How Mediterranean is Andalusian Popular Music? (Re)thinking Identities, Migrations, and Dreams

Abstract

Our chapter surveys the discursive constructions of music in various geographic locations in Andalusia which, whether or not they are bathed by its waters, are shaped by the Mediterranean Sea as a symbol. Following Plastino, images and sounds of the Mediterranean and its music can be found almost everywhere, as ultimate confirmation of the fact that the Mediterranean extends (in part thanks to its representations) beyond what we perceive as its geographical limits. In this sense, if we can glimpse the Mediterranean as a liminal zone between us and non-us, in which there nonetheless exists no precise distinction between ‘us’ and ‘them’; if we can imagine the Mediterranean as a dialogic space in which the identities of one and other are defined in a game of mirrors, then here in this chapter we can delve into the position of the Other, the African migrant, as a kind of “illusion” manifest in songs recorded by various bands.