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Defining Brazilian Popular Music
By Michael Anthony Lahue*.

A few months ago while performing in the New York area, I encountered an interesting challenge as I tried to explain Brazilian Popular Music to non-Brazilians. Every time I casually introduced myself as a composer of Brazilian Popular Music, I was faced with a blank look and the question, “What exactly is Brazilian popular Music?”. “It’s Música Popular Brasileira, or MPB for short”, I would think to myself. Did I really truly know how to answer that question?

How do I define something that is a feeling, an experience, something that can only be understood through sound and emotion? In Brazil, MPB is a household acronym, so to speak, and needs no explanation. It would be like asking a Brazilian, “What is samba?”. MPB includes any Brazilian music not categorized as classical, which is to say, all non-classical music ever created since the discovery of Brazil by Pedro Álvares Cabral in April of 1500. Olavo Bilac, the 19th century Carioca poet, describes the origins of Brazilian music in his book Poesias (Poetry) with the poem Música Brasileira (2001):

Brazilian music is founded upon the syncretism of European, African and Indigenous Amerindian musical traditions which all contribute to its uniqueness. In The Brazilian Sound, Chris McGowan and Ricardo Pessanha provide some additional insights (1998):

Most Brazilian music shares three outstanding qualities. It has an intense lyricism tied to its Portuguese heritage that often makes for beautiful, highly expressive melodies, enhanced by the fact that Portuguese is one of the most musical tongues on earth and no small gift to the ballad singer. Second, a high level of poetry is present in the lyrics of much Brazilian popular music. And last, vibrant Afro-Brazilian rhythms energize most Brazilian songs, from samba to baião.

So what does “Brazilian Popular Music” really mean? Webster’s Dictionary defines “popular music” as “suitable or intended for the general public” (1986). But that which is considered “suitable” changes over history and between cultures. For example, the lundu, a popular Portuguese dance, was in vogue in colonial Brazil, although it had been condemned in Portugal by the Inquisition and the Jesuits due to its voluptuous choreography.

The Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa (Houaiss Dictionary of the Portuguese Language) defines “popular music” as “urban music of an oral tradition, the authors of which are usually known” (2001). This definition implies that popular music is only urban, although it is well documented that MPB arose and evolved in urban as well as rural settings.

It also suggests that popular music does not include folkloric music, a genre in which many songs are anonymous. Authorship of sambas in Rio de Janeiro has historically been disputed because of songs plagiarized by musician colleagues listening attentively in the bars and copyrighted illegally at the Biblioteca Nacional (Brazilian National Library) in downtown Rio. During the golden age of radio, famous singers were commonly listed by composers as coauthors in order to get air time and sell the music. When Antonio Carlos Jobim and other creators of Bossa Nova first arrived in the US in the early 1960’s they faced great difficulties, and in desperation they sold their songs and authorship rights just to buy food. Clearly, authorship of popular music is often ambiguous.

The Enciclopédia da Música Brasileira (Encyclopedia of Brazilian Music) states that the abbreviation “MPB” does not apply to just any type of Brazilian Popular Music (2000). It came into general use around 1965, although it had been used as early as 1960 by Ari Barroso in the liner notes of the LP Bossa Nova, by Carlos Lira. The acronym arose as a synonym for Bossa Nova, but by 1966, with the appearance of Brazilian pop-rock pioneered by the so called Jovem Guarda (Young Guard), Moderna Música Popular Brasileira (MMPB – Modern Brazilian Popular Music) was understood to include all Brazilian musical genres except rock and related styles such as soul and blues.

In 1967, MPB artists such as Elis Regina and the Tropicalistas (Tropicalists) Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil became influenced by pop-rock, and MPB came to include anything that was not pure rock-and-roll. Even so, the Velha Guarda (Old Guard) composers of the 1930’s and 40’s and sambistas (samba composers) still were not labeled under MPB. Other artists like Chico Buarque managed to avoid the overwhelming rock influence. Jobim, who remained in the musical spotlight for decades alongside such superstars as the Beatles and Michael Jackson, once said “I don’t have time to hate rock, which is older than Bossa Nova,” (Castro, 1999).

