An Interview with Damian Wright

Flamenco and the discourse of World Music in Contemporary Australia

Authors

  • Brent Keogh Macquarie University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v17i1.29832

Keywords:

World Music, Flamenco, Australian Music Industries, popular music

Abstract

In this Riff article, Brent Keogh speaks to Sydney based flamenco guitarist and ARIA award nominee, Damian Wright. The interview discusses Wright’s experiences and perspectives on World Music in Australia. Where much of the academic discourse on World Music focuses on broader theorisation and systemic critiques, the following interview presents experiences and insights from a musician contributing to, and working in, the complex discursive space of World Music in Australia. In doing so, Wright’s perspectives contribute to broader discussions concerning the politics of otherness, musical patronage, and cultural diversity in Australian music.

Author Biography

  • Brent Keogh, Macquarie University

    Brent Keogh is a musician and academic, specialising in the areas of popular music studies and ethnomusicology. His doctoral studies examined the discourse of World Music in Australia. He has published in the areas of arts policy, musical sustainability, music ecology, and music festivals. He currently teaches at Macquarie University and UTS in the areas of Popular Music, International Communications, and Media Studies. He also plays and performs on the oud, and has studied for a number of years with oud virtuoso and ARIA award winner Joseph Tawadros.

References

Aubert, L. 2007. The Music of the Other: New Challenges for Ethnomusicology in a Global Age. Trans. Carlo Ribeiro. Hampshire: Ashgate.

Bohlman, P. 2002. A Very Short Introduction to World Music. New York: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780192854292.001.0001

Brennan, Timothy. 2001. ‘World Music Does not Exist’. Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture 23/1: 44–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/dis.2001.0002

Connell, J., and C. Gibson. 2004. ‘World Music: Deterritorialization, Place and Identity’. Progress in Human Geography 28/3: 342–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/0309132504ph493oa

Elder, B. 2010. ‘Multicultural Magic: The Evolution of Australia’s World Music Scene’. In World Music: Global Sounds in Australia, ed. Seth Jordan, 5–24. Sydney: UNSW Press.

Erlman, V. 1996. ‘The Aesthetics of the Global Imagination: Reflections on World Music in the 1990s’. Public Culture 8: 467–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/08992363-8-3-467

Feld, S. 2000. ‘A Sweet Lullaby for World Music’. Public Culture 12/1: 145–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/08992363-12-1-145

Frith, S. 2000. ‘The Discourse of World Music’. In Western Music and its Others: Difference, Representation, and Appropriation in Music, ed. Georgina Born and David Hesmondhalgh, 305–22. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Grainger, P. 1915. ‘The Impress of Personality in Unwritten Music’. The Musical Quarterly 1/3: 416–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mq/I.3.416

Hernandez, D. 1998. ‘Dancing with the Enemy: Cuban Popular Music, Race, Authenticity, and the World-Music Landscape’. Latin American Perspectives 25/3: 110–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0094582X9802500306

Holdsworth, R. 2010. ‘Travellers and Immigrants: European Influences on Australian World Music’. In World Music: Global Sounds in Australia, ed. Seth Jordan, 25–45. Sydney: UNSW Press.

Hutnyk, J. 1998. ‘Adorno at Womad: South Asian Crossovers and the Limits of Hybridity-talk’. Postcolonial Studies: Culture, Politics, Economy 1/3: 401–426.

Jordan, S. 2010. World Music: Global Sounds in Australia. Sydney: UNSW Press.

Kartomi, M. J. 1984. ‘Indonesian Music in Australia’s Tertiary Institutions’. Indonesia Circle. School of Oriental & African Studies. Newsletter, 12/35: 3–10.

Mitchell, T. 1993. ‘World Music and the Popular Music Industry: An Australian View’. Ethnomusicology 37/3: 309–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/851717

Murphy, D. 2007. ‘Where does World Music Come from? Globalization Afropop and the Question of Cultural Identity’. In Music, National Identity and the Politics of Location: Between the Global and the Local, ed. Ian Biddle and Vanessa Knights, 39–64. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Schippers, Huib. 2015. ‘Applied Ethnomusicology and Intangible Cultural Heritage: Understanding “Ecosystems” of Music as a Tool for Sustainability’. In Oxford Companion to Applied Ethnomusicology, ed. Svanibor Pettan and Jeff Todd Titon, 134–56. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Scott-Maxwell, A. 1997. ‘Oriental Exoticism in 1920s Australian Popular Music’. Perfect Beat 3/3: 28–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v3i3.28751

—2008. ‘Localising Global Sounds’. In Sounds of Then, Sounds of Now: Popular Music in Australia, ed. Shane Homan and Tony Mitchell, 435–37. Hobart: ACYS Publishing.

Smith, G. 2005. Singing Australian: A History of Folk and Country Music. North Melbourne: Pluto Press.

Taylor, T. 1997. Global Pop: World Music, World Markets. New York and London: Routledge.

Titon, J. T. 2009. ‘Music and Sustainability: An Ecological Viewpoint’. The World of Music 51/1: 119–38.

Van der Lee, Pedro. 1998. ‘Sitars and Bossas: World Music Influences’. Popular Music 17/1: 45–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0261143000000489

Whiteoak, J. 2005. ‘The Italian Touch: Latin Music in Australia before Multiculturalism’. In Sounds and Selves: Proceedings of the 13th IASPM Australia/New Zealand Conference, ed. Mark Evans and Ian Collinson, 7–17. Sydney: Macquarie University.

—2008. ‘Kookaburra Samba: Mainstream and non-Mainstream Interpretations of Hispanic Music and Dance in Pre-Multicultural Australia’. In Stuck in the Middle: The Mainstream and its Discontents: Proceedings of the 16th IASPM Australia/New Zealand Conference, ed. Catherine Strong and Michelle Phillipov, 12–21. Melbourne: Monash University.

—2010. ‘Italian-Australian Musicians, “Argentino” Tango Bands and the Australian Tango Band Era’. Context: Journal of Music Research 35/36: 93–110.

Published

2016-06-06

Issue

Section

Riffs

How to Cite

Keogh, B. (2016). An Interview with Damian Wright: Flamenco and the discourse of World Music in Contemporary Australia. Perfect Beat, 17(1), 71-82. https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v17i1.29832