Dad Rock podcast: Visit Brazil with your ears
The '60s were a turbulent decade across Brazil, politically, socially and maybe most of all, musically.
In the wake of the 1964 coup d'état that overthrew the government of of President João Goulart, musicians and artists that strayed from Brazil's established artistic traditions were subject to increased scrutiny and derision from those in power. That climate made the bold statements made by a group of musicians in September 1968 all the more daring.
On this week's episode of USA TODAY's Dad Rock podcast, hosts Patrick Foster and Jim Lenahan use the backdrop of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro to discuss this movement, called Tropicalia.
Spearheaded by musicians Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, Tropicalia developed a manifesto — a collaborative album titled Tropicália: ou Panis et Circencis, that mixed traditional Brazilian song forms like bossa nova and samba with Beatlesque electric rock experiments and non-linear song structures. Many of the lyrics explicitly criticized the government.
Key players in the scene that emerged included the visceral, groundbreaking trio Os Mutantes (who served as de facto house band for the movement), the zig-zag rhythms and chattery vocals of Tom Ze, the African/bossa nova grooves of Jorge Ben and producer Roger Duprat.
This musical explosion broke the shackles of Brazilian music —and landed Veloso and Gil in jail for a time — and allowed performers and listeners a creative freedom that can be felt to this day. Much of the credit for current interest in Tropicalia can be traced to musician David Byrne (Talking Heads), who reissued key Brazilian recordings on his Luaka Bop label in the mid-1990s.
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