Waldo de los Ríos and Argentine popular music in HI-FI. Records from the argentine period (1955-1962)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/anuariomusical.2025.80.598Keywords:
Waldo de los Ríos, compositional transculturation, Argentine popular music, folk-rooted music, lounge musicAbstract
Waldo de los Ríos holds a prominent place in twentieth-century Argentine and Spanish popular music. In his early career (1955-1962), he produced a significant number of recordings in which folk-rooted music played a key role. His arrangements and compositions blend his knowledge of traditional music, academic training, and experience in the field of record production —an area he entered early on as part of the Columbia Records team in Buenos Aires. This latter field contributed a distinctive influence, evident in his use of elements associated with musical trends known variously as lounge music, easy listening, or mood music, promoted by various record labels, including Columbia. The result is a body of musical work that reflects his intention to find sonic responses to the intersection between local practices and those emerging from international modernity. Therefore, his work with folk-rooted music can be analysed and framed within the realm of compositional transculturation. This perspective reveals how Waldo de los Ríos’s arrangements and compositions become neoculturations, diverging from earlier constructions tied to professional folklore, and shaping new ways to articulate or approach music recognized as folkloric tradition.
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Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
Grant numbers PID2023-151026NB-I00
