Dartmouth Events

This lecture will discuss the history and multicultural attributes of Brazil’s four most influential music styles: samba, bossa nova, MPB and Tropicália. At first, Borim will examine what anthropologist Hermano Vianna has called “samba’s mystery,” that is, how samba emerges, in the early 1930s, from the poor and despised periphery to the center of the nation’s musical identity. Roughly two and half decades later, bossa nova is born initially to stun and annoy Brazilian audiences, but soon to conquer and enchant the world within and beyond Brazil through a smooth and sophisticated revolution in musical aesthetics. Less than ten years passed, another two movements define and establish the underpinning of Brazil’s musical legacy in the 20th century: the socio-political make-up and outreach of MPB (música popular brasileira) and the radical multi-artistic phenomenon of Tropicália.