CfP: Special Issue of Rock Music Studies Rock in South America: Argentina, Chile, and Peru (Deadline: 30.04.2025)
Call for Papers
Special Issue of Rock Music Studies
Rock in South America: Argentina, Chile, and Peru
Guest Editors:
César Albornoz, Pontificia Universidad Católica, Chile.
Lisa Di Cione, Universidad de Buenos Aires; Universidad Nacional Arturo Jauretche; Instituto Nacional de Musicología "Carlos Vega", Argentina.
Sergio Pisfil, Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, Perú.
Contact: rockensudamerica[dot]archpe[at]gmail[dot]com
Rock Music Studies invites article proposals for a special issue exploring the unique characteristics of rock music written, produced, and performed in South America, with a particular focus on music created in Argentina, Chile, and Peru from the second half of the 20th century to the present.
By the late 1950s, Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries in the Americas had been introduced to Elvis Presley, danced to "Rock Around the Clock" and watched the film Blackboard Jungle. In the 1960s, Beatlemania swept through the region, the Rolling Stones sparked controversy, and heated debates about the hippie movement took place. Over time, Anglo-American rock evolved into something uniquely Latin American, shaped by a new language, distinct sounds, and a deeply rooted social experience.
South American rock has since become a subject of rigorous study. Traditional academia, investigative journalism, fan communities, and other spaces have contributed to publications and networks that foster dialogue and analysis. One recent example is the First International Congress of Peruvian Rock Studies, held in Lima in December 2024. This event included two keynote speakers from Chile and Argentina, offering a platform not only to share research from different regions but also to explore the connections between them. These three countries share patterns of cultural production that, through appropriation and reinterpretation, have created industries in constant exchange. Furthermore, in recent decades, all three nations have experienced violent dictatorships, political unrest, and underdevelopment—historical realities that have shaped the evolution of rock in distinct ways.
This Call for Papers invites contributions on South American rock, which understands rock as more than just a mainstream phenomenon of grand, mythic narratives, taking into account that it is also about everyday stories, shaped by local context. While South American rock has challenged the dominance of the white, Anglo-American, colonial, and Eurocentric rock star, it has also, at times, reinforced those narratives. Similarly, this special issue invites consideration of the fact that issues of gender, race, nation, power, violence, and self-construction are not relegated to the past, but remain central to contemporary discussions about voice, embodiment, performance, and celebrity.
While South America as a whole has distinct cultural characteristics worthy of study, focusing on Peru, Chile, and Argentina offers compelling case studies for examining a shared sonic and material legacy, with similarities and differences that call for interdisciplinary analysis.
Contributions are welcome on topics including, but not limited to:
• History and memory.
• Epistemologies and theoretical frameworks.
• The art of record production.
• Live music studies.
• Cultural industries.
• Rock, labor, and markets.
• Legislation and copyright.
• Media and mediation.
• Celebrity and stardom.
• Archives, collections, and heritage.
• Decolonial studies: processes of "nationalization" and "regionalization".
• Rock, the State, and politics.
• Identity and dissidence.
• Intersectional studies (gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, disability, etc.)
• Music theory and analysis.
• Consumption and communities.
• Bodies and performance.
• Artificial intelligence and augmented reality.
Prospective contributors should submit a 500-word abstract and a brief CV by April 30, 2025, to rockensudamerica[dot]archpe[at]gmail[dot]com
Proposals are welcome in either English or Spanish. Selected authors will be notified by May 30, 2025. Full manuscripts, written in English and between 6,000 and 8,000 words, will be due by October 15, 2025.