From Global Entertainment to Amazonian Tecnobrega: Mobility in Contemporary Entertainment Practices

Abstract

Notions such as transference, movement, transit and mobility have become fundamental to understand the mechanisms that rule the circulation, reception and production of contemporary cultural artifacts. In spite of the growing scholarship on the topic, very little attention has been given to a particular cultural arena: the realm of contemporary entertainment. By contemporary entertainment, I refer to a set of industrial products which are especially directed to urban young audiences: cartoons, comic books, computer games, blockbuster movies, theme park attractions, etc. This thesis argues that the realm of contemporary entertainment is marked by the presence of intense mobility, by movement and acceleration on at least two levels. First, movies (The Matrix, City of God, Run Lola Run, etc.), TV programs (the so-called “MTV aesthetics”), computer games (Doom or games based on blockbusters) and even cartoons for children (Spongebob, Pokémon, etc.) present frantic editing and engage the audiences’ senses through moving images in a vertiginous “bombardment” of signs – a phenomenon I will call kinesthesics. Second, the production and reception of these cultural objects take place in a highly intermedial environment: computer games become feature movies (Tom Raider, Resident Evil), comic books become feature movies (Sin City, Spiderman, etc.) feature movies become theme park attractions (Jurassic Park), theme park attractions become feature movies (Pirates of the Caribbean) and so on. This thesis shows how these two basic mobile characteristics play a determinant role in the complex economic, technologic and aisthesic rationale that drives the contemporary entertainment industry. i The investigation of these basic traits suggests the existence of mobility paradigms that help us better understand not only products like the ones mentioned above, but also disparate cultural artifacts such as the Brazilian aparelhagem – a traveling technological paraphernalia that brings musical entertainment to poor audiences in the Brazilian Amazon Region. Aparelhagens present an intricate blending of physical displacement, media mobility, visual spectacle and musical frenzy. This successful combination propels a popular and powerful entertainment industry in Northern Brazil known as tecnobrega. By analyzing the phenomenon and comparing it to global entertainment products, the thesis discloses aisthesic patterns that cross social, economic and cultural boundaries.