Alternative music parties circuit in São Paulo downtown: city, corporeality and youth

Abstract

We present the circuit cartography of “alternative” music parties, which has been occupying spaces in the central areas of São Paulo city and carried out by young collectives that act in the cultural production field of the city. By bringing this party circuit to light, we seek to understand political economy aspects of musicalmediatic production on the mainstream borders, as well as life styles, youth practices and imaginaries in urban cultures. We use the ethnography at parties as methodology, with observation and interviews with the organizers and attendees , as well as the analysis of groups and parties sites/fanpages in their verbal, sound and imagery content , to understand their youthful , aesthetic and political identities. Some of the results already indicate that in this circuit parties there is the pursuit of Afro-Latin musical and cultural matrices (Brazilian, Caribbean, African music); a mixture of global aesthetics with traditional musicalities in dancing rhythms; the actuation of young people engaged on life styles and consumption connected with an “alternative ethos” which evidences itself through musical, clothing and food preferences, political postures.