Music video as archive of critical fabulation: an analysis of Tranca Rua

Abstract

This article analyzes the audiovisual production Tranca Rua, by the Bahia-based band ÀTTØØXXA featuring Salvador-born rapper, Baco Exu do Blues, in order to understand the music video as a living and performative document. We establish a dialogue in the field of music with authors such as Soares (2013), Sá (2021), and Dalla Vecchia (2024), articulating their contributions to music video studies. The video mobilizes symbols of Afro-Brazilian religiosity in connection with the city of Salvador, evoking Exu through aesthetic elements such as clothing, food, and the presence of the rooster, as well as through performances – including dances and CapoeyraVogue. The hypothesis of the music video as a living archive is sustained through the articulation of the notions of archive and repertoire (Taylor, 2013), critical fabulation (Hartman, 2020), canvas body, and spiral time (Martins, 2021). From this perspective, music videos are not reduced to cultural products embedded within the logic of the recording industry; they constitute performances that reinscribe silenced memories and practices, producing counter-history and modes of resistance. Based on this analysis, we seek to highlight how these audiovisual products operate as spaces of critical fabulation and canvas-body performances, expanding the meanings of the visible and the audible.