The recording industry and recorded caipira music: an experience from São Paulo (1878-1930)

Author(s)

Juliana Pérez González

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2018-03-09

Examining board members

José Geraldo Vinci de Moraes; Virginia de Almeida Bessa; Alberto Tsuyoshi Ikeda; Ivan Vilela Pinto; Flávia Camargo Toni

• Advisor: José Geraldo Vinci de Moraes

Abstract

This research investigates the emergence of caipira music recorded in Brazilian phonography during the establishment of the disc market in São Paulo, between 1878 and the beginning of 1930s. From the arrival of the first phonograph until establishment of international record companies in the city, there was a growing market for recorded music. It seems there was a certain abandonment of musical preferences of the city by active recorders during the mechanical phase of disc. This space was filled by the international record companies arriving in the late 1920s and recorded music of legitimate paulista countrymen, aiming to conquer the Brazilian market. The success in sales of the first recordings was explained by the record companies publicity invested, the self-constructed image of Cornélio Pires defender of folklore paulista and above all, by the heyday of a tradition of country representation from the nineteenth century and kept by the nascent urban entertainment industry. In addition, the recorded caipira music was adjusted to the need, feeling the hegemonic elites, to create a cultural identity of São Paulo that would undermine tensions, racial, cultural and class conflicts unresolved during the First Republic. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/17105-0 - Between tradition and modernity: caipira music in Brazilian discography between 1910 and 1930
• Grantee: Nora Juliana Pérez González
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate