Quei quattro dischetti sfiatati. Laura Betti as a Singer and Recording Artist

Abstract

Laura Betti’s career as a recording artist covers the years from 1957 to 1965, and represents a unicum in the history of Italian popular music: for the participation of several famous writers in the composition of the lyrics; for the use of a ‘low’ medium such as the song in an ‘intellectual’ project; for the transgressive and provocative content of many songs; and for the distinctive features of Betti as a singer, in relation to her contemporary performers. The objective of the essay is to reconstruct Betti’s career as a recording artist, and situating it in relation to the cultural history of Italian canzone and the new aesthetics of song and voice that emerged in the years of the economic boom.