ABSTRACT
Sixty years out of vogue, rockabilly music has garnered a tremendous following in the postindustrial urban metropolis of greater Los Angeles. Characterized by rollicking tempos, the staccato “click-clack” of a slapped upright bass, machine gun guitar solos, and an echoing southern-drawled vocal delivery, rockabilly is best remembered as the 1950s genre of music performed by a young Elvis Presley, or Carl Perkins of “Blue Suede Shoes” fame. However, since the turn of the century, young Latinas and Latinos have become a critical mass of the scene’s performers, promoters, fans and enthusiasts, effectively transforming the scene’s mid-century style, stance, and sound, to meet their own needs and sensibilities: transforming rockabilly into razabilly.
