Episode 22: Tropicalia Special

As we kick off the holiday season I am returning to one of the themes that first made me fall in love with international music. This is Brazilian rock music from the Tropicalia movement. For anyone who may not be familiar with Tropicalia, this is a movement in Brazil’s popular music scene starting in the late 1960s. Prior to the 60s the term Tropicalismo had been used to describe Brazilian music with more African elements, such as the samba of Carmem Miranda. But today the term is understood to reference an experimental and politically active movement within Brazil’s rock genre, led by a small group of musicians including Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Tom Ze, and Os Mutantes. In today’s show we will hear from all the central figures in Tropicalia, but we’ll also hear plenty of other Brazilian artists influenced by the movement. It's an early holiday gift from Tropicology.