Secular Devotion Pa

Popularmusic in the Americas, from jazz, Cuban and Latin salsa to disco andrap, is overwhelmingly neo-African. Created in the midst of war andmilitary invasion, and filtered through a Western worldview, thesemusical forms are completely modern in their sensibilities: they are infact the very sound of modern life. But the African religiousphilosophy at their core involved a longing for earlier eras '” onesthat pre-dated the technological discipline of labor forced on captivepopulations by the European occupiers. In this groundbreaking new book, TimothyBrennan shows how the popular music of the Americas '” the music ofentertainment, nightlife, and leisure '” is involved in a devotion to anAfrican religious worldview that survived the ravages of slavery andfound its way into the rituals of everyday listening. In doing so he explores thechallenge posed by Afro-Latin music to a world music system dominated by a few wealthy countries and the processes by which Afro-Latin music has been absorbed into the imperial imagination.

Timothy Brennan is professor of comparative literature, cultural studies, and English at the University of Minnesota. His books include At Home in the World: Cosmopolitanism Now and, most recently, Wars of Position: The Cultural Politics of the Left and Right. He writes for a number of journals, including New Left Review and The Nation.