The consumption of regional music as mediator of the identity

Abstract

The present master thesis intends to understand how identity is evolved in thestate of Rio Grande do Sul taking into account the consumption of two regionalmusical movements: regional RS country music “campeira” and “tchê” music.Within the media, these two genres are perceived as competitors, opposingcountryside lifestyle to urban lifestyle ant tradition to modernity. When theconsumption of these genres in everyday situations is analyzed, what can beobserved are opposing and complementary trends: consumption whiledistinction and while communication (García Canclini, 1996). On one hand,consumption allows social groups to face each other and to keep a status ofconfrontation; on the other hand, popular and mass media hybridism, modernand tradition hybridism help to blend and share diverse and unequal socialgroups’ experience.