Brazilian Popular Music and Globalization ed. by Charles A. Perrone and Christopher Dunn (review)

These, as mentioned, are not significant mistakes, and other references checked were quoted perfectly. This book is well worth reading, and would be ofvalue to scholars in a variety of areas such as autobiography, memoir, Caribbean literature, colonial/ postcolonial studies, gender studies, women's studies, and African American studies . It could be used forpedagogical purposes as well as for personal research. Enjoy the colorful cover, and allow yourself to be drawn into the world of the Caribbean , with its tropical island ambience. However, this is no vacation, for you will read ofsuffering, slavery, poverty, prejudice, loss, alienation, exile, oppression, and death. Don't let this discourage you, because you will also encounter nostalgia, personal growth, pride, commitment, creativity, success, heroism, and joy. Paquet takes the reader by the hand and navigates the way through narratives of both struggle and triumph in Caribbean Autobiography. ·& Charles A. Perrone and Christopher Dunn, eds. Brazilian PopufarMusic and Globalization. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2001. 288p. Steven F. Butterman University of Miami Perrone and Dunn's high-quality edited volume, Brazilian Popular Music and Globalization, is far more comprehensive than an excellent collection of essays addressing the rich fabric ofpopular music in Brazil as both political expression and creative innovation. The diversity and wide variety of the essays included in the volume as well as the divergent backgrounds oftheir authors reflects the eclecticism and plethora of styles of Brazilian music in today's international market. The volume transcends classification as ethnomusicology, entering solidly into the domains of race relations, regional adaptations and/or rejections of mainstream musical forms, and even music that thematically addresses and is produced by exiled Brazilian communities contemplating brasilidadefrom afar. One ofthe most interesting aspects of the collection is that its sixteen essays, while somewhat uneven in terms of length and quality and, at times, rather repetitive (for example, there is a significant amount of thematic overlap between Essays 15 and 16 and very little differentiation between the two, resulting in quite a bit ofrepetition of ideas and topics), featurea democratic mix ofcontributions by academics, research associates, graduate students, and last but certainly not least, the musicians themselves . While it is difficult to summarize succinctly the multitude oftopics rigorously treated in these pages, the book essentially revolves around three major issues, 118 * ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW * SPRING 2003 Reviews which, in conjunction, serve as a unifying force between and among the essays. The first and perhaps most central aim is to place contemporary Brazilian music within the context ofmarkets and marketability, tracing the impact ofrecent Brazilian "world music" on a global scale, on a regional level (with special attention devoted to musical styles and forms in northeastern Brazil compared to musical innovations coming from Rio de Janeiro), and on a linguistic plane, with abundant discussion devoted to questions of Lusofonia and the give and take of promoting musical expression in the Portuguese language when such a language is still marginalized in and by the modern world. Many essays intersect on the political question ofwhether or not to market music from Brazil at the expense of allowing too much foreign influence to dominate the Brazilian musical scene. The opening essay, "Chiclete com Banana: Internationalization in Brazilian Popular Music" begins to take up this issue, questioning to what extent MPB (Brazilian Popular Music) may or should be classified as "world music," how cultural authenticity is negotiated within local, national, and international arenas, and the socioeconomic and cultural dynamics of appropriation of musical styles from abroad. Ultimately, the introductory article and indeed the entire volume serve to problematize notions ofmarketing in a global context. For example, we must ask ourselves about the implications ofthe editors' statement that "Carmen Miranda would record ? samba e o tango', an early example ofLatin American fraternity sung in a mixture of Portuguese and Spanish," and when they point out that Caetano Veloso's wildly successful Fina estampa en vivowas "a project built around Hispanic content" (11). In other words, do the above examples truly reflect legitimate "globalization," as far as mutual cultural exchange is concerned, or do they merely demonstrate a marketing strategy that uses Spanish in an attempt to transcend the isolation or invisibility ofmusical expression in the Portuguese...