Framing culture: VCD music videos and the politics of genre in the Peruvian Andes

Abstract

Since the early 2000s, video compact discs (VCDs) have come to occupy a prominent position in the Andean musical world and making music videos has become an ordinary and expected activity for many traditional and popular musicians. While the widespread uptake of VCD technology itself occurred with little comment or controversy, the material affordances of this new technology have fuelled contestation about aesthetics, culture and identity. Focusing on the production of santiago music videos in Huancayo, Peru, this article investigates the impact of this technological shift on genre conventions and genre politics. The article examines how cultural producers have harnessed, resisted and debated the possibilities of VCD music videos, as well as how genres have been discursively (re)constructed in the process. The article argues that the possibilities afforded by new visual technologies and emerging markets have been a driving force behind recent processes of genre-fication, whether in the service of perpetuating tradition or being part of the next big thing.

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