Da Brindisi a Lampedusa: le migrazioni via mare nella cassa di risonanza della popular music italiana

From the landing of thousands of Albanese people on the Apulian coast in 1991 to the daily arrival of refugees on the Calabrian and Sicilian coasts since 2000, immigration by sea and the lifestories of the countless victims of this situation have become part of the ‘public awareness’ in Italy. To narrate the tragedies we are witnessing day by day, different communicational strategies have been adopted, depending on the respective media and on the political objectives pursued by individual ‘speakers’. The attention writers, film directors, and artists have payed to the recent migration movements towards Italy has gradually given a more profoundly human dimension to the phenomenon and has brought the public closer to the individual tragedy. Italian popular music in particular has actively contributed to establishing an artistic counter-discourse, which will be discussed in the present article. Examples of different musical genres will be analysed, covering the time frame in question, whereas the methodology pursued will be that of Imagology and that of Cultural Studies.