One month ago on April 11th, the mayor of Recife instated the frevo law, aka “Momento do Frevo” for which all radio stations in Recife should play at least two frevo songs per day. Though the songs should be played twice a day (between 8am-12pm and 2pm-6pm), the problem is there’s no punishment for stations that choose to ignore the law.
“It may seem little, but it’s not. We want to provoke a debate, to rescue the culture and stimulate the composition of new frevos. I’m certain that all radio stations will adhere (to the law) when they understand our intention better, even if they only play one frevo per day,” explained city counsilor Marco Aurélio Medeiros, the author of the bill.
Most people in the radio industry in Recife are against it, though understand the law’s good intention. The artistic director of the Transamérica radio station is one of the people against the “Momento do Frevo”. He says, “It’s not important that frevo is played, but rather that frevo is liked by the people in their day-to-day.” Nonetheless, the only radio station til now that’s followed the law is that of Folha de Pernambuco, which already included frevo in their programming.
The problem with the population’s connection to frevo music is they associate it with Carnival time and rarely experience it during other months. Also, people tend to think of it as visual and musical, but not merely musical. The important thing is that the law got people talking about the subject and, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say the mayor intentionally left out punishment for not following the law so that the subject would become a discussion point. – Source (PT)
