Pique favela: as montagens do funk carioca

Abstract

Funk Carioca is the first Brazilian genre of electronic dance music. It is produced by DJs at funk parties—Sound System events where the music is created through a DJ’s live performance and amplified by walls of stacked speakers—which have been held in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro since the 1970s. Produced using electronic drum machines, computers, and, today, even cell phones, funk is constructed through montage techniques, in which DJs combine samples from the funk repertoire with sound materials from various sources. Since the 1990s, however, DJs at funk parties (bailes funk) have been creating tracks called “montagem,” in which sampling techniques are taken to the extreme, producing fragmented, pulsating sounds that embody the funk DJ’s virtuosity, the genre’s archives, and the party’s rhythm—its “pique”. Because they are created by collaging parts of preexisting songs, their production costs are low, which has allowed new artists to enter the scene since its inception. Furthermore, montagens have served as a vehicle for artists to experiment with and spread Funk Carioca and are directly linked to the emergence of new aesthetics within the genre. These and other characteristics make montages complex objects of analysis, but also valuable tools for observing the creative and preservation processes of Funk Carioca.To this end, I describe the types of montages—“old-school” montages, Proibidão montages, and Putaria montages—within their historical context, paying close attention to the ways in which funk DJs articulate notions of territory and memory through sound and the manipulation of samples. As a methodology, I conducted a literature review of studies on funk (1988–2020) to map shifts in perspective and the so-called “technical turn,” understanding how these mixes are present in academic writings on the circuit and the genre; I conducted a survey and analysis of albums released by sound crews and DJs in the 1980s and 1990s to understand the emergence of montages and their role in the process of nationalizing Rio de Janeiro funk. The research also includes a musical analysis of montages available on digital platforms and in Carlos Palombini’s montage collection. At the same time, I have been conducting multisited ethnography since 2018 through participant observation at bailes funk in communities in the North, West, South, and Central zones of Rio de Janeiro, and, since 2022, in music studios dedicated to funk and located in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, where I also work as an audiovisualprofessional. The research also includes interviews with DJs, MCs, studio owners, and funk entrepreneurs. Ultimately, it is concluded that these montages serve as vehicles for experimentation for DJs, through which one can learn about the history of the bailes funk via their sound archives and, consequently, about the sensations of the past shared by a community, which are continually updated in the music to meet the demands of the present.