cAtaLyst UndErgrOund: ~Tropicalia & Cultural Cannibalism~

"Tropicália brought a new attitude, a new way
of looking at music within the culture, a feeling
of plurality and democracy." (Pg. 2, Gilman)

As I wrote in my previous post, the Tropicalia movement is the artistic movement that fully sparked my interest in traveling to Brasil. This post is all about the movement, its elements and philosophy, as well as what it is that intrigues me. The Tropicalia movement began as a direct response to the oppressive Brazilian military regime that came into power in 1964. While I can't directly relate the current American political situation to the one that they were experiencing in Brazil at this time, I could certainly relate to feeling a deep desire to express my utter disappointment in the present American government. While this isn't a blog post on America politics, as an artist, I definitely feel like there’s some sort of statement I would like to make on the current state of affairs. Even if that statement is that we as a country have detached ourselves from one another and many of us are attached to this consumer based society that we’ve created as well as complacent to our current state of affairs (including myself!), while watching an extensive and expensive war continue. That, in and of itself, would have been enough of a reason for me to respond so positively to the political message the Tropicalia musicians were making.

Two people, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, brought together a group of musicians and created a manifesto that would ultimately become the group’s first album. They began with a written manifesto based from concepts of French Dadaism. As the military dictatorship established itself (beginning in 1964), many of the basic social rights that Brazilians had enjoyed (like Habeas Corpus) were subsequently revoked. This produced a tremendous amount of tension and Brasilian citizens proceeded to organize rallies and events to protest the oppressive military regime. Musically, during this time period, the Brasilian charts were dominated by Bossa Nova. While Bossa Nova had a hold on the popular music charts in Brazil and around the world, the music didn’t reflect the current social situation in Brazil. I equate this musical time period with our present situation in America. One in which American popular music is not reflective of the pressing concerns that we have as a country, such as unemployment and lack of adequate healthcare for many U.S. citizens (including myself). The manifesto borrowed heavily from Oswald de Andrade's, Manifesto antropofagico. As Oswald de Andrade states in his seminal work, the manifesto also incorporated some elements of Dadaism:

“In his “Anthropophagite Manifesto” from 1928, Oswalde de Andrade, a central protagonist of Brazilian modernism… introduces the notion of cultural cannibalism, the metaphorical consumption of aspect of foreign or past cultures, which are then worked through, analyzed, assimilated, equipped with new elements and transformed into a new product” (pg. 15, Dunn)

This concept of cultural cannibalism conjures up violent imagery on purpose as the manifesto was intended to challenge old perceptions about Brasilian music as well as Western philosophical ideology. The full frontal assault on ideology was an attack on the oppressive military regime that had taken much of the basic rights of Brasilian citizens. By assimilating the musical influences of bands such as The Beatles and combining them with the musical elements of popular Brasilian music such as Samba and Bossa Nova the Tropicalistas were able to penetrate the previous perceptions that dominated Brasilian popular culture. They used the concept of Anthropophagy, developed by Oswald, to shape their manifesto into existence. This became such a huge influence for me because as a first generation American, I would like to integrate the international cultural influences that have inspired me so much. For example, my parents are from Haiti and some of the lyrics to my songs are a mish-mash of English-French-Creole with cultural references to all three cultures. Instrumentally, I am influenced by Brazilian, Haitian, African, and American rock as well as a big fan of Trip Hop. I found this idea of cultural cannibalism to be extremely exciting because it was a solid reference point from which I could continue to build my compositions. The absorption of different musical styles was seen as the creative crux of the Tropicalia movement. This ideology that incorporated the neo-cannibalistic view of devourment and the cultural assimilation from foreign cultures deeply embedded itself into the development of this countercultural movement. In many ways, it was the only way that the movement could be formed, as it sought to push beyond the confines of the MPB (Brazilian popular music) movement that was dominating the charts. As we’re a richly diverse country, I feel that it’s time that different cultural experiences make their way to the forefront of the current artistic sphere. I am specifically talking about American popular music, which has a stunning lack of diversity in its perspective and doesn’t accurately reflect the cultural landscape of this country.

Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, enacted this anarchistic view towards art by actively seeking out way to subvert the Brazilian popular culture. Brazilian music festivals, which were showcased on television throughout the 60's, were seen by many as “implicitly understood to be televised rituals in defense of high-minded popular tradition against the incursions of rock-inflected pop music” (p. 4, Dunn) and were, therefore, seen as an extension of the military regime. While most musicians came to the festivals with their acoustic MPB based songs, Veloso and Gil brought the new avant-garde to the masses by incorporating their electric guitars into their performances. They were intentionally seeking a specific response to their performances:

“He (Gilberto Gil) refers to one of the principle ideas behind the Tropicalistas project: artists had to aggressively engage the mass media, or “structures”, in order to effect change. His intervention in the festival was one of the key happenings of the period…which also sought to involve and provoke enraged audiences.” (Pg. 6, Gilman)

This was done in order to violently awaken the collective consciousness of the Brasilian population to the social injustices that were occurring. An angry response is better that no response at all, right? Again, I found myself inspired by doing research and finding this information. Eliciting a response from your audience with provocative performances while highlighting social injustices and referencing different cultural influences is the type of show that I was seeking to create. In order to create their manifesto, Gil and Veloso decided to focus on what would become some of the defining elements of the movement. The group placed an importance on the interplay of music and text. As Gilman writes, ““Compositions were perceptive, humorous, and often paradoxical blends that created controversies, critically assessed cultural traditions, or focused on the incongruities in society.” (Pg. 4, Gilman) As much of the Tropicalia movement began at the Universities in Brazil, this sub cultural movement incorporated the ideas formulated within the intelligentsia and sought to incorporate Western influences as well. Their goal was to engage the Brasilian high culture in discourse regarding the economic disparity as well as highlight the hypocrisy within the military regime. Their creation of a concise movement came in the form of an album...

If you dig the Tropicalia movement, please share your thoughts below. If you're new to the movement, check out this vid. Stay tuned for more posts!!!