Stéphane Dorin
Université de Limoges, Sociologie, Faculty Member
- Sociology of Music, Sociology of Culture, Sociologie, Sociology of Globalization, Media Studies, Digital Media, and 13 moreCultural Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Cultural History, Quantitative Methods, Mixed Methods, Social Networks, Cultural Sociology, Audience Studies, Popular Music, Popular Music Studies, Jazz Studies, India, and Sociologyedit
This article deals with the construction of local identity in Calcutta (Kolkata) through the reappropriation of Western forms of popular music. The focus is on the acculturation process which has taken place in Calcutta, with a particular... more
This article deals with the construction of local identity in Calcutta (Kolkata) through the reappropriation of Western forms of popular music. The focus is on the acculturation process which has taken place in Calcutta, with a particular emphasis on popular music (jazz, rock and pop). The major questions revolve around the dimensions of globalization in the music scene and its effects on a particular setting in South Asia. An ethnographic approach can indeed provide some insights into the ways Anglo-American popular music is received as well as produced among music lovers and both amateur and professional musicians. The article explores the political and social dimensions of contemporary Bengali popular music, with an emphasis on the influence of the Naxalite movement of the 1960s and the 1970s, the circulation of American protest songs tradition in Calcutta and the emergence of the jibanmukhi—literally, oriented towards life—folk songs movement of the 1990s in Bengal and the Bangla rock bands movement that followed in the 2000s.
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Musical forms such as ragtime and jazz were played in Calcutta’s hotels and clubs, important institutions in elites’ social life in colonial India. The musicians could be European or American, when a foreign band was hired for a season.... more
Musical forms such as ragtime and jazz were played in Calcutta’s hotels and clubs, important institutions in elites’ social life in colonial India. The musicians could be European
or American, when a foreign band was hired for a season. Some of these formations tended to include Anglo-Indian members. Anglo-Indian musicians acted as go-betweens, passing down the theoretical knowledge of western harmony as well as the practice of western instruments to the generations of post-Independence India. Moreover, they were the first Indian musicians to perform jazz and blues standards in Calcutta or Bombay, around World War II. Thus, they played a major role in the diffusion of jazz and blues music in India.
or American, when a foreign band was hired for a season. Some of these formations tended to include Anglo-Indian members. Anglo-Indian musicians acted as go-betweens, passing down the theoretical knowledge of western harmony as well as the practice of western instruments to the generations of post-Independence India. Moreover, they were the first Indian musicians to perform jazz and blues standards in Calcutta or Bombay, around World War II. Thus, they played a major role in the diffusion of jazz and blues music in India.
Research Interests:
L’exploitation du fonds d’archives privées Roy Butler, saxophoniste noir américain ayant joué à Bombay et à Calcutta, permet de contribuer à l’histoire de la circulation du jazz en Inde. S’il fut réservé dans un premier temps à l’élite... more
L’exploitation du fonds d’archives privées Roy Butler, saxophoniste noir américain ayant joué à Bombay et à Calcutta, permet de contribuer à l’histoire de la circulation du jazz en Inde. S’il fut réservé dans un premier temps à l’élite coloniale, il ne tarda guère à être adopté par les musiciens locaux, en particulier anglo-indiens. La Seconde Guerre mondiale, par le brassage des publics et des musiciens qu’elle a engendré, a permis l’amorce d’un processus d’indianisation du jazz, qui est ainsi devenue une forme musicale postcoloniale.
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Material from the private archives of Roy Butler, a black American saxophonist who lived in Bombay and Kolkata, elucidates the history of the diffusion of jazz in India. This music, initially reserved for the colonial elite, was soon... more
Material from the private archives of Roy Butler, a black American saxophonist who lived in Bombay and Kolkata, elucidates the history of the diffusion of jazz in India. This music, initially reserved for the colonial elite, was soon adopted by local musicians, in particular Anglo-Indians. As listeners and musicians intermingled during the Second World War, a process of “Indianization” started—and jazz has thus become a postcolonial musical form.
