ABSTRACT
Popular music and dance became knotted with gender and nation in the nineteenth century, a knot that tightened as patriarchal regimes of the old order came unraveled. In short, popular music has become increasingly resistant to critical inquiry, discouraging the efforts of those who explore this domain in hopes of responding to it with just, equitable, and productive tactics. Popular music has been turned into something of a commodity. Women do, however, find a place in that other dimension of flamenco performance, namely dance. The search for common trends and shared themes in popular music and dance has led to an emphasis on the role of music as a post-religious experience in the nineteenth century and to the nomination of anti-heroic, downtrodden, and allegedly feminine personae as post-priests. Between 1913 and 1918 tango and other forms of 'tough dancing' were introduced to the American public, but always with sanitations that blunted the intimations of feminine passion and lowbrow eroticism.
