Abstract
The article is a schematic cultural-historical analysis of a major genre of regional popular music in Brazil, baião (the precursor to today's forró). Using Gramscian terminology appropriate to a discussion of hegemony and resistance, I argue that the early proponents of baião had to wage a cultural war of maneuver to challenge the existing hegemony of the Rio de Janeiro culture industry and to gain new respect for the northeastern Brazilian people and their culture. After success in this initial endeavor, subsequent generations of musicians have carried on a war of position to maintain baião's, and later forró's, prominence on the national stage. The article also analyzes certain common themes in forró (e.g.,saudade, or nostalgia, for the home region and a critical view of the urban Southeast) as tactics that have contributed to forró's continuing relevance to Northeasterners and to its successful struggles of maneuver and position.
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