Pedro Nunes, researcher at INET-md, co-authors the chapter “From the Ghetto to the World: Batida, the Nexus Príncipe Discos-Filho Único and the Legitimization of Afrodiasporic Music Practices from the Outskirts of Lisbon”, a work signed with Otávio Raposo (CIES-IUL) and included in the book Independence in 21st-Century Popular Music: Cases from Beyond Anglo-America (Bloomsbury, 2025), that Pedro Nunes co-edited with Pedro Roxo (INET-md) and Shannon Garland (Univ. Pittsburgh).
Abstract:
The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the process of legitimation of the music style Batida in Portugal. This is a music style created by young people of African descent which is recognized in the media as the “ghetto sound of Lisbon”. Based on the work developed with the independent label Príncipe Discos and the cultural association Filho Único, to which many of the artists are connected, we want to understand how this new sound gained centrality in the global electronic music circuit, conquering the dance floors of the most prestigious clubs in Europe and the world. We will complement the ethnographic work with some Djs/Producers from Quinta do Mocho, a majorly black social neighborhood on the outskirts of Lisbon, with an analysis of the effects of digitalization of music which multiplied the possibilities of these artists to make themselves visible. Home to some of the most important Batida DJs in the country, Quinta do Mocho has become a space of intense musical production, where home studios, network collaborations and street parties enable creative endeavours generating new sonorities. Thus, in the context of this study, we highlight the musicians (DJs/Producers), the staff at the label (Príncipe) and at the association (Filho Único), the journalists/critics within the specialized music press (physical and online) and, finally, the neighborhood (Quinta do Mocho).
The opportunities offered by the digitalization of music will be explored here from two perspectives. The first is related to the greater possibilities for the music production from peripheral artists to circulate and be consumed by a wider audience through an independent circuit that operates on the fringes of the oligopolies of the record industry.
The second perspective is related to an Afro-diasporic aesthetic, capable of conjugating and reinterpreting transnational rhythms, namely those arising from the music repertoire from the African diaspora.
The emphasis on discourses on originality and authenticity disseminated by the specialized press, labels and the artists themselves will be addressed here in their intimate connection with the racialized neighborhoods. This is because such discourses are built around the African roots of their authors and their experiences of marginalization in the “ghettos” of the Portuguese capital. These support the process of legitimization of this music genre. In this sense, we will discuss the practices which configure the music productions of the DJs/Producers as well as the forms of distribution which structure the dissemination of Batida by Príncipe. Complemented by an analyses on the discourse from the partner association, Filho Único, and from the specialized press we hope to contribute to an understanding of the legitimation process and social recognition of this music genre.