Terra Mia, il punto di non ritorno della canzone napoletana

Abstract

Pino Daniele has been one of the most important and influential Italian musicians and songwriters of the last forty years. Born and raised in Naples, Pino Daniele gave a new direction to the Neapolitan music and song in the seventies: Neapolitan folkloristic instruments, electric guitars, Neapolitan dialect, American language, Neapolitan melodies and American blues merged into something new.
The result was as unexpected as successful: The musical language of the American blues was able to express what the Italian ethnomusicologist Roberto de Simone defines as ‘Neapolitan negritude’ more than any other genre. Pino Daniele became the progenitor of a style called ‘Neapolitan Power’, it’s the beginning of the Neapolitan transcultural song. Therefore, Pino Daniele played a strategic role as a forerunner of this new process of expression and creativity; many other musicians will take his experience into account. In this article, I will underline this using practical examples. First, some historical and sociocultural references will allow us to understand the period in which Pino Daniele
took his first steps, then, with the analysis of two songs, I will point out his innovations and his links to the tradition. Finally, I will show how Pino Daniele’s work influenced a large number of young and talented Neapolitan musicians.