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(, ''Brazilian Popular Music'') or MPB is a trend in post- bossa nova urban
popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...
in
Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
that revisits typical Brazilian styles such as
samba Samba () is a broad term for many of the rhythms that compose the better known Brazilian music genres that originated in the Afro-Brazilians, Afro Brazilian communities of Bahia in the late 19th century and early 20th century, It is a name or ...
, samba-canção and baião and other Brazilian regional music, combining them with foreign influences, such as
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
and rock. This movement has produced and is represented by many Brazilian artists, such as Jorge Ben Jor,
Caetano Veloso Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso (; born 7 August 1942) is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicália, which encompas ...
,
Gal Costa Gal Maria da Graça Costa Penna Burgos (born Maria da Graça Costa Penna Burgos; 26 September 1945 – 9 November 2022), known professionally as Gal Costa (), was a Brazilian singer of Música popular brasileira, popular music. Twelve-times Bra ...
,
Djavan Djavan Caetano Viana (; born 27 January 1949) is a Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest singers in Brazilian history. Early life and career Djavan was born in Maceió, Brazil to a whit ...
, Novos Baianos, Tom Jobim, Chico Buarque, Belchior and
Elis Regina Elis Regina Carvalho Costa (March 17, 1945 – January 19, 1982), known professionally as Elis Regina (), was a Brazilian singer of Bossa nova, Música popular brasileira, MPB and jazz music. She is also the mother of the singers Maria Rita and ...
, whose individual styles generated their own trends within the genre. The term often also describes any kind of music with Brazilian origins and "voice and guitar style" that arose in the late 1960s. Variations within MPB were the short-lived but influential artistic movement known as tropicália, and the music of
samba rock Samba rock (also known as samba soul or confused with samba funk and sambalanço) is a Brazilian dance culture and music genre that fuses samba with rock music, rock, soul music, soul, and funk. It emerged from the dance parties of São Paulo's l ...
. MPB songs are in part characterized by their harmonic complexity and their elaborate lyrics, which call back to a connection between Brazil's popular music and
poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
that has been culturally relevant since the 1920s. It also draws from themes from Brazil's folk music as a part of an effort to create a musical style that reflected true Brazilian culture. During the 1970s, these qualities gave the style an intellectual prestige that made it more popular for listening as an art form rather than being used as music for dancing, further distinguishing it from other popular music of the time. However, this was not always the case, as demonstrated by music by artists such as Jorge Ben Jor, many of whose songs fall into the category of
dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
music. Many of the albums on ''Rolling Stone Brazil''s list of the 100 greatest Brazilian albums fall under the MPB style.


History

MPB, loosely understood as a "style", debuted in the mid-1960s, with the
acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...
being applied to types of non-electric music that emerged following the beginning, rise and evolution of bossa nova. MPB artists and audiences were largely connected to the intellectual and student population, causing later MPB to be known as "university music." Over time, the definition of MPB expanded to include a wider variety of music that was popular in Brazil, including rock music, which was not initially under the umbrella due to its foreign origins.


Initial success

Like bossa nova, MPB was an attempt to produce a "national" Brazilian music that drew from traditional styles. MPB made a considerable impact in the 1960s, thanks largely to several televised music festivals. The beginning of MPB is often associated with
Elis Regina Elis Regina Carvalho Costa (March 17, 1945 – January 19, 1982), known professionally as Elis Regina (), was a Brazilian singer of Bossa nova, Música popular brasileira, MPB and jazz music. She is also the mother of the singers Maria Rita and ...
's interpretation of Vinícius de Moraes and Edu Lobo's "Arrastão." In 1965, one month after celebrating her 20th birthday, Elis appeared on the nationally
broadcast Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...
''Festival de Música Popular Brasileira'' and performed the song. Elis recorded "Arrastão" and released the song as a single, which became the biggest-selling single in Brazilian music history at that time and catapulted her to stardom. This brought MPB to a national Brazilian audience and many artists have since performed in the style over the years. Thanks to an economic boom in Brazil through the 1960s and '70s, an expanding working and middle class had greater access to television, which became a substantial vehicle for the consumption and spread of MPB. Musical showcases such as ''Festival de Música Popular Brasileira'' turned out to be a massive success, and the stations '' TV-Record'' and ''FIC'' most notably competed in a ratings battle that resulted in greatly expanding the audience of Brazilian Popular Music. In particular, the shows ''O Fino da Bossa'' and ''
Jovem Guarda Jovem GuardaJovem Guarda translates literally as "young guard". It could be interpreted as "vanguard". was primarily a Brazilian musical television show first aired by Rede Record in 1965, although the term soon expanded to designate the entir ...
'' achieved a great deal of media attention and praise, with the former being attributed to taking part in the creation of MPB. The successes of both prompted the live broadcasting of more vibrant music festivals. These events were more like competitions, and artists first had to go through a lengthy submission process before being given the chance to perform in front of a panel of judges as well as a live audience. The music festivals further expanded viewership while also increasing the competition between artists for airtime and stations for better ratings.


