The Age of Lula/Tamborzão Politics and Sonority

Abstract

A series of episodes that show president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s commitment to the militarization of public security provides the backdrop for a study of the origin, development and morphology of three beats (bases) that characterize, each, one decade of Funk Carioca: Volt Mix (1990s), Tamborzão (the years 2000-2009) and Beatbox (from 2010 onwards). Interviews, transcriptions and spectrograms indicate synchronisms between political events and changes in sonority. As the dances (bailes) become outlawed, the beat retreats successively from the high (years 2000-2009) and low (2010 to date) edges of the spectrum to concentrate in the medium. Marked by the Pan American Games Massacre of 2007 and by occupation of the Penha and Alemão complexes of favelas in 2010, the beginning and the end of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s second term in office delimit a golden age of Forbidden Funk (Proibidão).