Beyond the “Casa Portuguesa”: analysis of popular music exchanges between Brazil and Portugal

• Main Author: Tiago José Lemos Monteiro
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade de São Paulo 2008-12-01
• Series: Matrizes
• Online Access: http://www.revistas.usp.br/matrizes/article/view/38217

This paper identifies and discusses the silences and the asymmetrical relations that characterize the exchanges of popular music between Brazil and Portugal. At the same time that our perception of the contemporary Portuguese culture seems mediated by a "mythical common sense" deeply influenced by the discourse of tradition, Portugal became an enthusiastic consumer of our "modern" media culture. Such assymetries are visible in the huge success of Brazilian artists and bands in Portugal, whose counterpoint is the absence of Portuguese contemporary musical production in Brazil, especially those related to pop/rock. This paper aims to question the socially constructed nature of such speeches, and thus contribute to the elucidation of some aspects of local-global dynamics in the industry of entertainment, related to the musical consumption practices of the urban youth.