Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

:Hello, Hello Brazil: Popular Music in the Making of Modern Brazil

2005; Oxford University Press; Volume: 110; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/ahr.110.3.846

1937-5239

Andrew Grant Wood,

Brazilian cultural history and politics

As was the case throughout the hemisphere, the first decades of the twentieth century brought sweeping change in nearly all areas of Brazilian life as well as a renewed quest to define and promote national identity. When Getúlio Vargas assumed the presidency in 1930 and centralized political power under the Estado Novo, Brazil embarked on a number of modernization projects that stimulated not only industrial and urban growth but also the development of new mass communication technologies and a corresponding consumer market. With the passing of the Old Republic, a number of artists met with the new president and requested that radio and live music programmers give priority to Brazilian performers. Although Vargas did not pass legislation to this effect, he ostensibly saw to it that musicians, radio industry chiefs, and government officials formed an informal alliance dedicated to “a new Brazil.” In fact, the remaking of Brazilian national culture had begun a decade earlier as a growing number of artists from both high and popular culture realms exchanged ideas. Anthropologist Gilberto Freyre and historian Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, for example, associated with popular musicians including the famous Pixinguinha. Composers and poets such as Heitor Villa-Lobos, Oswald de Andrade, and Mário de Andrade immersed themselves in early samba and choro music, interpreting these expressions as essential in characterizing Brazilian culture. With the rise of the Estado Novo, centralizing efforts only accelerated the quest for national identity and the selection of Afro-Brazilian culture as a critical component.