The age of the canon: popular song and collective memory in the twenty-first century

Abstract

This article shares reflections on the past of popular music and its validity in the twenty-first century through the form of a canon or list of songs considered “classical”. Without restricting the concept of canon to a closed or fixed list, the author asks about those songs that have remained in time overcoming a kind of “natural selection”. Through what processes of communication and cultural legitimation do these “themes” enjoy today the status of “classical”, when in other times the “classical” was restricted to the so-called “serious" or “academic” music? While most of the examples analyzed come from the inventory of Argentine popular music, the article includes extensive observations on the songmaking traditions of other countries