Tropicália
Tropicália (Portuguese pronunciation: [tɾopiˈkaʎɐ, tɾɔpiˈkaljɐ]), also known as tropicalismo ([tɾopikɐˈlizmu, tɾɔpikaˈ-]), was a Brazilian artistic movement that arose in the late 1960s. It was characterized by the amalgamation of Brazilian genres—notably the union of the popular and the avant-garde, as well as the melding of Brazilian tradition and foreign traditions and styles.[2] Today, tropicália is chiefly associated with the musical faction of the movement, which merged Brazilian and African rhythms with British and American psychedelia and pop rock. The movement also included works of film, theatre, and poetry.
For other uses, see Tropicália (disambiguation).Tropicália
Musical
Art- Manifesto Antropófago
- pop art
- Brazilian concrete movement
Late 1960s, Southeast Region, Brazil
The term tropicália (tropicalismo) has multiple connotations in that it played on images of Brazil being that of a "tropical paradise".[3] Tropicalia was presented as a "field for reflection on social history".[4]
The movement was begun by a group of musicians from Bahia notably Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Tom Zé, and the poet-lyricist Torquato Neto. Later the group moved from Salvador (the capital of Bahia) to São Paulo where they met with collaborators Os Mutantes and Rogério Duprat among others. They went on to produce the 1968 album Tropicália: ou Panis et Circencis, which served as the movement's manifesto.
Tropicália was not only an expression in analyzing and manipulating culture but also a mode of political expression. The tropicália movement came to fruition at a time when Brazil's military dictatorship and left-wing ideas held distinct but prominent amounts of power simultaneously. The tropicalists' rejection of both sides' version of nationalism (the military's conservative patriotism and the ineffectual bourgeois anti-imperialism) was met with criticism and harassment.[5]
The dissolution of the movement by the early 1970s birthed a new wave of soloists and groups identifying as “post-tropicalist”. The movement has inspired many artists nationally and internationally. Additionally, tropicalia continues to be a main feature in the original Bahian group and their fellows’ work.[2]
Critiques[edit]
Tropicália's controversy can be traced to the uncertain and unfriendly relationship the members of the movement had with the mass media. The movement's emphasis on art clashed with the media's need for mass appeal and marketability. Tropicália additionally had an image of sensuality and flamboyance. This was a protest to the reinstated oppression of Brazil's military rule in the 1960s, and an additional cause for media pushback. In 1968, tropicália events at clubs, music festivals, and television shows attracted media attention and aroused tension between Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil and their critics. This widespread attention attracted the attention and suspicion of the military, who feared tropicália's influence of protest in the cultural realm.
Near the end of 1968, tropicália experienced a shift to a more overt association with international countercultures and movements, most notably that of African-American Black Power in the United States. The movement was becoming increasingly leftist, and pushed for artistic output.[9] At a later tropicália concert in the same year, during a performance by Caetano Veloso, a riot erupted in the auditorium between tropicalists and supporters of nationalist-participant music. The nationalists were primarily college students, and the uproar culminated with screams and hurling garbage at Veloso. The nationalist-participant group's resistance of the movement was nothing new, but this incident was the tipping point of their opposition. At the nightclub Sucata, tropicália shows became increasingly resistant to Brazil's military-run society. Due to Veloso's refusal to censor the shows to government wishes, the military began to monitor tropicália events. On December 27, 1968, at the peak of government repression, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil were arrested, detained, and exiled to London for two and a half years.[2]
Modern critic Roberto Schwarz addresses tropicália's hand in solidifying the idea of the absurd as a permanent evil of Brazil, and its issues with an ideological mentality. However, the approaches of the movement were ever-shifting and did not stick to one central idea.[10]
Post Tropicália[edit]
Tropicalia introduced two very unusual movements to modern Brazil – antropofagia and concretism. In addition to this was pop music from abroad that helped inaugurate postmodernism in Brazil. In spite of the falling-outs and violence, there is a permanence of tradition in Oswald's antropofagia, who at one point of time conflicted with the idea of Romantic Indianism of the nineteenth century.[13] These ideas were and still are seen in theaters and people's notions that involved a relationship that tied back to a longer history of poetic creations.
Moreover, members of tropicalia who were not arrested or tortured, voluntarily escaped into exile in order to get away from the strict and repressing authorities. Many continuously went back and forth between different countries and cities. Some were never able to settle down. People like Caetano, Gil, and Torquato Neto, spent time in places like London, New York, or Paris.[14] Some, but not all, were allowed to return to Brazil after years had passed. Others, still could only stay for short periods of time.
At the same time, underground magazines were expanding and this gave those who were overseas a chance to speak up about their experiences. Oiticica, for example, was one who moved to New York and published a magazine article titled, “Mario Montez, Tropicamp”.[15] The names for the titles that were used related to the risky and systematic aims during the times of tropicalia. These magazines also told the stories of others who were in the United States and home in Brazil. By tropicalia going underground, there was a unity of the members within the group because people like Oiticica sent these writing to Brazil so that the articles could circulate locally.
In 2002, Caetano Veloso published an account of the tropicália movement, Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil. The 1999 compilation Tropicália Essentials, featuring songs by Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, Tom Zé, and Os Mutantes, is an introduction to the style. Other compilations include The Tropicalia Style (1996), Tropicália 30 Anos (1997), Tropicalia: Millennium (1999), Tropicalia: Gold (2002), and Novo Millennium: Tropicalia (2005). Yet another compilation, Tropicalia: A Brazilian Revolution in Sound, was released to acclaim in 2006.[16]
A 2012 documentary film, Tropicália, was made on the subject and artists in general; directed by Brazilian filmmaker Marcelo Machado, where Fernando Meirelles served as one of its executive producers.[17]