araujo - brega

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Brega: Music and Conflict in Urban Brazil

Samuel M. Arajo

Latin American Music Review / Revista de Msica Latinoamericana, Vol. 9, No. 1. (Spring -Summer, 1988), pp. 50-89.

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Samuel M. Ara6jo Brega: M usic an d Conflictin Urban Brazi l'

An apparent ly new category was intro-duced to the realm s of Brazi lian popu lar m usic in 1984. With the releasean d success of rock s inger Ed ua rdo D usek 's Brega-chique, chique-bregaa lbum, the word brega, which could not be found in the best Portuguesedictionaries, s tarted puzzling p opu lar m usic crit ics, journ alists, an d thepublic in general. Often asked to define it , the singer pointed out thatal though brega was an informal term applied to a whole body of mass-oriented popular music , i ts meaning had roots in broader socioecbnomicphenomena .Fol lowing the lead provided by Dusek, general newspapers and maga-zines be gu n to "discover" the brega universe, publishing interviews withan d short s tor ies abo ut i ts mo re exposed representat ives . T h e f irst da taemerging from those accounts probably astonished the average reader .Many of those unfamil iar names turned out to be among the top-sel l ingrecording ar t is ts in the cou ntry, despi te having never received m ediacoverage com men surate with the s t r iking sales f igures repo rted. P erha psi t was even more intr iguing to learn that many of those ar t is ts had beenenjoying a constant level of popularity for several years and that, althoughbrega was the te rm informally employed by their com panies to descr ibetheir general style, the artists in question did not identify themselvesas such. Since then, brega an d i ts socioeconomic concom itants becamethe object of unprecedented and increasing media at tent ion and thusprovoked all sorts of speculation ab ou t i ts significance in presen t-dayBrazilian society.

This study will focus on the musical manifestations of brega, at temptingto provide a descriptive picture of their general characteristics and socialcontexts. A brief c om m en tary o n the conflicts in th e sociopolit ico-eco-nomical c i rcumstances surrounding the emergence of brega as a mediaissue and their impact on the Brazilian record business is also included.


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Brega: Music and Conflict in Urban Brazil : 5 1of the sections dealing with musical manifestations of brega are workingcategories which follow more or less arbitrary criteria. Only those musi-cal tendencies which have been recurrently associated with brega will beexam ined here.

Despite the predominantly descriptive character of this essay and theabsence of comprehensive source materials dealing with its subject, someconclusions as to the interrelationships am ong the various p hen om enaanalyzed will also be offered. These, given the complexity of the subject,will be necessarily tentative hypotheses to be tested by further research.

Preliminary RemarksT he em ergence of brega as a media issue occurred in a very significantmoment of recent Brazilian history. Even a casual observer of the Bra-zilian reality in the early 1980s would n ot hav e a ny difficulty in findingout th at the period in quest ion was a ra ther tense on e. K ey facts affect-ing th e following discussion ar e (1) the skyrocketing inflation (ov er 200percent in 1984), the internal economic recession, an d peak unem ploy-ment rates, with devastating effects over the labor force (see Tavares andd e Assis 1985); (2) the political im passe resulting fr om th e co ntradictio nbetween the decline and visible unp opu larity of a twenty-o ne-ye ar (1964-1985) military dictatorship and its reluctance in compromising with thediscordant political forces; and (3) the generalized reversal of social ex-pectat ions, br ing ing issues such as cul tural ident ity an d nat ional sover-eignty to the forefront of social concern.

Th is rathe r unstable s i tuat ion had incisive effects on the econo micactivity as a whole, including the local record industry. Rated as the fifthlargest record market in world terms by the late 1970s, Brazil apparentlym ain tain ed a relatively h igh-ran king position in 1984 (it reached theeighth place, acco rding to M cG ow an 1 985 ). All "big five" transna tionalcom pan ies- i.e ., C B S, E M I , Po lygram , W arn er (W EA ) and R C A -had ful ly operat ive branches in the country and they also were, alongwi th Som Livre (a priva te enterpri se owned by G lobo, the main Bra-zi lian T V network), the ones that control led 91 percent of the local ma r-ket sha re in 1985 (see Ho os 1986: 72) .

Facing the recession, the ma in enterprises ' reaction was somewhatunifo rm. C u ts of personnel (bo th administrat ive an d ar t is t ic) , joint dis-t r ibut ion of their products , a nd o ther procedures of that sort were con-sis tent ly adopted by them (see McGowan 1985; Hoos 1986). In musical


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52 : Samuel M. Aralijosources (see, for instance, Anonymous 1985, 1986a) described their gen-eral stylistic features as something unique in terms of the trajectory ofBrazilian popular music. Basically, they would comprise (1) exaggeratedand/or naively romantic textual contents; (2) use of large ensembles,usually employing full string sections, brass instruments, and also rela-tively new developments in the field of electronicldigital instruments;and (3) influences of or merging with international tendencies, resultingin either the development of hybrid musical styles or the adoption ofexogenous genres. Nonetheless, there is a substantial amount of evidenceto support that these characteristics have antecedents in the history ofpopular music in Brazil since at least the eighteenth century (see chapter3 in Araujo 1987).

Brega: Slang, Occupation, or Musical Style?As mentioned at the beginning of this paper, the word brega was nottotally ignored in the Brazilian context when it was printed for the firsttime on a record cover. Even so, its "formal" recognition, in additionto the lack of its definition in any Portuguese language dictionary, pro-moted a great deal of curiosity among the public. Being the natural cen-ter of the publicity following his album release, Eduardo Dusek wasprodigal in definitions and also advanced broad explanations for thebrega phenomenon.

According to the singer (see Xexto 1984), brega as a musical termwould mean mlisica per$Lrica ("peripheral music") for "the great massesof the interior," interior, in this case, becoming much more an economiccategory (i.e., relatively distant from the metropolis) than a geographicalone (a small coastal city or the poor neighborhoods and slums of a bigcity would be considered "interior" under this criterion). There was also,affirmed Dusek, a social meaning in brega, a term used in Rio de Janeiroas a derogatory substitute for domestic servant (coinciding with this au-thor's first recollections). As an extension of that sense, the term mightalso be applied to anything vulgar, dated, kitsch, or, in a more abstractway, to any "representation of nothing" (XexCo 1984: 78). In opposi-tion, brega-chique ("chic brega") would refer to the reversal of that pejora-tive sense and-suggested the singer-the acknowledgment of the "racialmilk-shake," an essential feature of Brazilian society.

