Experimentalism and innovation in Brazilian popular music in the 1970's

• Grant number: 09/18261-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: July 01, 2010
• End date: June 30, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications
• Principal Investigator: Herom Vargas Silva
• Grantee: Herom Vargas Silva
• Host Institution: Pró-Reitoria de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa. Universidade Municipal de São Caetano do Sul (USCS). São Caetano do Sul , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research aims to identify and analyze the experimentalism, creativity and innovation characteristics in the musical production of composers and bands from Brazilian popular music (MPB) in the seventies, based on Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, in an especific context of media industry growth (phonographic industry and mass media - especially TV) and military dictatorship. This analysis is going to study the cultural and media conditions that allowed this kind of artistic production to appear in this period. The artists who are going to be analyzed are: Tom Zé (5 albums in the 70's), Walter Franco (3 albums), the bands Novos Baianos (8 albums) and Secos & Molhados (2 albums). They all recorded the whole or part of their albums in Continental, one of the most important brazilian phonographic label in the seventies. The innovation aspects are going to be analyzed in three issues. First, in the popular song language, known as a hybrid object (lyrics, singing, music and performance). Then, in the albums, known not only as a recording support or cultural commodity, but as an organized work according to an aesthetic project too, including cover visual informations and other technical data or texts. Lastly, in the relationship between these artists and all the media linked to the mass song field (mass media, phonographic industry and press). (AU)