'Sonic bodies' in Bogotá

     While I was reading Paul Jasen on the 'sonic bodies,' I remembered the process of doing my thesis in my undergrad years. I remember I was so excited to work with music. I have been surrounded by music my entire life, and in those years, independent bands and groups were growing all around Bogotá. It was pretty exciting to see how these collectives and clusters started to grow as an invitation to challenge the 'majors' and the corporate dynamics behind the music and its creative process. 

I look back and wish I had discovered Jasen's reading before. My research question was focused on the reasons behind the rapid growth in this independent dynamics while in Colombia, and specifically, in Bogotá, it was very challenging to afford a living while making music. Some people took it as a creative outlet, but most of them believed they could make it and keep far from the corporate stuff. 

While doing my research and going to all kinds of venues, concerts, and 'toques' (tiny concerts), I was shocked by the energy in those places. It was different from the big and medium shows. Often in these small shows, you could see people who knew each other. They gathered in front of bands and singers as if they were in another family reunion. 

I named this dynamic 'music experience' and went all down the rabbit hall of phenomenology and sound, without noticing (until now) that I was looking for the 'sonic bodies' concept. It was a mix of familiarity and embodied experience. If you were there, you could see they were glad because the neighborhood band was making music that represented them, they knew these people, and of course, the sense of being in this place was something else. But most of all, this experience was in their bodies. It affected them individually and got them closer than ever before. I finally realized the best way of demonstrating the power, and the energy felt in those places was to describe it when going to the shows, to sit there and let the sensation and affect be embodied in me and my description. This was the result of a two-year ethnographic exploration of sound and independent music.