Brazilian Popular Music and Globalization
Cannibals, Mutants, and Hipsters: The Tropicalist Revival
John Harvey
This article explores the fascination of North American post-rock audiences (consumers of sound recordings, reviewers, and concert-goers) and current artists (Tortoise [below], Beck, et al.) with the music of principals of the Tropicalist movement of the late 1960s: especially the rock trio Os Mutantes, Tom Zé (SEE BELOW), and the early Caetano Veloso. Their innovative approaches to sound texturing and arrangement are seen as precursors and/or inspirations for diverse music-makers in the 1990s in the US.
John Harvey was musical director at WTUL (New Orleans). He has a doctoral degree from Tulane University in Latin American literature.