This paper explains how alternative music communicates a contemporary regional identity in Northeast Brazil, is affected by cultural politics, and circulates within the musical market, in order to show how the perceived demands of globalization, such as the need to consume the products of the global entertainment industry, intersect with the dynamics of a regional music community. It was presented at the 46th Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology held in Detroit, Michigan on October 25-28, 2001.