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Research Interests:
Français: Andy Warhol a investi l’industrie musicale entre 1965 et 1967 lorsqu’il a décidé de prendre en charge la carrière du Velvet Underground. Dans cet article, l’auteur se propose de restituer la logique du transfert de notoriété et... more
Français: Andy Warhol a investi l’industrie musicale entre 1965 et 1967 lorsqu’il a décidé de prendre en charge la carrière du Velvet Underground. Dans cet article, l’auteur se propose de restituer la logique du transfert de notoriété et de légitimité artistique, conceptualisées en termes de capital symbolique, de l’artiste vers le groupe de rock. C’est dans la subculture de la Factory, un des lieux emblématiques de l’art du XXe siècle, et véritable centre névralgique de l’avant-garde new-yorkaise, que ce transfert a pris forme. La période durant laquelle Warhol a joué le rôle de mécène auprès du Velvet Underground a vu ainsi s’opérer un certain basculement, ou tout au moins un brouillage des frontières entre les mondes savants et les mondes populaires de l’art.
English: In this article, the author aims at reconstructing the logic of the transfer of artistic legitimacy and fame, conceptualized as symbolic capital, from Andy Warhol to his favorite band, The Velvet Underground, between 1965 and 1967, at the Factory. This place, symbolically associated with 20th century art, was at the same time a meeting place and the nerve centre of the New York avant-garde. At that period in his life, Warhol acted as a patron for the Velvet Underground. During that time, the boundaries between high art worlds and popular art worlds were challenged, and, to some extent, blurred.
English: In this article, the author aims at reconstructing the logic of the transfer of artistic legitimacy and fame, conceptualized as symbolic capital, from Andy Warhol to his favorite band, The Velvet Underground, between 1965 and 1967, at the Factory. This place, symbolically associated with 20th century art, was at the same time a meeting place and the nerve centre of the New York avant-garde. At that period in his life, Warhol acted as a patron for the Velvet Underground. During that time, the boundaries between high art worlds and popular art worlds were challenged, and, to some extent, blurred.
Research Interests:
Dans cet article, l’auteur s’interroge sur les conditions de possibilité d’une sociologie de la globalisation du rock, dans la mesure où les musiques populaires sont le plus souvent envisagées comme des systèmes symboliques fortement... more
Dans cet article, l’auteur s’interroge sur les conditions de possibilité d’une sociologie de la globalisation du rock, dans la mesure où les musiques populaires sont le plus souvent envisagées comme des systèmes symboliques fortement localisés. Le terrain de la musique populaire occidentale, sous la forme du rock, à Calcutta a fourni l’opportunité de saisir la circulation de cette forme culturelle à partir d’un lieu que l’imaginaire contemporain associe à la misère et exclut a priori du grand mouvement de la globalisation. Or, Calcutta résonne encore des échos du be-bop ou du rock psychédélique du Grateful Dead. Qui plus est, la ville montre une belle créativité en matière de rock depuis le début des années 1990, que ce soit dans ses formes les plus typiquement américaine ou britannique, mais aussi dans des innovations stylistiques proprement bengalies, comme la jibonmukhi music ou le Bangla Rock. Seul un décentrement ethnographique par rapport aux flux issus des industries culturelles multinationales permet ainsi de saisir les modalités de l’appropriation locale des formes culturelles globales en circulation.
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Kemper, Steven. 2001. Buying and believing. Sri Lankan advertising and consumers in a transnational world. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. x + 264 pp. Pb.: $20.00. ISBN: 0 226 43041 3. Malefyt, Timothy de Waal and Brian Moeran... more
Kemper, Steven. 2001. Buying and believing. Sri Lankan advertising and consumers in a transnational world. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. x + 264 pp. Pb.: $20.00. ISBN: 0 226 43041 3.
Malefyt, Timothy de Waal and Brian Moeran (eds.). 2003. Advertising cultures. Oxford: Berg. xiv + 220 pp. Pb.: 16.99/$24.95. ISBN: 1 85973 678 5.
Mazzarella, William. 2003. Shoveling smoke. Advertising and globalisation in contemporary India. Durham NC: Duke University Press. xxii + 365 pp. Pb.: $22.95. ISBN: 0 8223 3145 4.
Malefyt, Timothy de Waal and Brian Moeran (eds.). 2003. Advertising cultures. Oxford: Berg. xiv + 220 pp. Pb.: 16.99/$24.95. ISBN: 1 85973 678 5.
Mazzarella, William. 2003. Shoveling smoke. Advertising and globalisation in contemporary India. Durham NC: Duke University Press. xxii + 365 pp. Pb.: $22.95. ISBN: 0 8223 3145 4.
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Chapitre tiré de Trente ans aprèsLa Distinction de Pierre Bourdieu, Philippe Coulangeon et Julien Duval (eds), La Découverte, 2013.