How a run-down Ford launched a music revolution that swept Brazil’s Carnival

By DAVID BILLER
Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Behemoth sound trucks known as electric trios are a fixture of Brazil’s Carnival festivities and draw millions to the streets. The rigs effectively did away with front-row seats, making Carnival more accessible. Singer Caetano Veloso’s ode to the earth-shaking vehicles proclaimed that the only people not following them must already be dead. In the seven decades since the first one hit Brazil’s streets, they have grown ever more sophisticated and ever larger — with lights, LED screens, dressing rooms and VIP areas. The coordinator of the city of Salvador’s festivities says the trucks’ steady, constant advance means anyone rich or poor can get close enough to the music to feel it throb through their body.