Immagini e suoni di Milano nella canzone d’autore italiana

Abstract

Since the late 1950s Milan appears in many Italian songs: from the outskirts portrayed in the songs by Jannacci, Gaber, and Celentano, to the center, which appears in four songs from the mid-1960s, the city epitomizes the country’s contradictions during the years of the economic boom. The melancholic feeling of the French song meets the American rock and roll, but in Italian popular music the propensity to escape from the frenzy still prevails until the 1970s, when the characteristic attributes of Milan (fog, greyness) – until then seen as the objective correlative of the singer’s romantic attitude as an outsider – begin to be interpreted in a positive way (Finardi, Fortis). Even the alienation of immigrants can look funny.