CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Contrapulso Volume 8/2 (January 2027) Submission deadline: November 2, 2026

Contrapulso is a biannual open-access journal published by Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Chile. It uses blind peer review by external referees and is devoted to the multidisciplinary study of popular music in Latin America and the Caribbean. The journal operates through Open Journal Systems (OJS) and is indexed in Latindex, RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, and the Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI). Each published contribution is assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI).               For issue 8/2, to be published in January 2027, in addition to accepting open-topic articles, testimonies, dossier proposals, and reviews of recent publications within the journal’s thematic scope, we will receive original, unpublished articles for the dossier Pop Music in Latin America: Artistic Tensions under Capitalism.

               Pop music studies constitute a field for reflecting on the relationships between cultural and entertainment industries, the performative dimensions of concerts and tours, and the circulation of music across networks, platforms, and digital environments, as well as the interplay among music, fan culture, territory, and tourism, among other aspects. Discussing pop music entails recognizing the blurred boundaries of authorship—driven by the central role of music producers—and the tensions between artistic creation and marketing demands, alongside the performative and autofictional constructs found in the narratives of digital musical products such as music videos and TikTok clips. Furthermore, it involves addressing the various temporalities within "icon culture"—including the disco craze, glam rock, studio production and auteur pop, the Latin explosion of the 1990s, and the era of streaming and algorithms—all mediated by the technological revolution and the significance of the visual. We propose viewing the study of pop music as

un diálogo entre artistas musicales y culturas fan, abordando los diferentes aspectos que caracterizan este vínculo (actores sociales, sus prácticas y espacios comunes), así como las relaciones entre la performance y la creación musical, en las relaciones entre lo público y lo privado, el escenario y la vida, que pueden manifestarse en forma de álbumes fonográficos, vídeos musicales, series de televisión o espectáculos musicales. (Soares, 2024: 2)

 

               Theories regarding pop music trace back to the studies of Antoine Hennion (1983), who proposes an “anti-musicology? of the pop song. This perspective aligns with debates concerning taste and values within the sociology of pop music—as discussed by Simon Frith (1996)—leading to formulations that conceive of pop as an “umbrella” for discussions on issues of gender, sexuality, race, and territory, from the perspective of Eric Weisbard (2004).               This dossier invites an exploration of pop music as both a musical genre and a commercial category, drawing on research, analysis, theoretical-methodological debates, and a historical perspective that encompasses alternative pop, urban music, and related offshoots. It also seeks to examine—from a transhistorical standpoint—Latin American icons who, predating the very concept of “pop music”, drove aesthetic shifts across cinema, cabaret, and concert circuits. At the same time, the global circulation of these musical agents makes it possible to examine the role of the pop song in shaping state soft power within an increasingly polarized geopolitical landscape. From the export policies behind South Korean K-pop and the Puerto Rican territorial roots in Bad Bunny’s poetics to the “Brazil for export” approach in Anitta’s work, pop music serves as a privileged vantage point for interrogating artistic tensions under capitalism.               These studies discuss the aesthetic judgment of pop songs and issues of regarding the cultural valuation of genres such as reggaeton, trap, Brazilian funk, and cumbia, analyzing their progressive incorporation into this repertoire. In a context defined by the platformization of music, the consolidation of creative industries, algorithmic dynamics, and the growing centrality of media-driven performances, artists, fans, and markets continuously negotiate the meanings of authenticity, belonging, visibility, and value.               This dossier aims to bring together research examining the multiple tensions shaping pop music in Latin America and the Caribbean within contemporary capitalist contexts. The goal is to understand how musical practices, performances, and media circulation processes articulate conflicts between art and the market, aesthetics and profitability, resistance and co-optation, regionality and globalization, independent production and record label monopolies, and political commitment and cultural consumption.               We welcome contributions from multidisciplinary perspectives that intersect fields such as musicology, cultural studies, political economy, and sociology, among others. The following topics are proposed, though the list is not exhaustive: ·         Latin American pop music, transculturality, and market dynamics;·         Studies on the music industry, streaming, and algorithmic disputes;·         The celebrity status of pop artists in digital culture;·         Geopolitics of pop music, soft power, and debates over authenticity;·         Studies on gender, sexuality, and intersectionality in pop music;·         Moral economy and aesthetic experience in Latin American pop music;·         Fan culture, consumption, activism, and networked speculative practices;·         Poetics of autofiction in pop songs;·         The pop spectacle: analysis of concerts and tours within and outside Latin America;·         Audiovisual intersections of music: music videos, TikTok, and related formats;·         Affect, labor, and the mental health of celebrities and fans;·         Musical historiography of pop in Latin America;·         Urban music and Latin pop: reconfigurations of Latin America's cultural map.