Whenever asked to give examples of both categories, Dusek did nothesitate before listing as brega the politicians who contributed to the re-


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Brega: Music and Conflict in Urban Brazil : 53music, etc . ) who, no t properly being m ass-oriented ar t is ts, incorporatedin on e way o r ano ther certain elements of the brega imagery into theirrespective modes of artistic expression.Giv en i ts supposed antecedence in relat ion to the other m eanings, itmight be worth com me nting briefly upo n the condition of the domesticservant in Brazil . Alternatively called empregada dom'stica, domistica, o rempregada, that specific occupat ion acco unts for most wo me n's jobs inthe coun t ry . D ata f rom the 1980 census ( reproduced in Szwarcwald an dde C ast i lho 1986: 8) indicate that 20 percent of the coun try 's femalelabor force provided some kin d of domest ic service (cooking, cleaning,etc.). It is usually through domestic occupations, for instance, that mi-grant women coming from rural areas are f i rs t absorbed by the labormarket in the biggest cities. According to Souza, domestic services con-stitute a special situation within the labor m arket: "Form ally, i t enco m-passes wage-workers, though they are not subordinated to a capital [inthe econom ic sense] bu t to a non-econo mic uni t , as the family . . . giventhe type of work, the tendency to the establishment of personal relationsis obvio usly very strong" (1980 : 35).

I n fact, the ma ny facets of the dom'sticas' universe deepen more andmo re i ts uniqueness. As ma ny of them live at the workplace, severalhouses and apartment buildings in Brazilian cities include the so-calleddependtncias de empregada ("serva nt 's facili ties"), com prising a sepa rateand incredibly small bedroom with an even smaller bathroom and sepa-rate (in the case of buildings) entrance halls and elevators (dos fundos orde servi~o ).T h e transgression of those limits, except for clean ing jobs,implies quite often a serious offense. Sometimes, however, the violationof the space is not only allowed but intensely desired, as the widely em-ployed exp ression a dom'stica virou patroa ("the servant becam e patroness")suggestively indicates.T h e latter obse rvation also touches up on a significant aspect of thedom'stica condit ion which is equally im porta nt to the brega semantics: thecontradict ions between the even tual socioeconomic mobil ity a nd the re-tent ion of underest imated cul tural backgrounds. Thus, the music playedon the servant 's A M radio as well as the porcelain pe ngu in pu t on therefrigerator by the owner of a nice suburban mansion might be classifiedas brega, and so on .

I n any case, it was the extremely prejudicial co ntent of the term bregawhich generated i ts broader extensions. A profuse number of thememerged from a survey conducted in a special program produced by theradio s tat ion of the Universidade de SBo Paulo (S5o Pa ulo Un iversi ty) .


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54 : SamuelM. Araqoeventually extended their associations to other realms. A selective listof answers is furnished in Example 1 .Example I : Definitions and examples of brega (from Luca n.d.)

Ques t ion (1) W h a t is mhica brega?(2) W h a t is brega?

Definitions:-I do n' t know .-what the North eastern says: pa rty in a whorehouse.-[with a clear No rtheastern accent] a promiscuity house of the

cabaret type, in a pejorative sense [never heard with othermeaning] .

-po pula r sing ers wh o sing thing s relate d to th eir lives-empregadas,low-income people.-I always fo un d, for insta nce , that samba caqiio [slower tem po form

of sa m b a with ro ma ntic textu al con tents] was brega, bu t ther ewas the Jovem G ua rd a [f irs t Brazil ian pop ular m usic t rend toabsorb rock influences; see also sections on antecedents, brega,and deluxe brega] .-subproducts of Jove m Gua rda .

- those people of Jovem Gu ard a. -gutcha [t h e eq uiv ale nt to brega in the S5o Pa ul o slan g]. -gutcha m usi c. -music wh ich is played in SHo Pa ulo . -Californian music . . . those things which cam e from C alifornia

at that t ime [1960s] . . . those cigua-com-qucar [mellow] littlegroups .

-[well-known po pu lar music sing er, no t usually labeled as brega]we ca nno t carry an y type of prejudice against a [ type of] music.In 1977 , I s ang "B oneca co b i ~a da " n m y show . . . More bregathan "Boneca co bi ~ ad a" s the garbage of the garbage . . . Isang i t once i t had a funct ion within m y work, my script . . . Idon' t have any prejudices toward any kind of music.-tu rn it off . . . turn it off.

Ques t ion (3) Name a brega singer. -W aldick S ori ano [see sec tion o n deluxe bre,qa] -R ob ert o C arl os [see section o n deluxe brega] -LGcio Alves [bossa no va singer] -Men udo [Puer to Rican teenage group]


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Brega: Music and Conflict in Urban Brazil : 55As we can see, some of the associations are not confined to the na-

tional context and encompass well-known phenomena in the internationalscene. Actually, international connections apparently constitute a con-sistent aspect of brega. Not rarely, Brazilian brega singers participate intheir foreign counterparts' records and vice-versa (e .g ., Waldick Sorianowith Miguel Aseves Mejia from Mexico, Carlos Santos with Cristophfrom France, and Joanna with Barry Manilow from the United States).

Considered as a whole, the several meanings of brega reveal a multi-farious universe which has as a common denominator its deprecation,usually according to prejudicious value judgments. Quite coherently,prejudice, mobility, and discrimination are also significant aspects in thetrajectories of brega exponents.

The Diffusion of Brega MusicThe following tentative inventory concerning the channels of diffusionof brega music takes into consideration the manifestations which havebeen more recurrently labeled as such. Examining the various accountsprovided so far, one will have an impression of a rather stratified pano-rama.

Perhaps at its foundations are the public diffusion through AM radiostations (or the "kitchen sound," according to Castro 1984) and "live"shows through the Brazilian interior (in the sense stated by Dusek). Thelatter are characteristically put together iil gymnasiums, peripheral socialclubs, and other types of public spaces and attended by audiences rang-ing from about five hundred people to about three thousand people oreven more.

An intermediary stage is that of the churrascarias (the Brazilian equiva-lent to barbecue restaurants and a strong symbol of middle-class iden-tity), relatively unknown night clubs in cities such as Rio de Janeiro andSZo Paulo, sporadic appearances on less prestigious TV programs, andlow-cost, mass-oriented commercial films.

At a certain point, it seems safe to try more ambitious paths. It istime, then, to become exposed to the presumably more sophisticatedaudience of the fashionable night clubs of the metropolitan centers, well-produced programs and novelas (enormously popular soap operas) onprime-time television (the Globo T V is the paradigm here), and theshowcase for MPB top stars, the large beerhouse and restaurant Cane~Zoin Rio de Janeiro (which represent to the nouveau riche more or less


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56 : Samuel M. AratijoDespite the existence of all those levels of discrimination it is com-

monly observed that a brega singer's career seldom follows those threestages linearly. Thus, an extremely successful singer in commercial termssuch as Roberto Carlos will also tour the states' capitals presenting "live"shows, but the technology and other material means involved in theproduction will be far more sophisticated than the ones of an AmadoBatista (see the section on brega). O n the other hand, singers such asMilionBrio and JosC Rico (see the section on brega sertaneja) will be hardly(if ever) seen on prime-time T V but will successfully tour countries suchas the United States (mainly the states near the Mexican border) andmainland China.2 Yet, in one exceptional case-Carlos Santos (see sec-tion on brega)-the artist had never done (until 1986) a single "live"show or TV program, depending primarily on the radio broadcastingof his records to diffuse his name.

