Music and Countercultures in Italy: the Neapolitan Scene
Neapolitan Song is recognized as one of the most important repertoires of songs in the world and one of the first examples of popular music. Yet, in the “60s, when the young Neapolitan musicians tried to absorb and develop the countercultural trends of the time which were spreading in Italy, such a repertoire seemed like an enemy on their way. This essay tells how the Neapolitan music of the last fifty years had to discard or reshape the classic Neapolitan Song in order to fight its hegemony and find its way to modernity in a country that was changing at fast speed. It is only after this work of “deconstruction” that Neapolitan Song was recovered and re-accepted, boasting now a new generation of enthusiastic scholars and performers.