 

               This dossier is edited by Thiago Soares (Federal University of Pernambuco –UFPE, Brazil), Ariel Gómez Ponce (National University of Córdoba – UNC, Argentina), and Liliana González Moreno (University of Havana – UH, Cuba). Articles must be between 5,000 and 8,000 words, and reviews between 1,500 and 2,500 words, in accordance with the journal's author guidelines. Submissions in Spanish, Portuguese, or English are accepted until November 2, 2026, via the Contrapulso website. Contact email: contrapulso@uahurtado.cl

 

Suggested bibliography

 

Auslander, Philip. 2021. In concert: performing musical persona. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Attali, Jacquez. 1995. Ruidos: ensayo sobre la economía política de la música. México: Siglo XXI Editores.

Sánchez-Olmos. 2023. Cande et al. Rebel Girls! Desigualdad de género, discursos y activismo en la industria musical. España: Editorial Gedisa.

Díaz, Vanessa; Rivera-Rideau, Petra R. 2026. P FKN R: Bad Bunny y la música como un Acto de Resistencia. México: Planeta.

Fernández Serrato, Juan Carlos. 2023. Hacia una teoría del pop. Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra.

Frith, Simon. 1996. Performing rites On the value of popular music. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

González, Juan Pablo. 2013. Pensar la música desde América Latina. Problemas e interrogantes. Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Universidad Alberto Hurtado.

Hennion, Antoine. 1983. “The production of success: an anti-musicology of the pop song”. Popular Music, v. 3: 159-193.

López-Cano, Rubén. 2018. Música dispersa. Apropiación, influencias, robos y remix en la era de la escucha digital. Barcelona: Musikeonbooks.

Madera, Sheilla R., Nelson Varas -Díaz, y Ariel Nevárez Araújo, eds. 2024. The Bad Bunny Enigma: Culture, Resistance, and Uncertainty. Lanham: Lexington Books.

Márquez, Pepo. 2025. Antineutral. Música y economíam moral en la era del turbocapitalismo. Bilbao: LastTour Liburuak, S.L.

Ponce, Ariel Gómez. 2024. “En busca de lo icónico. Prolegómenos para una semiótica de la cultura pop” en Ariel Gómez Ponce y Rodrigo Bruera (eds). Des-enredando la cultura: investigaciones culturales en movimiento. Córdoba: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales: 8-23.

Ponce, Ariel Gómez. 2025. Taylor Swift: versiones de una crítica pop. Buenos Aires: Editorial Prometeo.

Quintero Rivera, Ángel. 2009. Cuerpo y cultura. Las músicas “mulatas” y la subversión del baile. Madrid: Iberoamericana, Frankfurt: Vervuert, México D.F.: Bonilla Artigas.

Savage, Jon. 2026. El público secreto. Cómo los artistas LGTB modelaron la cultura popular (1955-1979). Bilbao: LastTour Liburuak, S.L.

Soares, Thiago. 2015. “Percursos para estudos sobre música pop” en Cultura pop. Simone Perira de Sá, Rodrigo Carreiro e Rogério Ferraraz (orgs.), Salvador: EDUFBA, v. 296: 19-33.

———. 2018. Música pop en Cuba. Globalización, territorios y solidaridad digital. Editorial UOC/ InCom-UAB.

———. 2024. “Aproximaciones sociológicas a la industria musical y la cultura pop en América Latina” en Ensambles, n. 21: 1-4.

Soares, Thiago et al. 2025. Introdução aos Estudos de Cultura Pop. Belo Horizonte: Selo PPGCOM/ UFMG.

Viñuela, Eduardo et al. 2018. Bitch she’s Madonna. La reina del pop en la cultura contemporánea. España: Dos Bigotes.

Weisbard, Eric (ed.). 2004. This is pop: in search of the elusive at Experience Music Project. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.