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27 January, 2010

Brazilification of Western Media

While many, including myself in an earlier post, have, at least partially, accredited the development of funk to the extremely influential growth of hip hop in the United States, it has recently been dishing out its own influence all over the world. For example, Diplo, an immensely famous American DJ, has begun to play funk songs at his concerts which are held all over the world to sold out audiences. He has also begun participating in a documentary called "Favela on Blast" which chronicles the rise of this music. Even CNN has become involved, taking to the streets of Rocinha to interview funk performers and get information on the upcoming film. Although it may not be at the same level as hip hop or other mainstream music forms, funk has definitely brought a new light into the favelas. Never before would CNN be talking about anything other than death, drugs, and prostitution in the streets of Rio's slums. Never before would the words of impoverished "slumdogs" be heard in swanky European dance clubs. Never before would the destitute of Brazil be able to influence the world outside the borders of their slums.

19 January, 2010

Coke. Guns. Booty. Beats. by Blender

While it is often hard to argue for music containing lyrics such as "Shoot the snitch!" and “We’re just like Colombia … the bullets will eat right through you.”, I really admired the points that the blender article "Coke. Guns. Booty. Beats." (hyperlinked in title) lines up in defense of funk. While the article acknowledges that funk is "a retro-minded hedonism borne of violence, drugs and poverty", it also takes a deeper look into the social scenario that creates such extremely controversial music. The article mainly chronicles Juca, a 24-year-old favelado in Rio de Janeiro and his attempt at funk fame in the world of the baile (large funk concerts). The article does little to counter the argument that the context of funk is wildly illegal and morally questionable, quoting Juca saying that “bailes are profit-making exercises...(gangs) attract customers to the favela to buy their drugs.” Arguing for the moral purity of Funk, however, would be an uphill battle. Instead, the article seeks to point to the causes of such a gang culture, mainly police brutality. The elite forces of the Rio slums that run counter-gang operations in the favelas (named BOPE) do not mess around. They use torturous tactics to illicit information about the location of drug lords, including putting plastic bags over a potential informants head to suffocate him into revealing information. They are also known to shoot first and ask questions later. A few days after his show, the Blender crew catches up to Juca, who informs them that earlier in the week the police had raided the favela in an attack against the Red Command (the controlling gang of that favela) and had mistaken an innocent young man for a trafficker and shot him dead. Juca is not especially shaken by this incident because it is a common occurence in the slums of Rio; some 1,200 young people are killed every year as a result of the war between the gangs and the police. Juca goes on to say that “if a trafficker walks past my house, I know he won’t even look twice. But if the police come by, how do I know they won’t shoot me?” This social tension, often erupting in violence, is what gives voice to funk; and what makes the voice so intense. Everyone in the favela has seen atrocities committed, so it would be unlikely for their music to be about flowers and kittens.

18 January, 2010

John Gray Loves Funk!?!?

Little known fact: John Gray loves funk. Or at least funk loves him. Or at least funk loves his idea of different forms of capitalism. Or at least funk supports his idea of different forms of capitalism. Or at least...funk...capitalism...John Gray...something or other. In the "From the Great Transformation to the Global Free Market" chapter of his book, False Dawn, Gray states that the global free market is much more than the spread of American capitalism. The new global market has created various strains of capitalism which abide by their own rules and cooperate into a diverse world market. Gray points to Chinese and Russian capitalism as examples of non-American forms. He bases this argument on the different structural decisions of the founders of these regimes, but there is one other category that sets these forms apart and creates a fork in the road of capitalism where each country is forced to make its own choice and follow its own path. Now, you might be asking yourself right now, "well, Ben, how is he going to tie Brazilian funk into these differentiating forms of capitalism?". The answer is simple: funk is a siren which rings the distinct pitch of the Brazilian social situation. NO WAY could a purely American style of capitalism hope to stay in afloat in a nation where the distance between the rich and the poor is so polarized and, somehow at the same time, so blurred that the sons of playboy millionaires go to swanky high class clubs and listen to songs like "Som de Preto" which literally translated means "Song of the Blacks" and contains lines like "a sociedade pra gente não dá valor. Só querem nos criticar pensam que somos animais" which, translated, means "society does not give us value. They only consider us animals." The middle class in Brazil, while growing, is currently barely significant on a social scale, and the two cultures, rich and poor, are kept exclusive of one another in most ways besides funk. A society this torn, with polar disparity between the lavishly rich and the hopelessly poor, yet seemingly tied together by the appeal of funk music, is only compatible with its own distinct form of capitalism. Therefore, the Brazilian market is representative of this difference, with the incorporation and importance of the small business (the fruit stand, the small restaurant, the churrascaria). The poor mingle with the rich in the market, selling favela trinkets or home-cooked meat, but their spheres are drastically different. The economy is therefore similar to the culture: divided into polar opposites, yet blended together in some minuscule ways, which contradicts the American market that puts great importance on the consumption and production of the middle class (which has been virtually non-existent for the last hundred years in Brazil).

11 January, 2010

The Golden Straightjacket and Funk

In The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas L. Friedman argues that the new globalization has forced nations to abide by a new series of rules to survive, including "making the private sector the primary engine of its economic growth...(and) deregulating capital markets". When regarding nations that have transformed themselves in this fashion and now sport a dapper "Golden Straightjacket", as Friedman calls these characteristics, one must consider Brazil (it is, after all, one of the famously developing BRIC nations). Brazil's spectacular and swift rise to a complete democracy with an unfettered free market has created a rapid modernization, but, unfortunately, has been accompanied by increased crime and poverty; most notably in Rio de Janeiro. While the free market system has made many prosperous, it has also extended the favelas in both size and seriousness of poverty. In capitalist Brazil, there are simply no jobs for these masses of destitute citizens, and they seek organized crime as a way to make ends meet. This is the social situation that birthed Funk; an art form that is one of the few benefits to arise out of a disastrously poor social class whose problems were exacerbated by the modernization of Brazil.

07 January, 2010

The Rise of the Rest...American Influence on Funk

In Fareed Zakaria's Newsweek article "The Rise of the Rest", he argues that the expansion of non-western industries and institutions have dwarfed the once-gigantic influence of the West. Zakaria views the West as a faded star. With the end of the "Pax Americana", a time period when the United States seemed to dominate in every aspect of the world-scene, the good old U.S.A. has slipped away from its former greatness. Zakaria's goes on to state that one of the effects of the American power-supernova is that in the explosion decimating the former prestige of our nation, we have invigorated the globe. New countries are bettering themselves at an alarming rate, more or less by imitating the shape and manner of the West. How, you might ask, could Brazil possibly take popular western structures and manipulate them to enhance their society? Funk is the answer! As Western ideas streak across the globe, Brazilian favelados have learned from American gangsta rappers that the voice of the slums can be recorded and sold to a willing and immense audience. Funk was born from the womb of American hip-hop, and the core ideology is the same: speak on your surroundings. They have adopted this American concept and Rocinha has become the new Compton. The fading of the West has, among other things (namely Western economic and political practices), brought Brazil a new method and forum for the poor to have their voice be heard...Funk.

06 January, 2010

Funk Show in Rio

Although funk is definitely a contraversial artform, there is no doubt that it draws a wide fanbase. We can see that throughout Brazil, funk shows are hugely popular and bring out a large crowd for one rowdy party.
I just found this!