The Top 20 CDs of 2006 and the Saga of Calcinha Preta

São Paulo - The Brazilian Association of Record Producers recently announced the 20 best selling CDs for 2006. The general lack of quality, including a Singing Priest on top and several telenovela soundtracks, brought tears to the eyes of anyone who enjoys good Brazilian music. Here’s the list (get out your hankie):

Top 20 Best Selling Brazilian CDs in 2006

1. Padre Marcelo Rossi – “Minha Benção” (Sony BMG)
2. Caio Mesquita – “Jovem Brazilidade” (EMI Music)
3. Rebelde – “Nuestro Amor” (EMI Music)
4. Roberto Carlos – “Duetos” (Sony BMG)
5. Ana Carolina – “Estampado” (Sony BMG)
6. Bruno & Marrone – “Ao Vivo Em Goiânia” (Sony BMG)
7. Vários – “Bem Funk - DJ Marlboro” (Som Livre)
8. Zezé Di Camargo & Luciano – “Diferente” (Sony BMG)
9. Kid Abelha – “Acústico MTV” (Universal Music)
10. Jota Quest – “MTV Ao Vivo” (Sony BMG)
11. Vários – “Belíssima Internacional” (Som Livre)
12. Marisa Monte – “Infinito Particular” (EMI Music)
13. Marisa Monte – “Universo Ao Meu Redor” (EMI Music)
14. Rebelde – “Nosso Amor Rebelde” (EMI Music)
15. Rebelde – “Live In Hollywood” (EMI Music)
16. Ana Carolina – “Dois Quartos” (Sony BMG)
17. Mayck e Lyan – “Defendendo A Tradição” (EMI Music)
18. Vários – “Páginas Da Vida Internacional” (Som Livre)
19. Skank – “MTV Ao Vivo” (Sony BMG)
20. Vários – “Páginas Da Vida Nacional” (Som Livre)

Of course, good popular music – check me, excellent popular music – continues to be produced in Brazil. In addition to payola (called “jabá in Brazil), what’s happening in terms of the “best sellers” is a shift in Brazilian society that those of us who favor both good music and social justice should applaud on one hand and ponder on the other.

With a blip that became a false start during the Cruzado Plan in 1986, but in earnest since the Real Plan in 1994, there has been a transformation in the music buying public. Regular folks, mostly poor, mostly poorly educated, are beginning to have enough money to buy music. As you might expect, their tastes don’t quite reach the level of Afro-Sambas. And that fact is reflected in the Best Seller list. Ponto final.

Now for an extended funny aside. Since BrazilMax is a travel portal, I sometimes attend travel conferences. A couple of years ago I was at the fair of the Brazilian Association of Travel Agents (ABAV) in Rio de Janeiro. It is Brazil’s biggest travel event. At the Paraíba stand I was invited to a private party at a nearby club sponsored by the state tourism commission. I went with a Carioca friend, transplanted to São Paulo, Mauricio Vigio, who runs a travel agency called Innovatour. We got there and were ceremoniously sent to the “camarote” (the VIP section - me being a big shot journalist!), where we were provided with straw hats and all the paçoca we could eat.

Then the band came on. They were of course from Paraíba and were introduced as a forró band, so I got my hopes up. I love forró. But they actually played a weird combination of bad heavy metal pop, bad 70s pop and questionable Brazilian rhythms. They had a cute front girl who shimmied and shimmied to the delight of me and my buddy, single for the night, but the rest of the show was really, really sorry. We started making jokes. Jeez, we blurted out, how can these guys make a living? The climax of the show was when the above mentioned cutie threw a pair of black panties into the crowd.

The band was called… indeed still is called (what else?) Calcinha Preta.

A few months later, I was having a beer at my local “boteco” when Calcinha Preta came on the TV screen. They were making an appearance on none other than TV Globo’s Domingão do Fastão, the audience leader on Sunday afternoons. Then I noticed that the guys who owned and hung out at said boteco, mostly “nordestinos,” all took Calcinha Preta very seriously. Then I learned that the owners of the bar had purchased a (pirate, of course) Calcinha Preta DVD to play at all hours. Then I discovered that Calcinha Preta is making bleep-loads of money as an independent band with all sorts of merchandising schemes.

Don’t believe me? Check out the Calcinha Preta website.

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