Tigers of a Different Stripe
Performing Gender in Dominican Music
"Tigers of a Different Stripe" takes readers inside the unique world of merengue tipico, a traditional music of the Dominican Republic. While in most genres of Caribbean music women usually participate as dancers or vocalists, in merengue tipico they are more often instrumentalists and even bandleaders – something nearly unheard of in the macho Caribbean music scene. Examining this cultural phenomenon, Sydney Hutchinson offers an unexpected and fascinating account of gender in Dominican art and life. Drawing on over a decade of fieldwork in the Dominican Republic and New York among musicians, fans, and patrons of merengue tipico – not to mention her own experiences as a female instrumentalist – Hutchinson details a complex nexus of class, race, and artistic tradition that unsettles the typical binary between the masculine and feminine. She sketches the portrait of the classic male figure of the tiguere, a dandified but sexually aggressive and street-smart "tiger", and she shows how female musicians have developed a feminine counterpart: the tiguera, an assertive, sensual, and respected female figure who looks like a woman but often plays and even sings like a man. Through these musical figures and studies of both straight and queer performers, she unveils rich ambiguities in gender construction in the Dominican Republic and the long history of a unique form of Caribbean feminism.
About the Author
Sydney Hutchinson is assistant professor of ethnomusicology at Syracuse University. She is the editor of "Salsa World" and author of "From Quebradita to Duranguense".
Reviews
"A highly sophisticated and welcome engagement with the shifting terrain of genre and gender in the merengue tipico of the Dominican Republic. Spanning forty years, 'Tigers of a Different Stripe' explores a series of key artists and performers and makes a much-needed, deeply insightful, and timely addition to the ethnomusicological literature on gender in the Caribbean" – Michael Largey, author of "Vodou Nation"
"'Tigers of a Different Stripe' forges new ground in the study of Caribbean culture by treating vital issues of gender, race, and transnationalism as they manifest in the very act of musical performance. Hutchinson's background as a merengue accordionist informs her rigorous attention to the intersection of social contexts, lyrics, and musical style. It also buttresses her close relationships with major merengueros, whose perspectives underpin the book's insightful interpretation of music as a crucial arena for social discourse" – Paul Austerlitz, author of "Merengue"
"In 'Tigers of a Different Stripe', Hutchinson pushes the theoretical boundaries and potential of gendered music scholarship in new and highly productive ways. Along the way, she introduces us to her delightfully quirky and passionate collaborators in such a way as to make them and their musico-political acts come alive. Pulling together years of study and performance, as well as careful and sophisticated theory, this book will become a staple for courses in ethnomusicology and anthropology or enjoyed by anyone interested in ethnography, performance, and gender told through the words of a skilled thinker and writer. This is a truly wonderful book!"-Ellen Koskoff, author of "A Feminist Ethnomusicology"
