Real Love Versus Real Life

Youth, Music and Utopia in Freetown, Sierra Leone

Bibliographic Data

ID2103129
AuthorsMichael Stasik (0000-0001-6354-2323, Max Planck Society, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume86
Issue2
Pages215-236
Publication date2016-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-9720 • E-ISSN: 1750-0184
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0001972016000024
OpenAlexW2326237985
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited74

The most popular music among youths in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown is music dealing with love. While the music, which is mainly of foreign origin, evokes idealized images of 'real love', the real-life relationships of its young audiences are characterized by chronic states of emotional uncertainty and dissatisfaction. Economic disparities lead to an increasing monetization of young people's relationships, driving them either into a fragile flux of multiple partners or out of intimate engagements altogether. Taking this 'dissonance' between sonic representations and social relations as a point of departure, in this article I explore the ways in which young Freetonians position themselves at the juncture of desire and reality. After an introduction to Freetown's contemporary music scene, I juxtapose various life and love stories of youths with the fantasies they invest in 'love music'. In so doing, I discuss the complex relationships between affect, exchange, deprivation and the strictures involved in attaining social adulthood. Drawing on the notion of utopia - denoting a desired yet unattainable state - I argue that it is within the experiential gap between the consumption of a representation and the desire to live (up to) that representation that Freetown's youths rework their horizons of possibilities

Aesthetics · Art · Ethnology · Political science · Sierra leone · Sociology · Utopia · Gender Studies · Law · Music History and Culture · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics