Rivoluzioni a 33 giri. Studiare il "musicking" del disco

The article proposes a methodological framework for studying the Italian antagonist discography – i.e. the production of records conveying engaged, political, and dissenting content – between the late 1950s and the early 1980s. While scholarship has long focused on «political music» and song lyrics, this contribution shifts attention from musical repertoire to the record as both a sonic and a material-culture object, around which a wide variety of practices converge. Through an interdisciplinary approach combining ethnomusicology, popular music studies, media studies, sound studies, and cultural history, the article advocates for an organic understanding of the musicking of records. In this sense, the thematic focus on antagonist discography proves effective in developing a reflexive methodological framework for the study of records, beyond the specific geographical, chronological and thematic boundaries addressed.