Decolonising Brazilian Pop Music - interview with Professor Holger Lund
Decolonizing Brazilian Pop, and the rise of re-versioning
Interview by Graham Douglas
“Colonialism is not over, it’s just less visible, especially in culture” – so says Professor Holger Lund in his 2019 article Decolonizing Pop Music, mostly about Turkey and a just a bit about Brazil. But in 3 years, things have moved on, and the word is being heard more. Honey Dijon uses it talking about the whitewashing and re-marketing of Dance music that came from Black and Queer communities. The Vinil Brasil record shop in Sao Paulo, already had a pressing plant in 2019, and now they have their own label specializing in the music that was loved by listeners but never promoted by Radio DJs.
So, in the same way that colonialism nowadays is mostly not about occupying a country, but of ensuring that a country’s rulers allow their markets to be controlled by western interests, so colonialism in music production applies both to the physical material of discs and the music they carry. Vinyl is a product of the petrochemical industry, but although the oil it uses may come from Nigeria the refining is done in Europe and the products are sold back to Africa. Music from the ghetto or a developing country is re-packaged, re-mixed, re-produced to create a buzz in the ears of western consumers of World Music, because they have the money and their tastes are regarded as the gold standard, especially of popular music, an attitude that is spread further by some music critics.
Although, as Lund pointed out in his article Western enthusiasts have been responsible for much of the re-releasing, as was the case with Afro-Peruvian music by Barbès Records in New York.
And then there is the question of authenticity – supposedly exploded in western art by Andy Warhol’s Factory of images of cultural icons in the 1960s.
But what is real in music – is it the definitive recording or the live performance; is there a guarantee of authenticity that cannot be exploited for commercial gain? Or should we just calm down and enjoy the music wherever we can get it? Markets have changed and original Guccis co-exist with imitations, without protest from the ‘creators’, as Roberto Saviano has shown in his book Gomorrah.
In one of the fascinating essays on Cornelia Lund’s website, she states simply, that authenticity in Hip-Hop is about ‘staying true to the game’ and the game plays with images and codes, it doesn’t try to certify what is true.
Holger’s work is concerned with collecting and re-releasing non-western pop music through curating the Global Pop First Wave label, and more work by him and Cornelia can be found here.
The full interview can be found where it was first published: