John Baeyens

Baile funk strikes a balance that all good dance music strives to achieve: between the novel and the repetitious, which allows listeners to remain interested and moving. In Rio, the music is kept alive at weekly bailes, or dances, which take place in the favelas and, occasionally, at ritzy downtown clubs. Da Matta estimates that there are as many as five hundred bailes a week, and the ten or so that he d.j.s provide him with his main source of income. Though funk CDs exist in Brazil, recordings are not a priority for the musicians. The point is to go to the bailes and dance like mad.

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