With the advent of the phonograph record, radio and TV, Brazil was bombarded with popular music from around the world, much of which was assimilated by Brazilian musicians and composers. Today, Brazilian music is threatened by the powerful “Culture Industry” that manufactures musical likes and dislikes and deceptively markets them to consumers who think they are making autonomous choices. In Rio de Janeiro, the law says that 30% of all musical radio broadcasts must include Brazilian music, a feat that is becoming ever more difficult to achieve. Jobim attested to this fact and expressed his surprise when he heard Brazilian music on Brazilian radio:

“The other day I switched on the Rádio Nacional (National Public Radio) and only heard Brazilian music. It was as if I were in New York,” (Castro, 1999).

By 1981 the Brazilian airwaves were completely dominated by pop-rock and MPB was redefined as any music made in Brazil, even songs with English lyrics. Today MPB includes all popular music sung in Portuguese, and I am sure it will still be redefined many times over.

Brazilian Popular Music is continuously emerging the way it has for the past five hundred years as Brazilian musicians access their rich cultural heritage with respect and reverence and bring forth innovative developments. In the post-modern world, music, like many other fields, has become increasingly inter and multi-disciplinary and Brazilian musicians and composers are commonly active in both the popular and the classical genres simultaneously.

There has always been a fine line between MPB and classical music and as we move into the 21st century, that line is becoming more and more difficult to trace. In the early 20th century, the classical composer Heitor Villa-Lobos traveled throughout Brazil collecting folk music and consciously integrated it into his entire ouvre. In Alma Brasileira (Brazilian Soul), Choro no.5 for piano, composed in 1925, European Romantic harmonies are fully impregnated with the austerity of an Indigenous Amerindian religious ceremony and the swing of Afro-Brazilian rhythms. The music of Villa-Lobos, in turn, had a significant influence on the music of Jobim, a self-proclaimed “mestiço of popular with classical,” (Castro, 1999).

The popularity of Jobim’s songs has often overshadowed the importance of his symphonic works such as Brasília – Sinfonia da Alvorada (Brasília – Symphony of the Dawn), commissioned by President Juscelino Kubitschek and composed in 1961 together with Vinicius de Moraes for the inauguration of Brazil’s new capital, Brasília. Incidentally, the song Água de beber (Water to drink) was written on the trip Jobim and Vinicius took to visit Brasília during the construction. In a recent issue of the Rio de Janeiro Musician’s Union (SindMusi) newsletter, Musical, the pianist, arranger and composer Cláudio Dauelsberg was interviewed about the release of two new CD’s in two very different styles, Ventos do Norte (North Winds – MPB) and Bach, recorded with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. He says, “More and more we are seeing the barrier breaking down between popular and classical… Each (of these) areas has a lot to offer to the other and it’s really cool for us to allow that encounter. But it’s a challenge to dive in with intensity and profundity in the two areas.”

Brazilian Popular Music is at the heart of Brazil’s “sonic identity”. It is Brazil in its most dynamic and real sense; a musical reference point that guides Brazilians on their life journey and provides them with a sense of belonging. It seems to me that Brazil is currently experiencing a kind of MPB renaissance or reconnaissance in an effort to map out the future of Brazilian culture and identity.

Brazilian bookstores are filled with MPB songbooks and an array of literature on the history of MPB. Brazilian Universities are producing an extensive library of MPB related musicological research. And, FUNARTE (Fundação Nacional de Arte – Brazilian National Arts Foundation) recently held the competition Pauta FUNARTE de Música Brasileira to promote up-and-coming MPB artists. Brazilians of all ages have a seemingly limitless repertoire of MPB song lyrics that they know by heart are capable of accessing at a moment’s notice during their daily rituals. At last, the “loving flower of three sad races” has created a new home in the tropical garden of paradise, a garden replete with sabiás singing saudades for Brazil.