Commentary
Although the 1960s Brazilian cultural movement known as Tropicalia lasted only a few years, its musical impact has resounded down the decades, in its home country and in the output of such North American artists as David Byrne, Arto Lindsay, and Beck. Christopher Dunn's authoritative study of the pastiche of old and new musical and cultural genres that evolved as a reaction to Brazil's '60s political repression is an erudite journey through its many forms and influences, from its roots in 1920s modernism and its later ironic appropriation of caricature Carmen Miranda-style cultural references, to its noisy rejection of the subtle sophistication of bossa nova. Tropicalia emerges from these pages as an intriguing manifesto of how a generation saw itself for a brief period; its enduring interest lies in its obvious parallels to North American '60s counterculture and the struggle for artistic, cultural, and political definition on the part of its adherents. With a useful discography including works by both the music's originators and those later inspired by it, BRUTALITY GARDEN is an essential aid to understanding the origins of this fertile genre.

Publisher's Notes
In the late 1960s, Brazilian artists forged a watershed cultural movement known as Tropicália. Music inspired by that movement is today enjoying considerable attention at home and abroad. Few new listeners, however, make the connection between this music and the circumstances surrounding its creation, the most violent and repressive days of the military regime that governed Brazil from 1964 to 1985. With key manifestations in theater, cinema, visual arts, literature, and especially popular music, Tropicália dynamically articulated the conflicts and aspirations of a generation of young, urban Brazilians.

Focusing on a group of musicians from Bahia, an impoverished state in northeastern Brazil noted for its vibrant Afro-Brazilian culture, Christopher Dunn reveals how artists including Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, and Tom Zé created this movement together with the musical and poetic vanguards of Sao Paulo, Brazil's most modern and industrialized city. He shows how the tropicalists selectively appropriated and parodied cultural practices from Brazil and abroad in order to expose the fissure between their nation's idealized image as a peaceful tropical "garden" and the daily brutality visited upon its citizens.