Musical Me'lange and Lyrical Universalism in the Works of Carlos Santana: A Study in Globalization

Abstract

The paper, ab initio, accepts that music is a veritable vehicle of globalization and therefore discusses the subject from the perspective of the works of Carlos Santana. The paper posits that, through the peculiar configuration of personnel from diverse racial, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, allowing each person the freedom of artistic expression, and the universality of his lyricism, Santana produced albums with multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-creed and multi-genre elements that culminated in a musical melange in which people from various cultures could find something to call their own. The paper conducts a structural and lyrical analysis of some of the works and concludes that Santana sold ninety million albums, played for over one hundred million people worldwide and earned ten Grammies as a result of the diverse global elements in his works and the resultant universal acceptability. SOPHIA: An African Journal of Philosophy Vol. 9 (1) 2006: pp. 23-29