Introduction

Abstract

This Introduction elaborates the theoretical frameworks that shape the book, with a focus on meeting points of mediation, attention, and branding. It features a critique of prevailing discourses of listener attention and distraction in popular music studies in favor of relational and trans-human conceptions of attention, which are more appropriate for a study that interrogates mediation processes. It points to the long history of US and British interference in Brazilian politics and situates the present study through a transnational framework. It outlines the historical connection between Brazil’s myth of racial democracy and the perpetuation of racial stereotypes in the country’s brand. The Introduction also outlines the chapters in the rest of the book.