For Funk’s Sake!

Picture this: You have been doing a lot of long days at work – getting up early, coming home late (you rarely have time for a proper lunch). It is Monday night and you are still tired from the weekend when there were various late-night events, at which your attendance was non-negotiable. 


When you got home from work tonight you managed to get a quick bite to eat and then head to bed – it is just before midnight and apart from the occasional dog bark, the night is quiet and peaceful. You close your eyes, so tired that you can feel your heavy body sinking deeper and deeper into the mattress as sleep takes you. Half-dreams flit in and out of your consciousness but you are too tired to take much notice. And then…

To use the parlance of our times, WTF?! You check the time – it is 01:35am, Monday recently became Tuesday and someone has decided now would be a good time for a party. That’s right, it’s a Baile Funk party in the nearby favela. 

I’m not 100% certain I do actually.

I have kind of mixed feelings about Baile Funk (AKA Funk Carioca) – in my first months here I decided I would like it. I had grown weary of all the soft singing, gentle strumming and obsession with saudade that seems to come with Bossa Nova (saudade can be perfectly understood by simply listening to the brilliant Gal Costa in the saudade link – it is something like melancholy longing, homesickness and gentle sadness). I found myself with my own saudade, but it was saudade for some music with a bit more oomph! 


Well Funk definitely delivers oomph. If you’re not familiar, it’s a dance music that originated here in the Rio favelas in the 80s. According to wikipedia, it derived from Miami bass. Rather than try to describe it, just watch and listen:

I think the clip above gives you an idea of the music at least. But there is so much more to say. You can’t really talk about Funk without talking about the serious booty shaking and grinding that goes with it (from the women). Because of its association with the favelas, there are inevitable associations with drugs and violence. It is also heavily associated with misogyny and sexualisation of underage girls. 

As a genre it is looked down upon by the majority of Brazil’s rich who are somewhat puzzled that Funk music has been taken up and popularised by American and European DJs such as Diplo and Daniel Haaksman. I wonder sometimes whether these DJs understand the lyrics of the music they’re playing! 


So now, after a year and a half, how do I feel about Baile Funk? I’m not 100% decided. I think I’d like to visit a Funk party in one of the favelas one day (I’m told by a lot of people that it’s an amazing experience). But do I ever choose to listen to Funk on my headphones? Never. Do the rich hate it purely because it is associated with the poor? Or just because they don’t understand it? Or because it really is terrible? 

I’m not gong to deny it – I want to check one of these out sometime. But I would be surprised if I found myself going back again and again.

I don’t know – but I do know that any music played loudly at 1.35am on a Monday night is going to annoy me whether it’s Baile Funk or Bach.