The Art of Making Do in Naples

Bibliographic Data

ID19927697
AuthorsJason Pine, Jason A Pine (0000-0001-8252-9239, corresponding author)
Year2010
Pages360
Publication date2010-01-25
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueArt of Making Do in Naples (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherUniversity of Minnesota Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.5749/9780816682638
OpenAlexW170676367
Open LibraryOL57619214M
ISBN9780816682638
LanguageEN
Citations received23

"In Naples, there are more singers than there are unemployed people." These words echo through the neomelodica music scene, a vast undocumented economy animated by wedding singers, pirate TV, and tens of thousands of fans throughout southern Italy and beyond. In a city with chronic unemployment, this setting has attracted hundreds of aspiring singers trying to make a living—or even a fortune. In the process, they brush up against affiliates of the region's violent organized crime networks, the camorra. This book explores the murky neomelodica music scene and finds itself on uncertain ground. The "art of making do" refers to the informal and sometimes illicit entrepreneurial tactics of some Neapolitans who are pursuing a better life for themselves and their families. In the neomelodica music scene, the art of making do involves operating do-it-yourself recording studios and performing at the private parties of crime bosses. It can also require associating with crime boss-impresarios who guarantee their success by underwriting it with extortion, drug trafficking, and territorial influence. This book offers a riveting ethnography of the lives of men who seek personal sovereignty in a shadow economy dominated, in incalculable ways, by the camorra. The text navigates situations suffused with secrecy, moral ambiguity, and fears of ruin that undermine the anthropologist's sense of autonomy

Advertising · Aesthetics · Art · Autonomy · Boss · Business · Ethnography · Extortion · Making-of · Nightlife · Organised crime · Political science · Shadow (psychology) · Sociology · Studio · Visual arts · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Engineering · Law · Psychology · Ethnology · Europe · Italy · Mafia · Music trade · Organized crime · Singers

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