The Art of Making Do in Naples by Jason Pine (review)

Much has been written over the years about Naples and its long and complicated struggle with organized crime. Just a few years ago Naples and the surrounding region of Campania made international news with its garbage emergency, which was triggered by the illicit trade, organized by the Camorra, in garbage and toxic waste from around Italy and Europe, which ended up in landfills around Naples without control or management. The event even played a role in the reelection of Silvio Berlusconi, who promised to put an end to the food of garbage in and around Naples and to deal with the city’s organized crime problem. Even political scientists have taken an interest in Naples and the Camorra as a case study in how legitimate government institutions can be out-competed by informal networks and structures. But the recent book The Art of Making Do in Naples adds a new perspective to the discussion as it takes an alternate route to approaching Naples and its coexistence with widespread organized crime.

The Art of Making Do in Naples is a sensitive portrayal of the neomelodica music scene in Naples and its surroundings. But the author, Jason Pine, currently an assistant professor of anthropology and media, society, and the arts at Purchase College, State University of New York, also takes the reader on a journey through a city and society shot through with organized crime and an informal economy operating at levels and a depth scarcely seen elsewhere in the developed and democratic world. The book is clearly based on long periods of painstaking field work by the anthropologist in and around Naples and in close proximity not only to the performers of neomelodica but also to individuals close to, or involved in, Naples’ well-entrenched organized crime structures. Using the neomelodica music scene as his avenue of approach, Pine sketches a finely detailed portrait of the life of people who are forced to live, work, and try to advance in an environment made almost impossible to navigate by Naples’ Camorra.

Neomelodica is a form of music unique to Naples and the surrounding region of Campania. It combines traditional Campanian music with elements of pop and dance hits. The themes of the songs tend toward the rougher aspects of Naples’ street culture, including personal honor, crime, and betrayal. Most neomelodica performers lead relatively hardscrabble lives, fiercely competing among themselves for low-fee performances at local weddings and festivities. Outlets to gain additional fame and reach a broader audience can be had through nonlicensed TV and pirate radio stations (many of them hosted in the living rooms of apartments in Naples’ working class neighborhoods), but they are always liable to be shut down at a moment’s notice. Frequently, the making and performing of neomelodica music is a family affair, where brothers and fathers of the performers serve as the agents and promoters of the artists. This is all supported by an informal cottage industry producing low-quality music videos and cheap CD recordings to be sold on the streets of Naples. Greater success can be found, and a way out of the relative drudgery of working-class life, but this usually requires acquiring the patronage of what Naples is perhaps better known for: the Camorra.

To the Camorra, the neomelodica scene is yet another venue for making money, in this case, by inserting itself into the management and promotion of the artists. Sometimes this promotion is based less on the merits of the singer and more on the implied violence that the Camorra can unleash on unfortunate customers seeking entertainment for their club or social gathering and who decide to pass on the offerings of a Camorra-backed performer. Pine provides several examples of this uneasy transaction in The Art of Making Do in Naples. Furthermore, the Camorra may extort rents from performers, clubs, or nonlicensed TV stations in return for being left undisturbed.

It is this intersection between...