La construcción de identidades a través de la pequeña pantalla: The Sopranos y la música popular italiana

Abstract

From a study of case linked to the TV series The Sopranos, this research is focused not only on the identification and treatment of musical stuff, but also in the analysis of how popular music is able to produce and to shape different world views taking into consideration a variety of generation profiles. Musical phenomenon creates far different emotions and states of mind: what we are going to examine and define here are the clearly stereotyped reactions, we have to recall that we are facing an audiovisual product, from the four generations present in the pieces of music under study. Furthermore, The Sopranos presents huge debates regarding identity issues and nationalism. It shows, specifically, the lack of connection between the Italian emigrant communities and their homeland that is an aspect related to the assimilation of the popular culture from the land in which they started to settle down in the beginning of the 20th century. Finally, we will examine the roles that media and cultural industry assume when defining the scenarios and attitudes understandable and established like normal by the audience. All in all, it results deeply suggestive up to what point the cinematographic reality matches with social reality or up to what point the first one intervenes decisively in the configuration of the second one.