Brief Profile of a Brega SingerGenerally speaking, the trajectory of many brega singers fits into a well-known stereotype in terms of social mobility: the self-made man (womenare apparently a minority in brega).

A consistent characteristic in their personal histories (e.g ., WaldickSoriano, Amado Batista, MilionArio, and .JosC Rico) is to come from apoor family of usually rural background, start early as an agriculturalworker, and then move to a big city where, after taking all kinds of low-paying jobs (i .e ., office boy, clerk, trucker, and construction jobs), theyfinally "make it" in the record business. Some of them, however, comealso from the poorer strata of the metropolises and live in the slums ofRio de Janeiro (e.g., Agepi.; see the section on samba romcintico) or SZoPaulo corti~os tenements) under precarious conditions. These stories end,at least temporarily, at huge and comfortable farm houses (e.g., AmadoBatista, Milionhrio, and JosC Rico) or dreamlike mansions and apart-ments in the cities' most fashionable sites (e .g ., Rio de Janeiro's ZonaSul). Not all brega representatives, though, were raised in economic pri-vation. There are instances of middle-class people who became successfulwithin the brega stream (e .g ., Roberto Carlos, Nelson Ned, and SidneyM agal) .

Many brega artists have other types of business outside music, but themajority of them get most of their revenues from their recording careers.An interesting exception in this regard is again the singer Carlos San-


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Brega; M us ic and Conflict in Urban Bra zil : 57In terms of public image, three main trends arise: (1) a moderate one

(e.g., Roberto Carlos), typically emphasizing values believed to be ac-cepted by the society at large, such as the use of discrete adornments(bracelets, rings, medallions), reiterated statements of religious beliefs(Catholicism almost certainly), and either ambiguous or conservativeopinions about all sorts of issues; (2) an overtly romantic image, quiteoften implying that no contradictions exist between the public and theprivate facets of the artist's life (e .g ., Sidney Magal, Jost Rico, andAgepc); and (3) a neutral image, apparently distant from the emphati-cally romantic and the moderate stereotypes; the singers in this case donot customarily publicize their personal opinions or attitudes (e.g.,Amado Batista and Carlos Santos).Yet a common issue arises from the public statements made by bregarepresentatives: they complain about being the target of social prejudice.Be it by blaming the "Nazism of the FM stations" (Sidney Magal,quoted in Castro 1984), the record reviewers' harsh criticisms (RobertoCarlos), or TV Globo's discrimination against some of them (AmadoBatista), brega singers seem to suggest that a substantial part of the Bra-zilian media still saw (at least around 1984) brega as a manifestation ofthe underdog or the nonconsumer, a "representation of n ~ t h i n g . " ~

Brega RockI think that brega-chique is a cu~t@cio[an ironica l commenta ry on w ha t b ~ e ~ ais] . . . The difference between new wave and new brega is that the newwave shops for c lothes a t C ar l 's while b ~e g adoes i t a t Mesbla . (One def ini-tion of brega given by an interviewee on the "Anos 60" r a d io p r og r a m ;se e Luc a n .d . )

Having brought about the public discussion of brega, it is no surprisethat Eduardo Dusek's Brega-chique, chique-brega album (1984) is utilized byseveral sources as a referential point whenever the issue is raised. Thequotation provided above is no exception and refers to three importantfeatures of a tendency which will be presented here as brega rock: (1) itsironical or humorous view of social or, less frequently, political issues;(2) its rock 'n' rolVnew wavelpunk connection; and (3) its extensive,symbolic connotations (music, clothes, etc.).

Examining them in an inverted order, it should be noticed first thatthe two fashion stores mentioned, Carl's and Mesbla, refer to two dis-tinct realities. While the first was at the time in question considered tobe a trendy, upper-class, youth-oriented boutique, the other, a depart-


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58 : Samuel M. Aralj,jolatter aspect is very often associated with brega, mainly in terms of thetension between the lower classes' and upper classes' values.

The two other characteristics indicated above are related to the emer-gent popularity enjoyed by local rock groups andlor singers of the newwavelpunk trend and expressed by impressive sales figures. In fact, rockand humor have been the trademark of a number of commercially suc-cessful artists since Rita Lee's sales boom by the early 1980s. From thenon, a succession of events would demonstrate that that was a significantcultural phenomenon of the decade. 1982 would be the year of the groupBlitz with its ironical and theatrical approach to daily situations. Theirhit "Voc2 nHo soube me amar" (1982) combined spoken dialogues anda rather simple, new wave-inspired accompaniment, being performed onstage in a humorously dramatic way.

New wave influences were also clearly present when the group Maga-zine took over the national scene with the song "Sou boy" ("I Am anOffice Boy") in 1984. In this case, however, a new datum in terms ofthe Brazilian context (for an account of its occurrence in its originalcontext, see Coon 1978) emerged: the punWnew wave connection. Con-trasting to the rather trivial thematic universe (e.g., love crises, ego-trips, etc.) depicted by the Blitz, the Magazine and its histrionic leader,Kid Vinil, sang the routine of a lower bureaucrat in a very caustic man-ner. Vinil himself would stress the previous impact of punk not only inhis music but also in his own way of life, mainly reflected in the anarchicsong texts of his first bands, Caos and Verminose, back in the late 1970s.

I identified myself [with punk culture] because in the end I had the opin-ion that nothing else existed. It was a matter of auto-destruction, becauseeverything was so chaotic by that time . . . In the times of the Caos band,we had a text which strongly offended president Geisel [the military dic-tator of Brazil from 1974 to 19781, saying: "Who is this insane guy? 1 Heis our president." (Kid Vinil in Petta 1984: 63)

After switching to a less radical posture and becoming a market sensa-tion, the Magazine (the name was confessedly copied from an Englishnew wave group) would face the common criticisms-i.e., ignorance of"genuine" Brazilian music and capitulation before "imposed" alientendencies-directed at local rock performers. An intriguing point, how-ever, was missed by those critics. Traditional genres were not unfamiliarto at least some rock musicians and, occasionally, close connections didexist. In the case of Kid Vinil (or Antanio Carlos Senofonte, his actualname), his parallel job controlling the editorial royalties of all Chantecler(a record label specializing in mlisica sertaneja, a genre of the Southern


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Brega: Mu sic and Conflict i n Ur ban Braz il : 59much greater degree of expertise in traditional styles than that of most ofhis critics.

