Brazilian Popular Music and Globalization

Turned-Around Beat: Maracatu de baque virado and Chico Science

Larry Crook



 
 
 


 
 
 
The  maracatu was incorporated into the carnival celebration of Recife as its most “African” element. With the international success of the Afro-Bahian carnival music in the 1980s and 1990s, traditional maracatu  groups were also revitalized and new formations emerged.  Additionally, a new generation of popular musicians in Recife-- notably Chico Science and Nação Zumbi-- updated the maracatu  and connected it to global youth culture via a movement dubbed movimento mangue.  This essay examines how international exposure for maracatu  groups and the creative energy of the movimento mangue  have helped to construct a contemporary aesthetic identity for maracatu  that is relevant to youth, and particularly black youth, in the state of Pernambuco.
about the author: Larry Crook is  Professor of Ethnomusicology, affiliate of the Center for Latin American Studies, and co-director of the Center for World Arts at the University of Florida


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