Tracing musicology in Latin American during the twentieth century, this book presents case studies to illustrate how Latin American music has interacted with social and global processes. The book addresses such topics as popular music, post-colonialism, women in Latin American music, tradition and modernity, musical counterculture, globalization, and identity construction through music. It contributes to the development of paradigms of cultural analysis that originated outside of Latin America by testing them in the Latin American musical context, while also exploring how specifically Latin American models can contribute to broader cultural analysis.

Every chapter in this latest book by prominent Latin American musicologist Juan Pablo González stands on its own, from his expert yet accessible analysis of trends in Latin American musicology to his discussion of the Chilean counter-fusion band Fulano. Woven together as they are in this collection, the theoretical essays and case studies are equally thought-provoking as they are curiosity inspiring. This volume is an indispensable read for all those with an interest in Latin American music and its study. -- Ericka Verba, California State University, Los Angeles
This book is an excellent contribution not only to the study of Chilean music but also to ongoing conversations regarding Latin American music research, its methods, and its theoretical and disciplinary underpinnings. Juan Pablo González is a prominent Latin American music scholar, and it is a pleasure to see his work available to English-speaking audiences. -- Javier F. León, Indiana University
In Thinking about Music from Latin America, Chilean musicologist Juan Pablo González accomplishes the near-impossible: cogently summarizing a century of musical thinking across a continent, critically assessing the current state of multidisciplinary music scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, and, most provocatively, suggesting a host of new topics, questions, and ideas to challenge his readers to think about and listen to music from Latin America in new ways. From folklore to globalization, postcolonialism to gender studies, ’60s hippie rock to avante-garde art music, González’s interventions are as broad-ranging as they are inspiring and informative. A seminal work, by a scholar at the height of his critical capacities. -- Jonathan Ritter, University of California, Riverside

Juan Pablo González is director of the Alberto Hurtado University Music Institute and affiliate of the Catholic University of Chile Institute of History.

Nancy Morris is professor in the Department of Media Studies and Production and the Doctoral Program in Media and Communication at Temple University.