Once rock musicians started approaching social and political issueswith total irreverence, the criticisms began to encompass the texts aswell; before that, they would not even be considered. Another majorhit of 1983184, the song "InGtil" ("Inutile") , recorded by the bandUltraje a Rigor, had an unequivocal punk atmosphere, marked by arepetitive melody and rhythm over a single chord and very direct lyrics.Containing verses such as "We don't know how to choose a president 1We don't know how to take care of ourselves 1 Inutile, we are inutile"and incorporating grammatical mistakes which are frequently found incolloquial Portuguese, "InGtil" provoked mixed reactions. Conservativechroniclers attacked what they considered to be a satiric depiction of thelower classes, while other observers were more sensitive to its ironicmessage in a moment when basic political rights were being denied tothe society as a whole.

Despite the divergent readings and interpretations, irreverent social1political critique and deliberate musical simplicity inspired in punk and,mainly, new wave models were thus fundamental aspects of the rise ofBrazilian rock as a stable commercial tendency in the early 1980s. Fol-lowing the trend, record companies (WEA in particular) started signingseveral rock groups whose repertoire explored those characteristics indifferent dosages.

The case of Eduardo Dusek in that context was particularly interest-ing. While his previous aesthetical postures, blending diverse importedand domestic musical influences, would hardly fit into a single category,irreverence and rock were consistent elements of his work since at least1980. Maintaining his unorthodox attitude, Dusek would not restrainhimself to the usual derivation of new wave models, characteristic of themost popular Brazilian rock groups. Instead, he would put together in1984 an eclectic album, Brega-chique, chique-brega, with a distinct at-mosphere on each side. The either ironical or overtly sarcastic tone ofthe texts on side 1 (or Brega-chique) was in a sense complemented by theborrowing from popular music genres associated with the lower classes,such as the baiza (for an account of this genre, see TinhorHo 1974: 209-217) and brega. Side 2, on the other hand, conveyed a contrasting lyricalmessage, except for its first cut, a humorous version of an old Beatleshit ("WhyH-1964).

In spite of Eduardo Dusek's manifest eclecticism, the song "Brega-chique" (Polydor 8219744, side 1, track 7) alone would push forward


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60 : Samuel M . Aralijothe national organization of dome'sticas; a prolonged polemic betweenthat institution and the artist in question was sustained through generalnewspapers.The music of "Brega-chique" itself did not stimulate any kind ofpublic discussion, although its title might imply a connection to bregastyle. In fact, the recording contains characteristics which are commonlyfound in the records made by rather representative brega singers. Perhapsthe most evident similarity is the rhythmic basis provided by synthe-sizers in "Brega-chique," imitating the usual electric guitar, bass, anddrums brega patterns (see Example 2 below and compare to Example 7 inthe following section). Idiomatic are also its basic ABC formal scheme aswell as its harmonic progressions (e.g., I-V-IV-111-11-V-I n part A),which together delineate the piece's brega atmosphere. All those musicalsimilarities, in combination with the narrative characteristic of the text,raise the question of how one would distinguish that specific recordingfrom its original brega model. Not paradoxically, an important clue wouldbe the employment of the word brega itself within the text, even withoutconsidering its implications in that particular case. This single datumreflects, indeed, the ironical mood of the text which is properly empha-sized by the often irreverent singing style (involving, for instance, aforced dramatic tone at some points). Equally significant distinctions inmusical terms, producing a caricatural effect, are also the strikinglydissonant lines played on distorted synthesizers at cadential points.Example 2: Basic rhythmic patterns in "Brega-chique." From Polydor8219744, side 1 , Track 7

Guitar:Bass:

Drums:

Despite Dusek's caution in not identifying his work as just anotherbrega tendency, he was suddenly caught in the middle of a huge publicitywhich was centered precisely on that aspect of his new record. The ap-parent contradictions between rock and brega were explored exhaustively


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Brega: Mu si c and ConJict in Urban Brazil : 61Eduardo Dusek, quietly returned to his usual standards of popularity bythe time that brega singers themselves started to obtain a closer attentionfrom the media.Volatile as it may seem, brega rock (or yet new brega) can perhaps bebetter characterized in two ways: first, through its textual irreverence,implying either an ironical use of brega imagery and/or critique of social/political issues, with frequent references to the lower classes' conditionsin a colloquial and still humorous tone; second, through its musicalaspects. These include (1) a contrived singing style, often drawn onbrega singers or common forms of colloquial speech, properly conveyingthe irony of the text; (2) a rhythmic section usually provided by guitar,bass, and drums, involving patterns which are commonly found in bothrock (and perhaps more clearly in new wave) and some brega tendencies,such as the one represented by the singer Amado Batista; and (3) for-mal, melodic, and harmonic characteristics borrowed from either punk/new wave rock or brega.

Those procedures have been occasionally adopted by Brazilian musi-cians within the context of the huge popularity enjoyed by rock trendssuch as punk and new wave in the 1980s. As exemplified by the para-digmatic case of Eduardo Dusek, those performers would apparentlyprefer to see brega rock as a creative alternative rather than as a perma-nent choice in their respective repertoires. Avoiding playing the publicrole of spokesmen for a closed musical genre, they opened the way to thefirst journalistic accounts of the brega phenomenon.

BregaAs soon as brega became a notorious public issue, provoking all sorts ofspeculation about its meaning and extensions, one thing seemed to bevery clear: there was an imbalance between the accounts of its broadsocial repercussion and the scattered attention previously given to itsmanifestations by an influential part of the media. The music, somecommentators said, could not be heard either on FM radio or on thenationwide Globo T V network and was almost absolutely ignored bygeneral newspapers and magazines (see, for instance, Kubrusly 1984).

Indeed, that sort of discrimination turned out to be a consistent topic,since major daily newspapers such as the Folha de S6o Paulo started in-terviewing apparently "unknown" singers whose record sales figuresplaced them among the ten top artists in the business. Initially focused


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62 : Samuel M. AratijoEduardo Dusek's Brega-chique album reached its peak in MayIJune of1984 (see Anonymous 1984b). Perhaps due to the explicit references tohis name and repertoire appearing on that album (side 1, track I),singer/songwriter Amado Batista was promptly singled out as the con-summate representative of a "brega genre." A popular music critic, in apioneer review of Batista's eighth LP, observed that Dusek's successcaused the public to become "acquainted with the existence of the wordonly, since the brega genre remains ignored" (Kubrusly 1984: 69) andprovided a very generic description of its features. According to his per-ception, the "genre" was obviously modeled after the 1960s JovemGuarda movement, involving a singing style which immediately evokedthe early Roberto Carlos and the repetition of textual (naive romanticism)and musical (inspired on American and British rock groups of the late 1950sand early 1960s) Jovem Guarda cliches; distinguishing brega from its model,still following the same source, there was the "crude language" employedin the texts. This very concise description, despite the further interest onthe brega issue, was apparently the only attempt to specify the mainfeatures of the correspondent musical "genre" made so far.

