Abstract
Using Josh Kun’s Audiotopia as a framework, this paper will explore the role of Selena’s music as audiotopias, the concept that music functions like a possible utopia for immigrant communities on both sides of the United States and Mexico border in imagining an ideal borderless America. Music serves as a disruption to the oppressive reality of immigrant communities and makes the struggles of marginalized communities audible for those who have been traditionally silenced. This paper will fill in gaps in existing literature of Selena's remembrance by applying Kun’s audiotopia theory for an understanding of the places her music takes its audience and the community Selena builds from this. Through this lens we can analyze popular music on both sides of the border as it relates to the experiences of marginalized people living within these borderlands to show how it serves the potential for community building, self-empowerment and agency.
DOI
10.5642/lux.201303.12
Recommended Citation
Muniz, Janet
(2013)
"Bidi Bidi Bom Bom: The Audiotopias of Selena Across the Americas,"
LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University:
Vol. 3:
Iss.
1, Article 12.
Available at:
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/lux/vol3/iss1/12