, Julio (dir.), Distinto Amanacer, starring Andrea Palma (Mexico). 1943Google Scholar
Fernández, EmilioEl Indio (dir.), Salón México, starring Marga López (Mexico). 1948Google Scholar
Gout, Alberto (dir.), Aventurera, starring Ninón Sevilla (Mexico). 1949Google Scholar
Novaro, María (dir.), Danzón, starring María Rojo (Mexico/Spain). 1991Google Scholar