The rise of the musical style known as Tropicalia began in the early 1960s as young Brazillian artists and musicians, tired of the classic bossa nova, began experimenting with new sounds that reflected the cultural changes they saw everywhere around them (psychedelic drugs, free love, anti-war)
The rise of a military dictatorship in 1964 served as a clarion call for Brazilian artists to band together and subvert the government's powers, using culture as their weapon. Pioneered by Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, Tropicalismo emerged as an attempt to assimilate musical styles and achieve a compromise between national and international influences.To that end, Gil and Veloso combined strains of blues, rock, psychedelia, folk and jazz with Latin American genres bossa nova and samba, and dubbed the hybrid a "universal sound," which they debuted at a 1967 televised music festival. The music moved Brazil into the forefront of pop avant-garde.
Key Tropicalia Artists:
Gilberto Gil - once imprisoned and exiled by the Brazilian government for his music, Gil is now Brazil's Minister of Culture! Made a great 1968 album with Os Mutantes, a Brazilian psychedelic rock band. This album also features Caetano Veloso and is considered to be a manifesto of the Tropicalia movement.
GIL AND OS MUTANTES STREAM DOWNLOAD
Caetano Veloso - author of the original Tropicalia album is known as the Brazillian Bob Dylan. Still making music 40 years after the seminal Tropicalia.
Also the Soul Jazz Records Tropicalia compilation album is a good place to start. STREAM DOWNLOAD
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