Music of the Cities: The Emergence of the Modern Popular Song as a Representation of the Individual

Abstract

Our relationship with music is a portrayal game that starts with the awareness of bodily and biological rhythms and with the percussive adventures of the hominids. Back then, the concept of an individual human being as oneself had yet to be established. Humans lived under an all-inclusive, collective consciousness similar to that of pack of animals. This communitarian condition has led the way for the development of collective forms of human expression (later to be described as culture), including sonic ones such as music. In this context, the rise of Western cities in the Modern Era represents a landmark for a specific form of music, the popular song, and along with it, the consolidation of the concept of a uniquely human “self”. My goal is to present cities as cradle of the modern pop song. In the streets of Lisbon, Naples and Paris, distinct musical heritages are blended together under newly developed forms of intellectual, social, political and economic organization to forge the Brazilian/Portuguese lundus and modinhas, the canzone napoletana and the Parisian vaudeville chanson and, with them, the modern concept of being