Dissertation Research; Social Fragmentation and Youth Identity in Trindad Popular Music

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This project supports the dissertation research of a cultural anthropologist from Stanford University. The project is to study the role of popular music in defining the self-identity of young people in Trinidad. Calypso music has always played a central role in expressing popular social concerns in the country's history, from independence through its current position as an underdeveloped node in a transnational flow of people and resources. Using ethnographic techniques of participant observation and intensive interviewing, as well as drawing upon the results of a random survey of 850 households in Trinidad and extensive demographic data on music listenership by location, age, gender, socio-economic status and ethnicity, the student will document what music means to the `oil boom` (1970s to early 1980s) generation of young adults. The project will investigate the variation according to race, class and gender in how people listen to and participate in popular music. The project will analyze changes in the musical styles (some seen as more `escapist`, others as more `political` or `roots oriented`), audience reactions, and the general social and cultural antecedents to musical production. This project is important because is will advance our understanding of how locally produced music draws on a global set of sources to become meaningful to diverse communities. Given the enormous growth in importance of popular music as a source of identity for young people in the contemporary world, this case study will produce a valuable advance in our knowledge about the meaning of music for young people. In addition this project will add to our society's expertise about this important region of the world.