Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Brazil famous for samba, but today, cowboys and country music are cool
From Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau
There's a well-kept secret in Brazil, a land best known for teeny bikinis and soccer prowess: It's cool to be country and cowboy.
So cool that buyers snap up country music - American and Brazilian - at a rate that ranks it just behind rock and religious in popularity among Brazil's musical styles. And that's just legitimate sales. Add in pirated copies - Brazil is the world leader in CD piracy - and sales soar.
In the land of samba and some of the world's most populous cities, how did cowboy become so chic? Because outside megalopolises such as Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil is largely a land of agriculture. It's a continent-sized country, like the United States, of cattle raising and farm production.
And rodeo is a popular sport, with Brazilian cowboys wearing wide-brimmed hats and oversized belt buckles just like their American counterparts - though in humid Brazil, sometimes they also wear swim trunks and flip-flops.
More than 900,000 people attended the annual August rodeo at Barretos, in Sao Paulo state, Latin America's largest rodeo. Cowboys came from across Brazil and as far away as the United States and Australia for the 11-day event to ride bulls, brave bucking broncos and wrestle steers. Amazon Indians in body paint hawked handicrafts to the crowd.
"Television helps show rodeos and country culture around the world. Here, country music is just getting attention, and television will show the country culture to all of Brazil," Caminhas said.
Read the article
Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau
There's a well-kept secret in Brazil, a land best known for teeny bikinis and soccer prowess: It's cool to be country and cowboy.
So cool that buyers snap up country music - American and Brazilian - at a rate that ranks it just behind rock and religious in popularity among Brazil's musical styles. And that's just legitimate sales. Add in pirated copies - Brazil is the world leader in CD piracy - and sales soar.
In the land of samba and some of the world's most populous cities, how did cowboy become so chic? Because outside megalopolises such as Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil is largely a land of agriculture. It's a continent-sized country, like the United States, of cattle raising and farm production.
And rodeo is a popular sport, with Brazilian cowboys wearing wide-brimmed hats and oversized belt buckles just like their American counterparts - though in humid Brazil, sometimes they also wear swim trunks and flip-flops.
More than 900,000 people attended the annual August rodeo at Barretos, in Sao Paulo state, Latin America's largest rodeo. Cowboys came from across Brazil and as far away as the United States and Australia for the 11-day event to ride bulls, brave bucking broncos and wrestle steers. Amazon Indians in body paint hawked handicrafts to the crowd.
"Television helps show rodeos and country culture around the world. Here, country music is just getting attention, and television will show the country culture to all of Brazil," Caminhas said.
Read the article
Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau
# posted by Dave Sichak @ 2:04 PM 
