Mariana Mont'Alverne Barreto

Mariana Mont'alverne Barreto holds a Master's and PhD in Sociology from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas - UNICAMP. She is a post-doctoral fellow at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales - Centre Européen de Sociologie et de Science Politique. She is a professor and researcher in the Social Sciences Department at the Universidade Federal do Ceará - UFC.

The project

Title: National-popular culture and transnational exchange in Brazilian popular music

"This project is devoted to the study of the processes of classification and hierarchization of popular music observed throughout the formation of Brazilian culture, focusing on a specific empirical object, i.e., the careers of the musicians involved in four “musical trios” formed in Ceará in the 1940s and 1950s, of significant importance in the formation of a specific type of popular music, constitutive of the nascent Brazilian cultural tradition and its subsequent internationalization. I'm interested in studying the trajectories of the groups: Vocalistas Tropicais, Quatro Azes e um Coringa, Trio Nagô and Trio Guarani. The importance of this issue is justified by the fact that the trajectories of these regional musicians are part of the “national question”. The problem described focuses on analyses of the effects on the bands' national and international circulations. That is, when they circulated occupying secondary positions on the popular music scene, classified as situated regional artists, which did not prevent them from touring Brazil as representatives of national culture. In other words, when these national and international tours transformed the hierarchical arrangements within the structure of musical production, promoting the notoriety and posterity of the groups by inserting them into the national musical heritage. The research focuses on the circulation of Brazilian popular music, but is above all devoted to the study of the social forms of talent construction, recognition and consecration of popular musicians from a peripheral region, in the North-East of Brazil, whose role has been significant in the supply of the most “authentic” Brazilian popular artists. As a methodological strategy, the proposal will privilege bibliographical and documentary research on artists and their groups in archives inside and outside the country, as well as interviews with professionals directly and indirectly involved in the development of artistic careers."

Hosting institution:  Centre Européen de Sociologie et de Science Politique (CESSP)

Selective Bibliography

• BARRETO, M. Música popular e fronteiras nacionais: o show Kalunga do Brasil e Angola. Análise Social - Revista do Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa, LIX (1º), 2024 (Nº 250).
•  BARRETO, M. Inscrições transnacionais das músicas nacionais: a internacionalização dos regionalistas do Trio Nagô. Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais, v.37, p.1/3711004 2022 - 19, 2022.
• BARRETO, M.. As formações culturais nacionais e suas inscrições (intra e extra) regionais.. ARQUIVOS DO CMD. v.11, p.42 - 54, 2022.
• BARBALHO, A. A.; BARRETO, M. Retratos do Ceará moderno [livro eletrônico] : emergência de um padrão de modernização cultural nas margens, ed.1. Fortaleza: Editora da Universidade Estadual do Ceará, 2020, p.128.
• BARRETO, M. The Kalunga Project: The Meanings of Popular Brazilian and Angolan Musical Productions beyond National Territory. Journal of World Popular Music. v.7, p.69 - 90, 2020.