A banda Pelos de Cachorro

Abstract

This work presents the way of four band musicians from the band Pelos de Cachorro. They are from Aglomerado da Serra, a shanty-town the in south region of Belo Horizonte. Through the aesthetic and social experiment of these young people and trying to understand how and why rock and roll has become their chosen way of expression, we reach questions associated to the urban world in our days: the complexity of the identity formation process, the relation between city centers andoutskirts, racial descrimination in Brazil. We understand that rock and roll is not a style which is generally associated to black young people in Brazilian slums. They are more likely to produce rap, funk, pagode or songs inspired in old African roots. How have they practised their black race and how have they taken a position regarding the situations created by racial prejudice? Choosing rock and roll may be interpreted too as an answer to these situations and as a way of reaching again a kind of music that, in its black origin, served as an expression of indignation.