PERMANENT SEMINAR OF THE RESEARCH GROUP ON ETHNOMUSICOLOGY AND STUDIES IN POPULAR MUSIC
22.10.2025 | 2:30 PM | NOVA FCSH, Av. de Berna, Tower A (Lisbon) | Room A006 | Online
Free access, in person and online.
From the Brazilian Quebrada to the Portuguese Gueto: Peripheral Practices of Musicking in São Paulo and Lisbon
Meno Del Picchia | UNICAMP
In this presentation, I examine the creative practices of musical production in peripheral studios in two major urban centers—São Paulo and Lisbon. In São Paulo, I draw upon ethnographic data collected among Brazilian funk and trap artists in Heliópolis, a neighborhood in the southern zone regarded as one of the city’s largest favelas. In this context, favela may also be referred to as quebrada. I provide a brief historical overview of the genre, highlighting its significance for peripheral urban culture. In Lisbon, I present preliminary findings and questions arising from ethnographic research with DJs of batida, an Afro-diasporic electronic genre developed in peripheral metropolitan areas such as Quinta do Mocho and Rinchoa. Within the Portuguese setting, the notion of gueto emerges as a parallel to the Brazilian
quebrada.
Building on Christopher Small’s concept of musicking, I seek to describe the network of human and non-human agents encountered in home studios within these quebradas and guetos, inhabited by young artists who cultivate and expand their musicality through interactions with digital technologies, particularly the FL Studio software. This analysis is further informed by Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory, which underscores that technologies are not passive elements within musical practice, but rather participate actively in a process of intense symbiosis between musicians and computers. Finally, I establish a comparative perspective between the two contexts, identifying shared elements and points of divergence, with the aim of delineating a notion of peripheral digital musicking.
Meno Del Picchia | Anthropologist, ethnomusicologist, and musician, whose work integrates artistic creation with scholarly research. He is currently a visiting researcher at INET-md, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and a postdoctoral fellow in ethnomusicology at the Institute of Arts, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), with the project “Heavy Beat and Key Cut – Funk, Trap, and the Construction of Masculinities.” His recent research focuses on the creative processes of artists working in home studios in the peripheries of large urban centers, analyzing how humans and digital technologies interact and configure new forms of musicking. As an artist, Meno has released six solo albums, all available on major streaming platforms.