“There is no love in SP”: Music, graffiti, and youth cultures in political protests in Brazil

Abstract

This article aims to analyze how the articulations between two important aspects of youth culture, music, and graffiti, can inspire the emergence of political practices connected to the idea of activism in contemporary Brazil. As a case study, we analyzed the present dialogue between the graffiti “Mais amor por favor” and the song “Não Existe Amor em SP”, by rapper Criolo, as a potentializing element for the manifestation of collectives in the city of São Paulo at events of character that would signal a force of mobilization that would be even more highlighted in the so-called June Journeys, in 2013. Given this context, we emphasize that both music and street art can be intermediaries in the relationship between youth and territory in the resignification of daily life in large cities, functioning as a language capable of mediating the relationship between youth, territory, and politics. Under an activist orientation, this arrangement is a testament to the fact that such practices reinforce the capacity and power of the logics of on and offline mobilization that surround youth culture in the 21st century.