Paper short abstract:

It investigates the protagonism of Afro-diasporic pop on digital platforms, based on how the Afrobapho collective (Brazil), formed by young black non-binary people, explores TikTok and Instagram as spaces of existence by articulating music, audiovisual, pop-peripheral and Afro-diasporic repertoires.

Paper long abstract:

This proposal aims to examine the reconfigurations of pop culture in the Global South based on Afro-diasporic protagonism in intersection with gender dissidence, fostered by the new dynamics of audiovisual consumption and circulation on digital networks. The study shows how the process of decolonisation of knowledge and digital media has not only enabled the global presence of Afro-diasporic popular culture, but has also accentuated the transcultural and decolonial power of pop. Based on this understanding, we examined how the Afrobapho collective, made up of young black and non-binary people from the suburbs of Salvador, Bahia (Brazil), has explored TikTok and Instagram as spaces for visibility and celebration of their existence through innovative artistic collaborations that combine music, audiovisuals and performances in a symbiosis of local, traditional and global repertoires. We're interested in examining how these youth groups have created black affective communities based on processes of transculturation of global pop. Afrobapho articulates global aesthetic references, related to Afrofuturism, voguing and the US Ballroom scene, with elements of Afro-Brazilian peripheral pop music, such as pagode from Bahia and funk from Rio de Janeiro, and the traditions that marked the resistance of enslaved peoples in the Americas, such as Capoeira and Candomblé. In theoretical-methodological terms, this study explores Afro-diasporic knowledge from black Brazilian authors, such as Lélia Gonzalez and the concept of "amefricanidade” (amefricanity), and Leda Maria Martins and the notions of "encruzilhadas" (crossed paths) and spiral temporality.