This paper examines the globalization of Brazilian funk through a case study of Anitta’s 2024 album Funk Generation, analyzing how a historically marginalized genre rooted in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas is re-signified within transnational pop circuits. While genres such as samba and bossa nova have long projected curated images of Brazilian national identity, funk carioca has often been criminalized and framed as “sonically illegal.” Building on the cultural analyses of Hermano Vianna and Débora Costa de Faria, and drawing on Stuart Hall’s theory of identity as negotiation, this paper argues that Funk Generation functions simultaneously as cultural memory and strategic global branding.

Through close musical and visual analysis of tracks such as “Cria de Favela,” “Double Team,” and “Ahi,” I examine how Anitta mobilizes foundational elements of baile funk (funk ball)—such as the tamborzão beat, multilingual code-switching, and ostentação (ostentation) aesthetics—while adapting them to global pop markets through collaborations, smoother production, and digital cultural translation (e.g., her “Dicionário do Funk”). This negotiation raises critical questions about authenticity, class mobility, commodification, and gatekeeping within global music industries.

Methodologically, the paper situates itself within ethnomusicology by foregrounding funk as lived cultural practice, attending to sound, embodiment, circulation, and discourse rather than treating the music as text alone. By tracing how local sonic identities travel and mutate, this study contributes to ethnomusicological debates on hybridity, globalization, cultural memory, and the politics of representation in contemporary popular music.