MPB in telenovelas

Brazilian
telenovela A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar Drama (film and television), drama genres around the w ...
s in the early 1970s featured MPB hits by big-name artists of the time such as Elis Regina,
Gilberto Gil Gilberto Passos Gil Moreira (; born 26 June 1942), is a Brazilian singer-songwriter and politician, known for both his musical innovation and political activism. From 2003 to 2008, he served as Brazil's Ministry of Culture (Brazil), Minister of ...
, and
Caetano Veloso Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso (; born 7 August 1942) is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicália, which encompas ...
among others in the soundtracks of the shows. The telenovelas were huge commercial successes, with CDs of the soundtracks regularly topping sales charts. As time passed and MPB diversified, telenovela soundtracks followed suit, featuring MPB artists but also including newly popular songs considered outside the style, such as rock music and more mainstream pop. Despite concerns at the time about the telenovelas having too large of a role in shaping the Brazilian pop music that became mainstream, they have become one of the only public outlets that still continuously broadcast MPB up to the present day. Because the widespread success of Brazilian telenovelas enabled them to reach an international market, their soundtracks, many of which include MPB songs, have also been commercially successful abroad.


MPB and Censorship

Throughout its existence, artists making MPB often challenged the existing political structure through their music. This includes releasing songs with lyrics criticizing the Brazilian government of the 1960's and 70's. For example, Chico Buarque released the song "Apesar de Você" in 1970. The lyrics used an abusive romantic relationship as a metaphor for the oppression from the Brazilian government. The lyrics avoided direct censorship until roughly a year later.


MPB after the 1960s

In the wake of increased government
censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...
on art forms such as music in the early 1970s, artists became much more limited in the music they could produce, and those who refused to conform to the standards set by the law risked
exile Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...
. As a result, the number of innovative artists and songs that were broadcast dropped, and likewise, the program ratings. However, efforts by
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...
s as well as record companies for music that met the standard set by the music festivals of the '60s continued, with the television festival ''Abertura'' being one such example. While ''Abertura'' featured many up-and-coming artists, press commentary rarely considered them to be as good as MPB from the '60s. From this emerged a debate about the role of television in broadcasting song and performance. On one side, some television producers attached a duty to revitalizing the creativity within the Brazilian popular music scene. Critics of this argued that the best of the current creative pool had already been exhausted by the music festivals and that the continuous output of MPB served more as a detriment to the industry than a benefit. Despite this, attempts by television and record companies at recreating the music festivals of the '60s continued with various programs into the '80s, which was met with only modest success. In the early 2000s, the company
IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
organized some Internet-based festivals with votes cast online by the audience rather than by a jury. This fared better than the television attempts two decades before but did not achieve the sweeping success of programs from the 1960s.


See also

* Latin Grammy Award for Best MPB Album


References


External links


Brazilian music at ''CliqueMusic''
* MPB at ''AllMusic.com''
What Is Brazilian MPB Music? at ''Sounds and Colours''

Brazilian music – beyond the clichés
{{DEFAULTSORT:Musica Popular Brasileira Brazilian styles of music Popular music by country