Abstract

The following article analyzes the relationship between music and society from a general perspective. I propose four scenarios or theoreti- cal/practical areas where this relationship could be observed and analyzed: people participation and uses of bodies; discourses and narratives about music; revitaliza- tion of sound and the communities of recovering, and aesthetics of music or the idea of music beyond lyrics. The presentation will be divided into three parts. In the first part, “Music and People” I will talk about the relationship between music and society and those who have contributed to this debate in music studies (ethnomusicology, musicology and popular music studies). In the second, I describe four scenarios in which it is evident: first, in the participation offered by dance music and its associated use of the body; second, in the texts, discourses and narratives of the songs (intertextuality); third, in the ideas of “communities of recovery”; and fourth, in the aesthetic of the music. For the first case, I use the example of the South American so-called bailes de tierra (literally, “ground dances”), for the second, the protest song, for the third the revival of popular culture of the 1990s, and for the fourth, folklore in general. I end my presentation with some conclusions on the relation- ship between music and social change, attempting to give some predictions as to the future.