Funk, Fighting, and Fraternity in Rio de Janeiro's Corridor Events: Space and Unstable Governance in a Fractured City

This dissertation is a study of funk and urban space in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Specifically, the dissertation concerns galeras, groups of dozens, if not hundreds, of youths who represent blocks, streets, or, more commonly, favelas throughout Greater Rio. During the 1990s, the galeras' main activity was attending funk-fueled events called bailes de corredor, or corridor events. Funk, not to be confused with funk from the United States, is the first Brazilian style of danceable electronic music—derived principally from 1980s Miami bass, but also from electro, rap, and freestyle. Reaching the height of their popularity in the 1990s, corridor events spotlight particular kinds of Rio funk called montagens de galeras, style which features lyrics about individual galeras; utilize sampled beats from Miami bass, electro, and/or freestyle; make prominent use of echo; have ornamental sounds called pontos, or points; and feature chants sung by galeras. Alongside montagens de galeras, corridor events also feature the association of each galera with one of two larger groups assembling multiple galeras, which participants have termed Lado A (A-side) and Lado B (B-side) and, also, organized fighting between these two sides—sides separated by an empty space called the corridor. I show that both galeras and corridor events emerged out of two essential circumstances. The first was the consolidation of favelas as ineradicable parts of Rio, a series of now-permanent spaces which became further rooted in the city through continued infrastructural development. The second condition is the expansion of violence throughout Rio with the infiltration of criminal organizations into favelas—violence amplified by the particular configuration of Rio, in which a few criminal organizations compete through territorial control. These two conditions, although certainly not the only ones, were crucial for supporting developments in galera formation and the widespread popularization, in the 1990s, of corridor events.