Amado Batista's own recollections (see Anonymous 1984b) of his firstexposures to music when still living and working on a farm seem toconfirm the impact of Jovem Guarda on him. Besides the dance musicplayed for local bailes (country balls) on violas (ten-string guitars) andsanfonas (accordions), he remembers singing Roberto Carlos's hit "0Calhambeque" (1963) while working with his shovel, thinking aboutbecoming an "artist." About eight years after leaving the countrysideand getting to the city of Goidnia (capital of the state of Goihs), in 1975Batista recorded his first single which, he affirms, had no repercussion.The next year he would be back to a studio, recording a song symptom-atically called "Desisto" (I Give Up), which would eventually become hisfirst hit and the beginning of a commercially successful recording career.

Listening to "Desisto" and being familiar with the Jovem Guardaidiom, an inevitable association between both comes to one's mind.Each stanza of its enigmatic text, to begin with, basically comprises arather simple rhyme scheme of aabccb, which may be commonly foundin many samples from the Jovem Guarda repertoire. The same observa-tion applies to the trivial character of the lyrics (see Example 3), proper-ly conveyed by the nasal and contrivedly inhibited vocal tone, a RobertoCarlos trademark.

It is, however, the music that causes a closer relationship with theJovem Guarda style to emerge. Characteristic of the latter, for instance,are the rhythmic accentuation in quadruple meter provided by the drums,


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Brega: M usi c and Conflict in Urban Brazil : 63Example 3: "Desisto." First two stanzas. (From Vitamina i Cura. Con-tinental 1-07-405-31 1, side 2, track 6)

"Desisto" Amado Batista-Reginald0 SodrC

Rosto que beijei, The face that I kissed,corpo que abracei, the body that I embraced,olhos de fazer chorar, the eyes that make one to cry,sHo coisas que eu are things that InHo posso esquecer cannot forgetmas pretend0 abandonar but I intend to abandon.Juras que eu ouvi, The vows that I heard,frases que escrevi the sentences that I wrote,pr8 enfeitar nossa ilusHo to adorn our illusionnHo importam mais, do not matter anymore,ficam para tr8s, are left behind,talvez em seu cora~lo. maybe in your heart.Example 4 : "Desisto." Basic structure repeated to each set of two stanzas.(From Vitamina i Cura. Continental 1-07-405-311, side 2 , track 6)

"Desisto' ' Introduction

[piano (4 measures) + synthesizer (4 measures)]

VoiceDrums m& 1 - - -


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64 : Samuel M. AralijoExamining forty-five pieces recorded by Amado Batista and released

between 1984 and 1986, some of which (including "Desisto") are reis-sues, one would observe the repetition, sometimes with slight variations,of the musical features highlighted above in at least thirty-eight of them.The remaining items consist of three songs in triple meter, resemblingsubgenres of mlisica sertaneja such as the rancheira, and four other piecesin duple meter where the recurrent use of the rhythmic pattern \? j,b-,Qsuggests close associations with the Northeastern baizo. The vast majorityof the songs fit into a binary structure, usually symmetrical, but an ABCform is also common.

In terms of their texts, the samples under consideration are mostlylove songs, alternating between an introspective mood close to that of"Desisto" and, less often, a more erotic tone. A few lyrics eventuallyconvey tragic situations in a very direct manner, as is the case of thecontroversial song "0 fruto do nosso amor" ("The Fruit of Our Love"-see Example 5).

Despite its apparently scattered occurrence within Amado Batista'srepertoire, it was precisely this aspect (or the "crude language" referredto above) that was picked up by rock singers as an ideal stereotype fortheir ironical purposes. Moreover, as soon as it attracted the attention ofmore sophisticated media, it started to be (and probably still is) seen asa strong symbol of identity of the brega repertoire by those who allegedlywere outside that specific "cultural" context. Even if that is so, Batista'schange to a more resourceful company, RCA, in 1985 coincided (at leasttemporarily) with the abandonment of that aspect of his previous image.His first RCA album (RCA 109.0139) does not contain a single songwhose text could be described as "crude," although all the other usualformulae, both textually and musically, are definitively present. In addi-tion to that, a more careful production in visual terms reinforces theimpression that an attempt was made toward defining a new marketingstrategy for the singer, capable of appealing to a presumably more selec-tive audience.

Whether or not Batista's style may be affected in the future by theevents mentioned above, it shares at least one basic feature-the bor-rowing from Jovem Guarda models-with that of other artists usuallylabeled as brega. There may exist, however, significant particularities ineach individual repertoire. The case of another top-selling singer, CarlosSantos, is perhaps the best example. Only three out of the twenty-foursongs included in two of Santos's albums, respectively released in 1984and 1985, would allow immediate associations with Amado Batista andlor


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Brega: Music and Confict in Urban Brazil : 65Example 5 : "0 fruto do nosso amor." (From Vitamina e' Cura. Continental1-07-405-3 11, side 1, track 3)

''0 fruto do nosso amor"Vicente Dias-

Praia0 I1A perfect loveexisted between us,without expecting that latereverything was going to end.But in this world,where nothing perfect survives,we do not deserve, dear,to live together and love.Ou r Lordtook you forever.He did not even leave methe fruit of our love.That sonwould be our happiness.I felt myself, in that day,as a father, a mature man.At the hospital,within the surgery room,through the window I saw

Refrain you suffering but smiling.(repeated) And your smile

vanishing little by littleSo I saw you dyingwithout being able to say good-bye.

The idiomatic rhythmic section, the type of romanticism expressedin the texts, and the overall conception of form in all three Carlos Santospieces mentioned in Example 6 are undoubtedly inspired by JovemGuarda, as much as most of Amado Batista's songs. Generally, how-ever, Santos's repertoire consists of quite contrasting material. Most ofthe songs in both 1984 and 1985 albums draw upon popular genres fromNorthern Brazil such as the lambada, with its characteristic Caribbean-like rhythmic accent. In those pieces, the usual Jovem Guarda instru-


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66 : Samuel M. AraGoExample 6: Carlos Santos's "Telefonista" (first phrase and organ solo)and Roberto Carlos's "Quando" (first phrase)

"Telefonista"(voice)

' I T 7 i * w.\ ITelefonista" + ,- ; .

I

..l -

.I r - , , , k' . . , '(organ solo ) -AL. .; -9- ' + - * Y OV

"Quando" (voice)

and saxophone) and percussion instruments (congas) as heard in "S6pr6 vocC" (Gravasom GVLP 823 332-1, side A, track 1). Thus, evenin the songs (the majority of the repertoire) consisting of elements thatapparently come from sources other than Jovem Guarda, influences ofthe latter may still be felt partially in the composition of the accompany-ing ensemble and, perhaps more effectively, in the contents of the lyrics.

Although both his less representative, Jovem Guarda-modeled styleand his rendition of popular genres of Northern Brazil have producedsome of his major hits, Carlos Santos omitted the former from his 1986record. That fact, suggestively in my opinion, coincides with the releas-ing of Santos's first album sung in Spanish, recorded in Cannes, France(see Anonymous 1986a). Here, as in the case of Amado Batista, notice-able shifts in significant aspects of the repertoire take place by the time


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Brega: Music and Conflict in Urban Brazil : 67influences of the Jovem Guarda idiom and the consistent textual similari-ties found in the repertoires of two representative singers such as AmadoBatista and Carlos Santos, both being accredited by several sources asstanding among the five top-sellers in the local record business, present-ing both manifestations as a single musical category (i.e., brega) woulddemand going beyond their presumable stylistic sources.

