“Gracias a la vida”: Violeta Went to Heaven and Came Back Wearing a K-Pop Miniskirt
2019; University of Texas Press; Volume: 37; Linguagem: Inglês
10.7560/slapc3702
ISSN2157-2941
Autores Tópico(s)Music History and Culture
Resumo“Gracias a la vida” (“Thanks Be to Life”), composed by Chilean folk singersongwriter Violeta Parra (1917–1967), is arguably the most recognizable Chilean song in folk and popular music. It has been covered by numerous artists in several languages and countries. This article focuses on the November 2, 2012, cover by Korean female pop duo Davichi (ᆮᅡᆸᅵᆾᅵ), at a 20,000-capacity crammed Quinta Vergara Amphitheater in Viña del Mar, Chile. Through my analysis of this performance, I offer a postcolonial reading on K-pop rise in Chile, in light of both Chile’s and South Korea’s neoliberal transformation. By focusing on this particular spectacle as a metareference of Parra’s life and covers of her song, we can reflect on the ongoing ideological tensions across the Pacific. Employing theoretical frameworks provided by cultural theorist Nelly Richard and sociologist Tomás Moulián, I will address the topics of spectacle, solidarity, and consumerism in the context of Chilean and Korean cases of neoliberal post-dictatorial and postcolonial “neo-hegemonies.”
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