Popular Culture

Last Saturday on TEDxSP Regina Casé talked about the prejudices we carry when we judge legitimate cultural movements, such as funk, technobregra, kuduro and others around the world. Although these movements gather hundreds of thousands, we rarely acknowledge their importance and tend to consider them low class, not good enough to receive attention and investment. Therefore, we never see them on the official media, never offer governmental support (we send the police instead) and don’t even consider it culture.

Well, this Friday I had the pleasure of going to the São Cristóvão markets in Rio and experience other amazing undervalued expression: Brazil’s northeastern culture.

As soon as Hanna and I got there, we felt the different atmosphere. The place was not in a fancy suburb, the tickets cost only a dollar, most of the visitors were northeasterns living in Rio and everybody was incredibly welcoming, smiling all the time.

Inside, there was not only one stage, but perhaps 20 of them: 2 bigger shows, karaoke, forró playing at every corner and live 3-family-members’ bands at their relatives’ restaurants.

On top of that, the food was amazing and one could find fresh northeastern cooking ingredients, particularly manioc flour types (apparently, the flour gets thicker as we go north).

Enjoying the shows were people from all ethnicities and ages, all dancing together, respecting each other and having the best time. One of the top moments was to hear the forró version of the song Rise Up (My dream is to fly / Over the rainbow so high). It goes like this:

Gatinha, tu gosta mais
De red label ou ice
Pra mim tanto faz
Ou red label ou ice

For me, the São Cristóvão markets represented some of the coolest things about Brazil: diversity, creativity, receptiveness and fun.

Considering the world needs a lot more equality, respect and widespread opportunities, maybe we should privilege the São Cristóvão markets model rather than big one-artist shows for a small rich audience.

Therefore, we might be able to redefine what popular culture really is.