Deluxe BregaOn the basis of the preceding discussion, we can infer that any definitionof a brega archetype in musical terms must take into consideration de-velopments which have affected the popular music of Brazil for abouttwenty-five years. The indigenous recreation of contemporary interna-tional rock tendencies beginning in the early 1960s and eventually be-coming known as Jovem Guarda seems to have played a major role inthis process. Epitomized by the enormous popularity of the singerlcom-poser Roberto Carlos, Jovem Guarda emerged as a nationwide musicaland behavioral trend as soon as its homonym T V show, led by Carlos,started to be broadcast in 1965 (see Marcondes 1977, vol. 11: 662-663).

After the decline in audience and consequent withdrawal of its relatedT V program from the air in 1969, Jovem Guarda progressively becamean antiquated term through the 1970s. Once in a while, though, T Vshows would capitalize on its nostalgic potential. The now mature facesof yesterday's idols would then be brought back to the screen for singingthe so-called classics from the Jovem Guarda period. A few of its repre-sentatives, however, overcame the relative ostracism to which most oftheir old partners were relegated by trying out more ambitious paths.

Undoubtedly, the most successful case of career metamorphosis amongformer Jovem Guarda singers was that of the tendency's foremost ex-ponent, Roberto Carlos. Since his very first hit, a 1962 rendition ofBobby Darin's "Splish Splash" (which, according to Whitburn 1979reached the third position on the billboard charts in August 1962), hismusic has maintained a considerable influence of rock 'n' roll. Havinghis merchandising strategies designed by a marketing agency since 1964,Carlos's public image was initially constructed to represent youth sym-bols with the necessary dosage of ambiguity to sensitize a national au-dience. Thus, his long hair and outrageous (for the previous standards)clothes exhibited signs of a detailed production, and in this case theywere perhaps more socially acceptable while conveying a certain noncon-


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68 : Samuel M. Aralijomusical ambience alternated between a soft-rock climate and a rhythmi-cally more agitated one, usually with a brass section joining the basicguitar-bass-and-drums ensemble.

With the imminent decline of Jovem Guarda as an influential musicaltendency, Roberto Carlos's career would go through major changes.They are tentatively summarized in Figure 1.Figure 1: Tentative picture of Roberto Carlos's artistic development

display of youth symbols com-bined with respect for "basic"societal valuesproduction aimed at the nationalmarket

naively romantic song textssometimes punctuated by vaguesigns of misadjustmentballad-type rock alternatedwith a more vigorous type ofrock in rhythmical terms

accompaniment provided by astandard rock group with occa-sional addition of a brass section

display of middle-age symbolscombined with references to otherage groups' valuesproduction aimed at both thenational and the international(mainly Hispanic) market

mature and subtly erotic roman-ticism in addition to mystical orreflective statementshybrid style incorporating,in different forms of combina-tion, elements from rock, bolero,funk, samba, etc.

definitive incorporation of thebrass section with the accom-panying ensemble and gradualadoption of a full orchestra

Today, Roberto Carlos's huge popularity can be measured in severalways. From 1965 to 1984, his records hit number one among Brazilianreleases every year, with sales figures of more than one million unitsbeing reported in most cases. Twenty-seven LP records in Portugueseand fifteen in Spanish had been released until 1986 when, according toSouza (1986: 3 ) , Carlos's overall sales throughout his career were esti-mated to be around thirty million units. What the journalist did not


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Brega: Mu si c and Conflict in Urba n Braz il : 69one on billboard Latin charts, enjoying a great success in Cuba, or beingelected the favorite popular singer in a poll conducted among the Japa-nese-Peruvian community (see Olsen 1980), Roberto Carlos is, side by. .side with singers such as Julio Iglesias or JosC JosC, a mass phenomenonwhich transcends national, and even political, barriers in the so-calledLatin world.

Analyzing Roberto Carlos's recent musical output within the contextof brega, one could probably start by looking for possible retentions ofthe Jovem Guarda style. Actually that might turn out to be a ratherdifficult task due to the stylistic ambiguity of the repertoire and/or theinternationalization of the production process. Thus, what our ears mightselect as a "clear influence" of whatever style may actually be the resultof a much more complex chain of relationships which are definitivelynot anymore determined at a "national" level. In Roberto Carlos'srecords a samba beat recorded by an American drummer at a studioin Los Angeles can hypothetically be added to an original playback madeby Brazilian musicians in Rio before going through a mixing processin a New York City facility. All those questions considered, it might bemore efficient to look at the final product as the result of a more sophis-ticated manipulation of musical formulas but still analogous in that re-spect to its less ambitious counterpart, brega.A comparison between two recent Roberto Carlos hits gives us a per-spective of how those variables may successfully interact. Released in1984, "Caminhoneiro" ("Truck DriverH-CBS 230095, side B, track1) recollects a truck driver's love thoughts when far away from his be-loved. The whole accompaniment was recorded at the A&M Recordsstudio in Los Angeles. All participants in the recording session are U.S.-based musicians, except one who seems to be the only Brazilian partici-pant, percussionist Paulinho da Costa. Elaborated by another Americanmusician, the arrangement is conceived for a type of instrumentationcommonly employed in Roberto Carlos's records: piano, guitars (electricand acoustic), electric bass, drums, percussion, synthesizer, harmonica,and a string section with a harp.

No particular musical detail in "Caminhoneiro" seems to have anobvious source. A few of them are perhaps associable to generic charac-teristics of certain types of music, but still in an inconclusive manner.The formal scheme, for instance, comprises a strophic structure with arefrain between each set of two strophes and might be said to draw upona whole variety of ballad-type genres. Patterns such as 1 * Lz? w s ~played by the percussionist might suggest a discrete Afro-Caribbean or


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70 : SamuelM . Aratijoa diffuse samba ambience in 4/4 time (instead of the traditional 214)while the string section reinforces the climax with expressive interventions.

