On the Edge of Success: radio and mass popular music in Belém by the 1940’s and 1950’s

Abstract

This article focuses on the musical broadcasting conducted by Clube and Marajoara Radio Stations in Pará in the midst of the 20th century, as representative of a local trend for cultural hybridization in the musical field. The radio stations settled in Belém, in that time, were far off the dynamic centers of the country’s culture industry and the national media system of fashioning successful singers, bands and musical genres. However, the local relations between radio producers, listeners and radio audiences allowed the development of a local pattern of musical consumption and the design of a star system, which combined local, national and foreign artists.