Singing About Butts, Funk Is Fighting Its Way to the Top of Music Charts

01/26/2018 - 11h30

With more than 160 million views in a bit over a month since its debut, Anitta's "Vai Malandra" video is a current reflection of Brazilian music charts: the obsession with butts - even those with imperfections.

The topic is old news, but it has reached unprecedented proportions last year, and it is taking over the charts this summer and pre-Carnival season.

A Folha research shows that the term has been among the 20 most played tracks on a daily basis on YouTube over the period between September 2014 to January 2018.

The peak was reached in August and November, when 48% of the tracks mentioned "bumbum" (butt) or similar words.

Out of the 25 most played funk songs in Spotify on Thursday (25), 13 mentioned the famous Brazilian asset - the number has already reached 16 tracks.

Songs include "bumbum" and variations: the traditional "bunda", "popozão" and even "circunferência perfeita que tem o poder na medida certa para te enlouquecer" ("perfect circumference with just the right amount of power to drive you crazy" - "Encaixa", by MC Kevinho).

OTHER BODY PARTS

However, funk music is the only genre in which the butt is the most mentioned body part.

Among the daily 200 top played songs in Spotify, 43% of Brazilian hip-hop tracks (basically composed of rap) mention the heart, followed by pagode, with 42% of the songs mentioning the organ.

Sertanejo music, on the other hand, focuses on the mouth, mentioned in 21% of all sertanejo songs in Spotify's top 200. Samba, the genre which less frequently mentions body parts, mentions the mouth in 5% of the tracks.

Translated by ANA BEATRIZ DEMARIA

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	Reprodução/Video
	Anitta's "Vai Malandra" video