Description

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Ethnography explores political activism of carnival brass bands in Brazil

Critical Brass tells the story of neofanfarrismo, an explosive carnival brass band community turned activist musical movement in Rio de Janeiro, as Brazil shifted from a country on the rise in the 2000s to one beset by various crises in the 2010s. Though predominantly middle-class, neofanfarristas have creatively adapted the critical theories of carnival to militate for a more democratic city. Illuminating the tangible obstacles to musical movement building, Andrew Snyder argues that festive activism with privileged origins can promote real alternatives to the neoliberal city, but meets many limits and contradictions in a society marked by diverse inequalities.Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco, Professor Emerita, NOVA University of Lisbon

About the Author

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ANDREW SNYDER (Lisbon, Portugal) is an Integrated Researcher in the Instituto de Etnomusicologia at the NOVA University of Lisbon in Portugal. As a trumpeter and scholar interested in intersections between public festivity and social movements, he coedited HONK! A Street Band Renaissance of Music and Activism and At the Crossroads of Music and Social Justice, and he has published articles in Ethnomusicology, Journal of Popular Music Studies, Luso-Brazilian Review, among others.