Folk Music is on the Air: the Sonic Performance of Brazilian Folk Music at the Pan-American Project

Abstract

In this article I discuss the relationship between the production of a new musical soundscape in commercial broadcasting proposed by the pan-American cultural projects and the activities of a network articulated by musical producers, researchers, composers and politicians through the programs produced by Alan Lomax in the American radio station CBS. Considering such programs as a way to discuss the role of this music in the Pan-American project, I intend to discuss how those productions helped to increase a musical sensibility about the South American musical folklore as a result of exchanges between experts on the subject in Brazil and US. This analysis proposal aims, likewise, to contribute to the deconstruction of the notion of Brazilian authenticity associated with radio production and the value of folklore as a central element in the construction of its identity.