The Black Beat of Lisbon: Sociabilities, Music and Resistances

Abstract

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Raposo, O. & Marcon, F. (2021). The black beat of Lisbon: Sociabilities, music and resistances. In Ricardo Campos, Jordi Nofre (Ed.), Exploring ibero-american youth cultures in the 21st century: Creativity, resistance and transgression in the city. (pp. 175-198). Cham: Springer., which has been published in final form at

Batida and the politics of sonic agency in Afro-Lisboa

“…Something similar could be affirmed of the centrality of semba and marrabenta in the Angolan and Mozambican context respectively. If these "traditional" musical styles played a decisive role in the cultural resistance to Portuguese colonialism, "cosmopolitan" rhythms coming from the musical repertoire of the African Diaspora have been precursors in giving visibility to the young people of African descent in Portugal, either denouncing structural racism, in the case of creole rap 7 , or staging in a more playful way a sociability that challenges the urban marginalization, such as kuduro, afrobeat, and batida (Raposo and Marcon 2021). Produced by young Afro-Portuguese families coming from territories formerly colonised by Portugal, the Lisbon soundscape generated by these rhythms fused and updated "more traditional" influences from previous generationsincluding morna, coladeira, funaná, batuke, tabanka and semba.…”

“…The launching of this compilation was timed to match the start of school term, a strategy which resulted in a peak of sociality. Djs do Guetto popularised batida to the extent that the musicians responsible for the album were invited to perform in France, Switzerland and other European countries (Raposo and Marcon 2021). Although the group formally stopped working together a few years later, the atmosphere of collaboration continued, proving influential for younger generations such as the "Piquenos Djs do Guetto" ("The little ghetto Djs" a group organised around Quinta do Mocho that included Firmeza, Liofox, Maboku, Dadifox and Liocox.)…”