ABSTRACT
The favelas of Rio de Janeiro are so famous in the global imaginary that “favela” has become shorthand for precariously constructed neighborhoods that are both culturally rich and replete with crime and poverty. Favelas are now trendy in international settings, inspiring art gallery shows, and a globe-spanning chain of high-end music clubs called "Favela Chic". Through an analysis of how music and sound take part in the perpetuation of stereotypes about urban violence in Brazil, it argues that sensationalist depictions of Rio de Janeiro’s slums and related fantasies about favela life rely on a combination of stereotyping and audiovisual hyperrealism. In films that feature the violence of the drug trade, many aesthetic choices also reveal contradictions in how favelas can frame either fantasies about urban violence or, on the other extreme, a type of hyperreal grit. The cultural penetration of tropes of slum violence is so extensive, that it has affected Brazilian electoral politics.
