Almost 100 years ago Paul Valery said that music is out of all the arts the most sought out, the most immersed in social life, the closest to life. So, in the new edition of AusArt, we want to get closer to urban music and sounds, current or past, which have for decades had such a big presence and influence in our societies. From their historical relationship with culture and leisure, as part of the DNA of youth subcultures, as an expression of protest or space for experience to the latest trends or current scenes.

The Kantatzen duten Herriak KDH conference ('the people who sing'), which has been held since 2017 at the Bizkaia campus of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), addresses issues related to the social study of music, not only from different academic disciplines, but also from experience and experimentation. In the same vein, this issue of AusArt presents a compendium of reflections, debates and research on urban music and sounds, youth subcultures and their multiple artistic, social, cultural, anthropological, political or economic drifts.