A Popular Culture Research Methodology: Sound System Outernational

Based on a first-hand account of the SSO#5 event, the authors discuss the challenges of grounding the organization of an international academic event in the local environment of Naples, a Southern Italy city with a strong sound system tradition. An ethnographic account of the Italian and Naples scene, including interviews with local sound system pioneers, will provide the context. The overarching intention animating the planning of the event was to acknowledge the way academic research can interact with local and global grassroots music movements in a transformative way, establishing connections, nurturing skills and promoting mutual recognition. More specifically, the event was aimed at amplifying the value of the already-existing scene, turning up the self-confidence of its practitioners and boosting the acknowledgement of sound system practice as an academic research field. This was achieved through the active involvement of local practitioners and activists in the conception of the event, to achieve the mutual trust and respect between participants from different backgrounds, which made the event itself a form of practice-as-research in terms of adding to an ongoing learning process.

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Making Music from Below in a Southern Italian Metropolis

Sciarelli

Sciambra

Follo

et al. 2021

JWPM

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Postcolonial studies literature considered Neapolitan social centres as spaces of hybridization of music styles from the global South, observing their deconstructing potential against racist discourse. More recent cultural production in Naples shows elements of continuity and innovation: organizing self-managed music festivals and mixing-up Latin American rhythms and sound system culture with folk music, Neapolitan social movements keep re-elaborating music genres of different Souths. The result is an original combination of resistant musicalities, vehicles for political messages. In the light of our active participation in these movements, we describe the evolution of the countercultural landscape of Naples, which is related to the evolution of Neapolitan urban commons. These are political projects based on the principles on collective use of urban areas, in which autonomous cultural production is realized through self-organization and sharing of spaces and means of production. Secondly, we aim to describe the experience of the NaDir Collective, a cultural project born within the commons “Scugnizzo Liberato”, re-shaping it as an open space for music self-production. The purpose of the activists is to combine skills and passions to build inclusive spaces for social aggregation, promoting underground and independent music production.

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A Popular Culture Research Methodology: Sound System Outernational

Cited by 5 publications

References 3 publications

Engines of Affect: Experimenting with Auditory Intensities in the Jamaican Sound System Session

Engines of Affect: Experimenting with Auditory Intensities in the Jamaican Sound System Session

Amplifying Street Knowledge through Practice-as-Research

Making Music from Below in a Southern Italian Metropolis

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