Ethno, folk, and popular: Conceptual trajectories in Brazilian ethnomusicology

This article aims to discuss, through bibliographic and documentary references, how concepts and categories such as "ethno", "folk", and "popular" have historically been used and redefined in ethnographic research on music and culture in both academic and non-academic environments in Brazil. The objective is to present new insights into the development of Brazilian ethnomusicology from the first phonographic recordings made in the country until the early 1970s, revealing trends, influences, and the way the term was disseminated within and beyond the academic sphere. Emerging within the European and North American academic milieu, ethnomusicology began to take root in Brazil in the early twentieth century through the efforts of musicologists, folklorists, and academics in the emerging fields of social sciences and humanities in Brazil. We especially aimed to observe the active and decisive role played by domestic and international agents, organizations, and institutions in this trajectory.