Essay Sample on Brazilian Art and Culture Redefined: Musica Popular Brasileira (MPB) in the 70s

Introduction

The Musica Popular Brasileira (MBP) began to wane in the late 1960s, the same time that American R&B, British Invasion and started to get preference among Brazilians. Things continued to get complicated in the 1970s when small groups began to get a foothold in Salvador. The new groupings were not only deconstructionist but also remarkably post-modern. The group aimed to redefine what it considered as a preconceived notion of Brazilian art and culture. It also attempted to reassemble the pieces of Brazilian music and art into an entirely new thing. The "tropicalistas" were initially a group of artists, filmmakers, and poets. However, the entry of Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso gave it its true identity. Bossa nova had taken over the hearts of most Brazilians and became the identity of the Brazilian pop culture. It was therefore unexpected outside Brazil that domestically, it was not representative of the taste and feel of the entire Brazilian population.

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Contextualizing the criticism of the bossa nova requires the understanding of the political and economic situation of Brazil during its rise. The 1960s, Brazil, had a lot of contradictions. Aside from the intermittent political instability that the country faced. The country experienced rapid economic growth after the war of 1964. However, this growth was also a considerable percentage of the population that experienced poverty. The economy favored the middle class that lived a lifestyle that past generations only imagined. The time of the growth of the bossa nova also marked the growth of non-Brazilian music. The performance of the bossa nova was, therefore, influenced by the general socioeconomic conditions of the country. The perceptions of these factors definitely influence variations in the perspectives from critics of the music.

There are multiple similarities between Chico Buarque and Caetano Veloso's critique of the Bossa Nova. Both Chico Buarque and Caetano Veloso considered Bossa Nova to be an interlude of optimism. Chico Buarque's lyrics were laden with this optimism with its detailed description of flowers, beaches, women, and the blue sky, all of which painted a picture of the Brazilian environment. His song lyrics also mentioned the shift in the presidency, from the nationalist model advanced by Getulio Vargas that was characterized by minimal state control of the label industry to that of Juscelino Kubitschek, where the fast-growing middle class experienced an increased purchasing power that enabled them to support an expansion of the music industry. On his part, Veloso considered the initial Bossa Nova compositions as igniting the combustible flames of a revolution. In his Tropicalia lyrics, he mentions the half-moon, the low coconut, foreigner joking, and a period when the court hammer disappeared in the woods. He painted the picture of a conducive environment.

Veloso and Buarque both addressed the towering element of the political irony that characterized the pre-Bossa Nova era. Buarque and Veloso addressed the Bossa Nova's inconsideration of the experiences of Brazil's poor. In Construcao, Buarque's three-stanza narration center on a construction worker's day, from the time that he starts his day to his death. Each of the stanzas point towards death. The reality of a growing middle class characterized by the building, and the desperation of the poor, represented by the worker, are a present contradiction. The song employs circular narration that is presented in a reiterative melody, which allows for the modification of the viewing angle as the song progresses from stanza to stanza. In Tropicalia, Veloso sets a carnival march and employs sharp juxtapositions that paint the picture of a worsening political environment. Tropicalia was a counterculture of sought whose lyrics were critical of the hypocrisy exhibited by the middle class and Brazil's glaring economic inequality.

Whereas Buarque employed a more subtle criticism of the Bossa Nova era that gave him little problems with the political establishment, Veloso was more direct, which led to his imprisonment and exile. In Construcao, Buarque rearranged many of the same words from one stanza to another, creating a poetic hallucination. As a result, he achieved a fantastic veiled political allegory. The fact that each of the last words of the song was a proparoxytone allowed it to be used in schools. On its part, Tropikalia's lyrics and rhythm were a direct communication to the leadership of a dislike for the economic structure camouflaged by the Bossa Nova, and that a need for a revolution was rife. Tropicalia was meant to be a portrait of a revolution. There was no reason for hiding meaning, and a more confrontational approach was needed to express displeasure at the economic inequality. However, both artists succeeded in painting the picture of the two contrasting sides of the country's socio-economic landscape.

Caetano Veloso intended to paint the picture of Bossa Nova as an aesthetically and historically aggressive affront and not what the outside world perceived it. There is a level of agreement of this perspective from Buarque's compositions. Both use hybrid languages that bring together the visual and sound and integrate it into the verbal communication that the lyrics paint. In Buarque's Construcao, there is the use of kissing, climbing steps, and construction of the four walls to paint the picture of progress. Contrastingly, there is drinking and hiccupping, stumbling in the sky, and floating in the air to indicate helplessness and desolation. The song contrasted Bossa Nova's high-flying, kingly lifestyle against the reality of an unstable growth that excluded the critical mass. It critiqued the Bossa Nova for its false sense of accomplishment that was surrounded by the fact of need A need for care, true love, and compassion.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Bossa Nova was a period of an explosion of Brazilian popular music and culture that grew from an enriched middle class. There were strong political links to the nature of economic and social growth experienced in the country, which did not accommodate everyone. Two of Brazil's famous musicians, Chico Buarque and Caetano Veloso, sought to set things clear regarding the misrepresentation of the reality of the country. Their compositions, such as Tropicalia, and Construcao, used lyrics that painted the environment. They noted the contrasting ways of living, the alter ego exhibited by the Brazilian middle class, and the present economic inequality. For both artists, and in both songs, the Bossa Nova is presented as a highly overrated period that was all hubris and little substance. The point of departure for the two artists was the choice of words and similar revolutionary theme. While Chico Buarque was more poetic and subtle in his attack to the system, Caetano Veloso was more direct in his criticism of the counterculture that was the Bossa Nova.