Mediating Culture
Mediating Culture
Charisma, Fame, and Sincerity in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
This chapter seeks to show that Pentecostal musicians struggle with both the potential gain and loss of charisma owing to the current mergers between P/e and electronic media, by drawing from the case of a renowned gospel singer, Elaine Martins. Not only have media technologies transformed and expanded the “reproduction of charisma,” but they have also generated controversies about the sincerity of the performers as converts and evangelists. To defend themselves in the face of the commercialization of the gospel music industry, singers integrate prayers and testimonies into their recordings and performances. This chapter thus underscores the need to take seriously the spiritual aesthetic of popular music and its technological (re)mediation, as well as the structural life conditions and cultural backgrounds of the people involved, in understanding the localization and globalization (what some call the “glocalization”) of P/e in settings such as Brazil.
Keywords: Pentecostal musicians, electronic media, Elaine Martins, media technologies, reproduction of charisma, gospel music industry, popular music, glocalization, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro
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