Lifestyles and Performativity in the Experience of International Musicians Inspired By Victor Jara and the New Chilean Song

In this paper, I will reflect on the influence of Víctor Jara’s music and New Chilean Song (NCS) in the life of amateur and professional musicians who have participated in El Sueño Existe Festival (ESEF) in Wales. ESEF is an illustrative case about the influence of Víctor Jara’s music and the NCS outside Chile and Latin America. During the festival is possible to see and listen to a variety of international musicians who have been influenced by, and incorporated in their repertoires, the music of Víctor Jara and the NCS. In a methodological level, this paper focuses on the subliminal dimension of the ESEF. Following Bennet and Woodward’s (2014) argument, festivals bring into existence a collection of elements such as texts, images, and sounds in order to create a sense of collective identity. Festivals are liminal events in where a group of individuals shared their lifestyle culture that is generally articulated in a subliminal, non-conscious level. I will include interviews with seven musicians from six different nationalities: Chile, Bolivia, Spain, Italy, New Zealand and the UK (x2). In a theoretical level, I will use the performative approach (Fortier 1999; Duffy 2001; Yúdice 2003; Butler 2011) to understand music as a discursive practice that contributes to identity formation processes; in dialogue with theories focus on everyday music practices (DeNora 2003; DeNora 2004). I argue that Víctor Jara’s music and the NCS is experienced as a subversive modality of expression that challenges the values of mainstream music. The subversion of Víctor Jara music is lived as an act of attempting to overthrow the capitalist regime and its consequent way of living. I define mainstream music performativity as the regulatory frame in which the subject is constrained to quote a series of music practices oriented to achieve commercial success, fame, and entertainment.