Racism, modernization and lack of representation: experts analyze the black minority in country music

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Understand how the history of country and country music in Brazil was marked by a whitening of rhythms and images. How to change this scenario? João Paulo, Rick and Kleo Dibah Reproduction/Instagram Country music has dominated the list of most played songs on radio and streaming platforms for a few years now. However, these rankings rarely feature black artists. Since 1996, the top 10 most played songs of the year on the radio have not included a black country music representative. That year, João Paulo and Daniel appeared in third position with “I’m in love”. A year earlier, the duo was in sixth place with “I tied myself”. In 1997, João Paulo died in a car accident. Years later, Daniel made several revelations about the prejudice that he witnessed closely with João Paulo. Including the constant suggestion that the singer change duo before they broke out. “They suggested that Daniel join Marcelo Aguiar — who was also a singer, was a deputy, and is now a member of the church — back in the beginning because they were two cute white guys and it made more sense,” journalist André Piunti told g1 , specialist in country music. Brotas, father, João Paulo and tour: singer Daniel recalls his 40-year career in country music Rick, Renner’s partner, revealed that he went through many situations of racism. “We experienced delicate situations. I did experience situations of prejudice,” said the singer on Piunti’s YouTube channel, citing the day a fan went to the duo’s show and asked Renner for a photo. When the singer asked Rick to join the group, the woman said “she didn’t like black people.” Renner came to his friend’s defense and then refused the photo request. Rick also recalled a story told to him by João Paulo, in which the elite club of a city hired João Paulo and Daniel to perform. “The guy bought a show, but he didn’t know them. At the time, they didn’t have that much image, they didn’t promote that much. And when João Paulo and Daniel arrived, the guy said that if they had said there was a black man in the duo, he wouldn’t have purchased.” Rick is one of the few black names in current country music alongside others like Kleo Dibah and Thácio (Lucas Reis’ duo). Throughout the history of country and country music, other artists have added to this list: Tião Carreiro, Cascatinha & Inhana, Pena Branca & Xavantinho, João Mulato and the Sisters Barbosa. Even though there are black representatives, the proportion is small in a mostly white scenario. But why is this list so small? Has it always been this way or has something changed over the years? In an article about “country music and the Brazilian racial enigma”, Marcos Queiroz raised the hypothesis that country music had to “go white” in order to nationalize. Marcos is a professor at the Brasiliense Institute of Education, Development and Research (IDP) and a member of the Center for Studies in Inequality and Discrimination — CEDD/UnB, in Maré. g1 spoke to experts who spoke of other reasons that explain the black minority in Brazilian country music: the erasure of the black roots of country music; the whitening generated by the modernization of country music; the lack of representation – without black stars, younger people have no one to look up to and don’t recognize themselves in the rhythm. 1) Erasure of black roots João Mulato, Tião Carreiro, Irmãs Barbosa, Pena Branca and Xavantinho and Cascatinha and Inhana Reproduction For Luiz Antonio Guerra, PhD in Sociology from the University of São Paulo, the absence of black names in country music is a reflection of erasure of the black roots of country music. And this scenario is not current. “This comes from way back. It comes from country music, in fact, which has always been marked by a scheme of modernization. Since 1929, with Cornélio Pires, it has been between these poles of country music, tradition and modernization”, says the teacher. In his doctoral thesis, he analyzed the historical and social development of viola and caipira culture. Luiz explains that, in this process of modernization and segmentation of Brazilian popular music genres, country music began to receive support from the São Paulo intelligentsia in the 1930s. From then on, rhythms that were part of its history and that are African heritage ( such as lundu, mozambique, congada, jongo and samba) were being erased, leaving traces of viola fashion, cururu and cateretê. “Before, everything was regional music, country music. And this segmentation process starts saying: ‘ah, this here is country music, this here is samba, this here is northeastern’. It keeps dividing. At the beginning of country phonography, it was everything is still mixed. These black musical expressions end up being like Rio samba or northeastern music in all its variety.” “This musicality that was present in country communities was not able, within this process of mediation by the recording industry, to become subgenres of country music and, later, of country music.” According to Luiz, this musical segmentation becomes an obstacle for black people. “It’s more difficult for them to achieve fame, let’s put it that way. As country music becomes more modernized, more nationalized, more prestigious, richer, like everything in Brazilian society, obstacles are placed for this black population to access these spaces. ” André Piunti reinforces the professor’s thesis: “If you look for the origin of country music, the rhythms that formed it, they were beats influenced by Portuguese, indigenous people and black Africans who came here. And then at the beginning of the music as country music, they are being removed as the music becomes pop.” “The industry is bringing country music inside and putting the image of black people on the outside. Some appeared, but the proportion is bizarre.” Obstacles in the recording industry Albums from Tião Carreiro’s