By the end of 1985 (his records are invariably released a few weeksbefore Christmas) a new Roberto Carlos record would reach the stores,this time containing a surprise for many of his admirers on the very firsttrack. The lyrics of the song in question, "Verde e amarelo" ("Greenand Yellow"), was sort of a nationalistic credo (the title alluded to thecolors of the Brazilian flag) put by its co-writers, Roberto and ErasmoCarlos, into an unequivocal rock tune. According to the singer/composer,he hesitated after finishing his composition but let it be once "today,the Brazilian is also a rock enthusiast" (Roberto Carlos, quoted in Souza1986: 4). Referring indirectly to the political climate affecting the astonish-ing public response (even for his usual standards), he affirmed:

In fact, it surprises me this reaction from the public. When I go out onthe street, for example, the kids start yelling at me the song's refrain. Lastyear they called me "truck driver" but they did not sing the refrain of thehomonym song. I think that the public celebrates with me that happinesscontained in the song, this euphoric moment of greater union among theBrazilian people. After all the song has a strong refrain, similar, for in-stance, to the one that the soccer torcidas [organized groups of fans of aparticular team] sing at the stadiums. (Roberto Carlos, quoted in Souza1986: 4)

The refrain in question actually consists of one of the melodies sungby the torcidas, which is, in its turn, sort of a derivation from the onesung in the film Woodstock by the audience during the "rain scene."Although we lack the necessary empirical basis for tracing precisely howand when that particular melody began to be sung at the stadiums, itmight be worth adding a few personal observations.

First, it should be noticed that the practice of singing lively refrainsto a rhythmic accompaniment (usually with marcha patterns) to encour-age a team has been a long-standing tradition in Brazilian soccer. Itseems that at a certain point, but surely sometime in the 1970s, autono-mous torcidasjovens ("young torcidas") started being organized and sing-ing melodies which were distinct from the ones sung by the main torcidas.The new lines, including the one which motivated this digression, wereeventually adopted by the fans in general and added to the establishedrepertoire.

Example 7 illustrates how the "no rain" melodic line appeared in thethree different contexts mentioned above. As in both a and b the crowdsings it to a percussive accompaniment, and melodic variants such as


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Brega: Music and Conflict in Urban Brazil : 7 1Example 7: "No Rain" melody in three distinct contexts

"No Rain" Melody Woodstock: (Clapping Hands)

," efx** xSoccer stadiums (Percussion) 3 b , 1 - - -

\ -,,, ' (Soloist)"Verde eamarelo"(CBS 230 .105 ,Side A, Track 1 )

large choir in unison, accompanied either by drums alone or by the fullensemble with "bluesy" fill-ins by Carlos.

Even when examining a Roberto Carlos song in which the musicalstyle seems less ambiguous, such as "Verde e amarelo," one should payattention to the nuances of its production if willing to discuss the globaleffect. In this case, the arrangement was written by an American musi-cian but recorded in Brazil by local musicians (with the addition of asolo by an American guitarist, probably recorded in Los Angeles) anda local choir. The final stage, as usual, would be the mixing processdone in New York City and the result is technically and stylistically simi-lar to ordinary rock recordings. Yet, in addition to the refrain melody,the language, and the lyrics' contents, a hardly audible samba percus-sion (also in 414) added at the final repetitions of the refrain helps toslightly delineate a culture-specific atmosphere.

Looking retrospectively at the two samples commented on here, bothof them highly successful hits in the Brazilian market, the most generalcharacteristics of Roberto Carlos's musical style may be identified. Onthe one hand we had an example of a stylistically diffuse number inwhich elements from generic musical tendencies are roughly outlined.Contrastingly, a clearer style (i.e., rock) prevails on the second record-ing, but references to other music spheres are subtly superimposed. Inboth cases, however, a careful and expensive production maintains acertain level of opacity in stylistic terms which is apparently a funda-mental piece of the whole production process.

That rather flexible amalgam of national and international stylisticinfluences, pervaded by a deliberate ambivalence and then open to mul-


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72 : Samuel M. Aralj,josingers within the brega universe have emulated one or another of RobertoCarlos's trademarks.' Very often, the isolation of and emphasis on someof its central features, such as its romantic stereotype (e.g., singerlcom-poser Nelson Ned) or its erotic appeals (e.g., singer Sidney Magal), inaddition to "personal interpretations" of Carlos's repertoire (e .g., Wal-dick Soriano) are the path followed by other artists who gravitate aroundthe same musical sphere (i.e., deluxe brega). In many cases that is justa matter of planning in more detail each new production once thosesingers' repertoires already have several points in common, both musi-cally and textually speaking, to their paradigm. Sometimes, however,the phenomenon in question may affect (and eventually be challengedby) quite distinct musical traditions, as in the case of the Brazilian sambaexamined in the next section.

Samba RomdnticoAttempting to analyze the samba connection in brega, the main obstacleone finds is perhaps the definition of samba itself. As the term has beenapplied to a whole variety of manifestations (e.g., samba-de-roda, sambarural, etc.) which can be very distinct from each other, it would probablytake a separate book-length essay to provide a comprehensive view of itsvarious meanings in Brazilian music. However, given the scope andconsistency of its diffusion, it is the samba tradition as developed in thecity of Rio de Janeiro, and since its early days (with the recording ofDonga's "Pelo telefone" in 1917; see Silva 1978) diffused through masscommunication media such as the record and the radio, that will be themain reference throughout this section. That is not to say, of course,that such a "tradition" may be easily isolated as a self-contained musicalgenre.

Frequently defined as a type of dance genre of Afro-Brazilian deriva-tion (for two definitions in English sources, see B6hague 1980 and Stig-berg 1986), the carioca (i.e. , native of Rio) samba has gone through sev-eral changes. Some of the earliest experiments concerning the genre(i.e., its pioneer orchestrations, its fusion with international tendencies,etc.) may be traced back to the 1930s (see Saroldi and Moreira 1984:20). Today, pieces labeled as samba in the sense observed here are heardin quite different settings including the following:1. Escolas de samba (samba schools) in Carnival rallies, where each ofthese groups of thousands of people sing and dance intricate steps to


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Brega: Mu si c and Conflict in Urba n Braz il : 732 . Pagodes (social gatherings) characteristically held in Rio de Janeiro's

slums or at modest houses within working-class neighborhoods, where amuch smaller group of people play (percussion but sometimes melodicor harmonic-e.g., the guitar-instruments), sing, and often dance sambasteps;

3. Churrascarias (barbecue restaurants), night clubs, and beer houses,where usually small professional ensembles play guitars, basses, key-boards, and a few percussion instruments (often with a drum set) throughsome sort of amplification system, a solo singer (obviously using a micro-phone) does the singing and the audience, when it does it at all, doesa type of samba dance (a couples' dance as opposed to the individualsteps of the escolas de samba) adapted for the popular salon balls calledgafieirm;

4. Theaters, TV, and radio (mostly on AM stations) programs wherethe performers are usually well-known recording artists (people with allkinds of social backgrounds) accompanied by an orchestra or smallerensemble, but where performers who are more likely to show up at theother settings mentioned above are eventually featured.

Given the diverse contexts (and there are many others) mentioned,it is reasonable to expect that the music played may vary considerablyfrom one setting to another. That is actually the case, although certainfeatures are maintained relatively intact. A few basic ones are the duplemeter, the bass drum stress on the second beat, syncopated and diversi-fied time lines played by certain instruments (for the relationships be-tween the latter and their possible African origins, see Mukuma n.d.),and the wide-ranging and also syncopated melody punctuated by quitedemanding intervallic leaps (fifths, sixths, or even tenths).

