Brazil's tropicália movement fused rock 'n' roll, Latin music, and poetry

Brazil's tropicália movement fused rock 'n' roll, Latin music, and poetry

Tropicália was a short-lived Brazilian style of rock ‘n’ roll that blended samba, bossa nova, modernist poetry, and American rhythm and blues that offered provocative, anti-authoritarian, and avant-garde ideas through popular music, much to the delight of the country’s evolving youth culture.

Unlike bossa nova, tropicália was intentionally confrontational

The genre drew on elements of older Brazilian music, like samba and bossa nova, but it was also influenced by psychedelic rock, especially the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," and was highly critical of the country's military dictatorship. That led to repercussions: Two of the movement's primary figures, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, were detained and exiled in 1968.

Bossa nova blends Brazilian samba and American jazz

Conceived by artists like Antônio Carlos Jobim in 1950s Rio de Janeiro, the music was seen as a more restrained, slower samba, which was Brazil's popular national music at the time. In addition, bossa nova was popular in the more middle-class, cosmopolitan neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro and was influenced by American jazz artists like Miles Davis, giving it a more urbane, intellectual air.

Brazil's military dictatorship led to bossa nova's decline

In 1964, Brazil's president João Goulart was overthrown by a military coup supported by the US State Department. Scholars argue that the events led to the decline of bossa nova, with many Brazilians believing its pleasant sounds and picturesque lyrics were tone-deaf to the politically fraught moment.

Guitarist Charlie Byrd brought bossa nova to the US after a government-sponsored tour

The Mutual and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961, also known as the Fulbright–Hays Act, sought to spread understanding through education and cultural exchanges. Its passage led to a government-sponsored music tour of South America featuring jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd. In Brazil, Byrd was introduced to the music of João Gilberto and returned to the United States eager to incorporate bossa nova into his own music.

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Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

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The de stijl movement embraced bright colors and abstract images

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Prince pioneered what would come to be known as 'the Minneapolis Sound'

Inspired by eclectic artists like Sly and the Family Stone, as well as lesser-known mentors and peers in the Twin Cities, Prince blended R&B, rock, pop, new wave, soul, funk, punk, and more, creating a sound that defied easy categorization.

Zurich's Cabaret Voltaire was the epicenter of early performance art

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Colombia’s biodiversity performs the national anthem

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