Brazilian Soul and Argentinian Jazz

Style, Consumption and Racialized Identities in Argentina and Brazil

Authors

  • Berenice Corti University of Buenos Aires
  • Luciana Xavier de Oliveira ABC Federal University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.33204

Keywords:

Argentine jazz, Brazilian soul, cultural consumption, musical style

Abstract

This article analyses two musical examples of cultural consumption within the framework of racial construction in Argentina and Brazil, and their various propositions of “blackness” as examples of strategic controversial positions on “black” popular culture. In the first case, we will discuss how the concept of style as grammar or underlying cultural principle in African diasporic musical practice resulted in distinctive meanings associated with elitist consumption, which forms part of the commodification process of jazz music, both on a global and local scale. This process was accentuated by social conditions surrounding the invisibility and denial of the African presence in the country. In the Brazilian case in the 1970s, as a strategy to affirm black identity, a specific style, combining national and global references, revolved around the great soul dances developed in the outskirts and suburbs of Rio de Janeiro. This scene resulted in new acts of cultural consumption that destabilized stereotypes and brought together performance and political action around the idea of “blackness”.

Author Biographies

  • Berenice Corti, University of Buenos Aires

    Berenice Corti is a Professor at Manuel de Falla Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires, and Assistant Professor at Faculty of Social Sciences, UBA (Universidad de Buenos Aires). She is also a researcher at the Institute for Research in Ethnomusicology, Buenos Aires Ministry of Culture. She is the author of Argentine Jazz: ‘Black’ Music in a ‘White’ Country (Gourmet Musical, 2015) and is coeditor (with Claudio Díaz) of Music and Discourse: Analytical Approaches from Latin America (EdUViM, 2017).

  • Luciana Xavier de Oliveira, ABC Federal University

    Luciana Xavier de Oliveira is a Professor at ABC Federal University (UFABC, São Paulo, Brazil) with research experience in the field of social communication, ethnic studies and popular music.

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Published

2017-12-06

Issue

Section

Music and Subalternity in Argentina and Brazil

How to Cite

Corti, B., & Xavier de Oliveira, L. (2017). Brazilian Soul and Argentinian Jazz: Style, Consumption and Racialized Identities in Argentina and Brazil. Journal of World Popular Music, 4(2), 191-208. https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.33204