Cristo in concert : as inter-relações entre a música gospel e as vivências religiosas dos consumidores evangélicos no Brasil

Abstract

Phenomena involving the areas of religion and music are increasingly present in academic/scientific debates. In this sense, I set out to discuss the problem question that guided the postulates of this thesis: What are the power relations exerted by gospel music on its Brazilian evangelical consumers? As main theoretical assumptions, some of the concepts expressed by Max Weber in his work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Weber, 2004) were taken as a basis. Weber's work is used as a comparative empirical analysis between the Protestant of the past and the evangelical of today, in order to be able to inter-relate his concepts with critical theories that involve the areas of the cultural industry (Adorno, 1971), of the same In this way, the consumption processes generated by gospel music currently in Brazil. Religious consumption takes on multiple dimensions, in an abstract and integrated system, which directly incorporates current evangelical worship, and is also linked to subjective experiences between cultural objects, their producers and consumers. Therefore, the general objective of the research focuses on understanding the main power relations exercised between gospel music and its evangelical consumers in Brazil through virtual environments. This thesis is configured as a research report; and as methodological procedures, data from the internet were used. The religious-musical phenomenon of interest in this research comprises multiple subjects, in different socioeconomic conditions, but which is restricted to a portion of Brazilian religious faith, self-identified as an evangelical group. The empirical fields of research consist of three different churches, with different doctrinal characteristics: Baptist Church, Assembly of God Church and International Church of the Grace of God, in which online services have been observed since the beginning of the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2; the social networks of some Brazilian evangelical singers were also observed, among the most relevant at the time; By the way, a discourse analysis was carried out in an interview published on YouTube with a Brazilian evangelical singer; Finally, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 3 evangelical believers, in their different denominations. In general terms, gospel music in Brazil goes beyond any musical style, it is also configured as a living organism, which moves social and economic groups, creating a hybrid culture in Brazilian society. At the same time that gospel music is a religious apparatus, it is also a marketing tool, which has influenced evangelicals in their ways of being in the world, even having repercussions on political aspects.