Musicians from Bahia Stand Out by Creating New Kind of Pop Music

05/03/2018 - 12h40

A new kind of pop music is being produced in Brazil, specifically in the state of Bahia, with a blend of sounds that come from important Bahian MPB (Brazilian Pop Music) artists (Bethânia, Gal, Gil, Caetano), from Axé (Ivete, Chiclete com Banana) and Rock (Pitty).

The state is home today to a vast number of artists who mix these established genres and other less obvious ones, like electronic music, regional rhythms, like Bahian Pagode and African (Ijexá, Afrobeat) all together.

Different from other recent scenes, like in Pernambuco (birthplace of the Mangue beat) and Pará (Tecnobrega), the new Bahian pop music doesn't have a specific sound. It sounds like Rap with a bit of Pop, Bahian Pagode with electronic beats, Soul mixed with Ijexá - instrumental with local rhythms.

What Lívia Nery, ÀTTØØXXÁ, Larissa Luz, Luedji Luna, Illy, Giovani Cidreira, Hiran, Ifá Afrobeat, Junior Lord, Baco Exu do Blues, Xênia França, Kalu, and many others all have in common is the insertion of traditional Bahian music in the global, urban and technological context. It's a movement that fits with other scenes in a hyper-connected world.

	Divulgação
	Larissa Luz

"A few years ago I started listening to Kuduro from Angola, Electronic Cúmbia from South America, and Dance Hall from Jamaica. They are root musical styles created electronically. I went crazy in this", explains Rafa Dias, 28, the mind of ÀTTØØXXÁ, a hot name in the new Bahian pop.

	Divulgação
	Luedji Luna

The original impulse for the emergence of the new Bahian pop was the explosion, around 2015, of BaianaSystem, when the group performed packed shows in Salvador's historic Pelourinho center and ran one of the most popular sound truck caravans in the region.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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