Tecnobrega

Tecnobrega is the electronic dance music of Belém, Pará, in northern Brazil: the romantic brega song tradition rebuilt on cheap digital production, sped up with carimbó and guitar rhythms, and blasted through the towering aparelhagem sound systems at open-air parties. Producers remix brega ballads and compose new tracks at frenetic tempos, while artists such as *Gaby Amarantos* and *Gang do Eletro* carried the style national. Tecnobrega is equally famous for its economy: artists give recordings away to street vendors and party promotion rather than selling them, a distribution model studied worldwide as an alternative music business.