Popular Music, Nationalism Consumption and Politics in Chile during the 1940’s and 1960’s

Abstract

Popular urban music is a typically modern cultural event. Its production, distribution and consumption occurredduring the process of urbanization of Chile and in a period of growing availability of technological resources. Thebroadcasting by the mass media allowed popular urban music to reach a larger audience than the local public.Therefore it did not take long time for popular urban music to become a means of cultural homogenization withinthe parameters of the market system of production and distribution of music, in Chile. This article aims to map theconnections between folk music and popular music, with the formation and consolidation of a consumer market formusic in Chile. Besides it considers the use of popular music in the forfties and the sixties as a political tool bydifferent groups of the Chilean society, during a time when arts were considered within the controversies about thenational identity that arose in different Latin American countries.