career Reproduction/TV TEM For Piunti, modernization and the recording industry are among those to blame for the whitening of country music. “When music becomes part of the industry that puts the LP on the store shelf, that takes the artist to television, or that makes the duo physically tour the places, the record companies and some executives already cut it because they are black. ” The journalist also told the story he heard from an artist, who prefers not to be identified, reporting that “the girl from the record company said that ‘it wasn’t possible’, in those terms, to put two ‘niggas’ on the cover of an album and sell in a store.” An interesting case is that of the duo Cascatinha & Inhana. In the 1950s, sound was more important than image. “Certainly, many people who consumed ‘India’ and ‘My First Love’, in 1952, listened to a lot without knowing what they looked like.” Doctor in Sociology from the Federal University of São Carlos and professor at the State University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Rogério da Palma also talks about the changes generated throughout the process of modernization and professionalization of music. “It is important to think about how the modernization of the music industry, in which the singer’s image is increasingly exploited, has opened new paths for the reproduction of racial inequalities. Racism has an aesthetic dimension”, analyzes Rogério, who is the author of the book ” Racism and Freedom: interracial relations and the construction of black (sub)citizenship”. “Modernizing and developing has always been, even if often implicitly, synonymous with whitening”, adds the professor. Within this, Luiz Antonio Guerra recalls that even black icons from the beginning of country and country music, such as Tião Carreiro, underwent whitewashing to have their images published on album covers. “You will see them, let’s say, less black, much more in inverted commas, in the image shown on the album covers than in the one you see of them live. It’s a racist process that has existed in the music industry for some time. ” ‘Sertanejo is anti-militancy’ The duo Lucas Reis and Thacio Disclosure For Marcos Bernardes, Marcão from the Blognejo portal, Tião Carreiro was one of the biggest icons of country music and did not make any speech in defense of black people. “On the contrary, he sang songs that, in a certain way, treated black people in a pejorative way. One of Tião Carreiro’s biggest hits, ‘Preto de alma Branca’, is one of the songs that most covertly talks about racism. Just the title of music is already racist.” “There was no anti-racist discourse in country music. Most of the songs talked about black people in this way. They treated it as a veiled racism. So I think that black people themselves in country music didn’t see their importance at that point.” The absence of this speech continues to this day. According to Marcão, if any artist attempts a reverse movement, it will most likely not be accepted by the style market: “Sertanejo is totally anti-militancy. Any type of militancy encounters barriers in country music.” “Any type of movement that has little space in the country side and where there is a certain prejudice over the years will only consolidate itself when it abandons militancy. There is no point in trying to establish any movement, because the country people will look at it with bad eyes.” But what can change this scenario? Country singers Junior Marques, David Henrique and Diogo Henrique Reproduction/Instagram For Marcão, what could change this scenario is the famous “hitting a song”, which is when a song becomes a hit and explodes. “Music is always more important than the artist’s image. Some artists don’t take notice of this. Most of Brazil’s top artists are not as present in the media in general.” “The black artist within the country music industry, when he gets his repertoire right, gets it right, starts paying off, it might work out. People really expected this with Kleo Dibah. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen”, he analyzes. “But it happened with João Paulo and Daniel, who when he got it right, consolidated it. It happened with Rick and Renner. Pena Branca and Xavantinho ended up becoming a cultural icon because they had an importance not only in the country, but when they re-recorded ‘Cio da Terra ‘, for example, they were embraced by MPB.” For Piunti, the competition remains unfair. “Spending time in Goiânia, I see that there is [negros tocando em bares e baladas]. But the problem is the proportion. It’s not 10 to 1. It’s 50 to 1. So it’s another competitor there. Then it gets very cruel.” For him, “sertanejos need the luck of someone showing up to pull up the line.” “How lucky we were when Marília showed up and, then, a bunch of people came along.” The singer, who died in 2021 , led a team of women and the feminejo movement, after decades of prejudice against women within the country music industry. Piunti’s statement raises the point of representation, already addressed by Rio de Janeiro actress and producer Jeniffer Dias, when she played the country singer Thamyres, in series “Rensga hits!”, in 2022. “We’re not used to seeing black country people. So I didn’t really listen to country music because it didn’t represent me much”, lamented Jennifer. Some names of rising black artists who are currently highlighted in the country music scene are the singers Junior Marques, David Henrique and Diogo Henrique. Junior, in fact, He has already sung a few times alongside Gusttavo Lima, including some editions of the “Buteco” festival. “I’m sure that when one comes, there will be a lot of interested people who are hiding,” says Piunti. “The way to improve is to drop an Ana Castela, for example, out of nowhere. And then, I think it would hit the representation thing and would be able to open a different world, a different path for you to have black people like there is in any type of music.”

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