This exciting study of Brazilian music explores how racial identity is framed by music-making practices and how artists may connect in different ways with Afro-Brazilian issues and struggles. By focusing on the intersecting strands of various religious and popular musical genres, including gospel, rap, and samba, John Burdick effectively examines, compares, and contrasts the music-makers, their distinct locations and positions within Brazilian society, and how they relate to a comprehensive range of issues surrounding their identity. The evangelistic religious groups that are studied in this project include four main branches, of which Burdick highlights the latter three: conventional Protestant churches; Pentecostal churches; more recent neo-Pentecostal churches that emerged in the 1970s; and Adventist groups. Burdick acknowledges the importance of focusing on music and identity within these particular religious subgroups, since a majority of these churches (while recognizing racial inequity within Brazil) do not see their institutions as sites where discussions on these topics should take place. As a result, the ability to spread word of the Divine, through these adaptations of religious and popular musical genres, creates a space to articulate black identity, thus bringing the conversation back to the institution in an indirect manner. Burdick approaches the study of these three principal musical scenes and how musical practices help to define and shape identity, and he resolves to specifically locate “history, place, and the body” (19) as primary focal points within his project.
The Color of Sound is divided into five chapters, beginning with history and context for the three main music scenes that are the focus of this study, followed by three genre-specific chapters, “Gospel Rap,” “Samba Gospel,” and “Black Gospel.” The fifth chapter compares and contrasts black evangelical musicians and political constructs. By using groups of people who self-identify as equals in terms of color and religion (for example, “black” and “evangelical”), Burdick finds that themes of geographical, national, and internationally historical distinctions emerge. Gospel rappers identify with working-class urban neighborhoods, while de-emphasizing race-based ideologies that appeal to a universally impoverished population. Gospel Samba musicians relate to themes of Brazilian nationalism, promoting the notion of samba as a musical art form that transcends race and is essentially inclusive of all races. In turn, black Gospel singers identify with music emerging from the North American black church. These musicians make musical connections to struggle and suffering, but to a lesser extent than their North American counterparts.
While Burdick comprehensively addresses a wealth of issues surrounding identity within each of these musical scenes, it would be helpful to have a more in-depth discussion about the actual music. Burdick mentions that he is not a practicing musician or an ethnomusicologist, and he approaches these interactions from the perspective of a social anthropologist. Although he discusses these intersections of music and identity, a more comprehensive exploration of how music relates to people’s lives, how one genre contrasts with another, and any potential nuances between these genres and comparable North American counterparts, would enhance these detailed conversations surrounding music, meaning, identity, and place. Burdick does mention that when he posed questions about music to evangelical musicians, he received “a rush of warm, deep, complex ideas, views, opinions, and claims” (viii). Additional insight into the process of composing and adapting the music, and how this informs the practitioner, would be a welcome addition. Another small point that could be improved is consistent use of terms, since there is some movement between Gospel Rap/rap gospel, Samba Gospel/Gospel Samba, and Black Gospel/gospel rap. Is there any difference in meaning between terms, or are they interchangeable?
In the conclusion, Burdick identifies potential areas for future study. Since Brazil continues to be a regionally distinct society, he proposes that there should be new research focused on discovering transitory interpretations of blackness. Burdick also notes the need for additional research on religion and music. Perhaps one could find preliminary clues on related themes that emerge in existing scholarship? For example, the Afro-Brazilian martial art-dance-game of capoeira is strongly connected to concepts of spirituality and religious belief and intertwined with various notions of blackness and identity politics, specifically connected to music. Another site is the Afro-Brazilian religious practice of Candomblé. While Burdick acknowledges Candomblé (where he estimates that evangelical practitioners greatly outnumber this community), it is possible that one could explore how Afro-Brazilian religious sects have differing degrees of identity, and how they relate to music-making practices based on rural or urban locations. By placing a new focus on existing studies of supposedly static or “folkloric” historicized traditions such as capoeira and Candomblé, Burdick’s approach in this current project may be able to bring new insights and interpretations into the complex range of meaning associated with Afro-Brazilian identity.
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[Review length: 780 words • Review posted on January 25, 2018]