Text contents may also differ substantially from one setting to another.In the first context above, a certain (usually historical) theme is charac-teristically developed in a hyperbolic style; in the second context, scenesfrom daily life are usually depicted through either a humorous or a sadprism, sometimes involving text improvisation (e.g., samba de partido altogenre). In both the third and fourth contexts, there is a great deal ofdiversity as far as the thematic universe is concerned, but two otherstreams (besides the two already referred to) are worth mentioning. First,there is one which represents recent developments following the path ofmovements such as bossa nova and Tropicfilia (see BChague 1973), con-sisting of texts which usually are articulate social, philosophical, andlorpolitical statements; singers and composers in this stream are quite oftencollege-educated and it is among them that many popular music critics


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74 : Samuel M. Aratijogenerically called brega, stands as one of the best-selling trends in currentBrazilian music. Its distinct characteristics, judging by the few writtenattempts to define it (see, for instance, Anonymous 1986a: 58) would beeither its suggestive or overtly romantic lyrics in combination with aninvariably romantic musical atmosphere. Leading the tendency in termsof LP sales figures since at least 1984, when, according to the availablesources (Rafaelli 1985; Anonymous 1986a), he would have hit numberthree in the Brazilian charts, singer/composer AgepZ became in recentyears one of the top challengers to both the Turma do BalHo Mkgico (achildren's group) and, especially, to Roberto Carlos (respectively, num-ber one and two).

AgepZ's trajectory in the record market has a few points in commonwith those of other brega singers. Like Amado Batista or Milionkrio andZC Rico (see the next section on brega sertaneja), he started his careerrecording for a label (Chantecler) owned by Grava~oes lCctricas Ltda.After having reportedly sold 900,000 units of a single containing the sam-ba "Moro onde nHo mora ninguCm" ("I Live Where Nobody Lives")in 1976, AgepZ shifted in 1984 to a bigger company (again, as AmadoBatista did in 1985), SiglaJSom Livre, where he established himself asa highly successful artist in commercial terms. That move, as we shallsee, was accompanied by significant changes concerning both musicand texts.

The music in "Moro onde nHo mora ninguCmW(reissued in Conti-nental 2.04.405.170, side 1, track 1) somehow fits into a generic sambaform with the characteristic alternation between refrain (A) and strophes(in this case B and C). As sort of an introduction and resembling per-formance practices (i.e., a cue for the accompanying players) mostlyobserved in contexts one and two mentioned above, the refrain is firstsung by the unaccompanied solo voice. After the introductory refrainis repeated with the instrumental accompaniment, the song follows anABACA scheme in which A or the refrain is sung by both soloist andchoir while each stanza is sung by the soloist alone. Other musical fea-tures of samba such as the bass drum accent, the syncopated rhythmicstyle, or the wide range covered by the melody are also present. Theaccompanying ensemble consists of a small percussion ensemble involv-ing standard escolas de samba instruments such as the cuica (friction drum)or the bumbo (bass drum); plucked-string instruments such as the cava-quinho (small four-string guitar which basically plays chords to synco-pated rhythms) and the seven-string guitar (which provides the bassline); and a flute which is sometimes doubled throughout the recording.


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Brega: Music and ConJict i n Urban Brazil : 75Where nobody passes by, / Where nobody else lives. 1 It is there, whereI live, / That I feel good," etc.).

Six years of relative oblivion followed the success of "Moro," a periodin which AgepC would follow the path of many other artists who haveenjoyed a transitory popularity. Singing outside the biggest cosmopolitancenters, under the most unpredictable circumstances, becomes a routinein those cases. Nevertheless, that situation would change after the re-leasing and the unexpected sales boom of his first Som Livre LP, M i s -tura brasileira ("Brazilian Mixture"). Its production involved several in-novations, beginning with the eclectic repertoire which, coherent withthe title, included other genres besides samba such as baiiio and frevo (afast-tempo Carnival genre with a corresponding dance characteristic ofthe Brazilian Northeast). Also easily noticeable were the relatively elabo-rate orchestrations making consistent use of a string ensemble, keyboards,bass, harmonica, and drums (including a drum synthesizer), in additionto the typical plucked-strings-and-percussion samba ensemble. The ef-fects of the arrangements were maximized by Som Livre's better record-ing standards, capable of emphasizing the solos or even subtle melodicfragments.

Despite all this stylistic eclecticism, it would be apparently a samba(according to Anonymous 1985, 1986a), "Deixa eu te amar" ("Let MeLove You"), which would push forward the sales. This time, however,significant changes were introduced in terms of the music itself. Therecording begins with an eight-bar instrumental introduction consistingof sort of a counterpoint between strings and keyboard over a harmonicprogression from the subdominant to the minor tonic (Example 8); inthe background we can hear the characteristic samba percussion. Oncethe singer starts other novelties appear. The formal scheme, for instance,is inverted, so that the single strophe (A) precedes the refrain (B). Yetinstead of the high register used at the beginning of "Moro" as sort ofan alert to both accompanists and dancers, he explores his lower registerin phrase A and uses the higher one only in phrase B where the climaxof the piece is reached. These two contrasting ambiences are still em-phasized by the massive orchestration used at the refrain section, which,by the way, resembles the procedures used at the refrain of RobertoCarlos's "Caminhoneiro" (the upward motion of the strings, etc.).

While other traditional musical features of samba are maintained (e.g.,wide-ranging melody, syncopation, etc.), the text contents ("I want tolay you down on the ground / and make you a woman. / Let me loveyou. / Pretend that I am the first," etc.) present one more contrastingelement to AgepC's previous style and help to delineate his new "ro-


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76 : Samuel M. AraijoExample 8: "Deixa eu te amar" (AgepE-Mauro Silva-Camillo). (FromSom Livre 530.037, side A, track 1)

6333 and 530.049, respectively), where the same overall formula is re-peated, AgepE's success seems to be in establishing a type of alternativeparadigm (i.e., samba romcintico) to the one personified by Roberto Carlos.Nonetheless, as suggested above and reinforced by other passages inwhich we hear distinct Jovem Guarda clichCs, influences of the latterseem to be inevitable.

In fact, the assimilation of more global musical tendencies by repre-


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Brega: Music and Conflict in Urban Brazil : 77determined repertoires. That is particularly clear in the case of Wando,another top-selling singer in the Brazilian market. Although his name isoften cited as an exponential figure in samba romcintico, it is difficult toisolate features of his music which could suggest any relationship tosamba. Actually most of Wando's pieces seem to bear much more simi-larities to the Roberto Carlos model than to Agep?. Indeed, we can stillhear a certain syncopation and, here and there, relatively wide melodicleaps (see Example 9), but it would be much harder than in the case ofAgep? to describe the overall style even as a derivation from samba.

Making still more problematic the ostensible connections between hisindividual style and samba, typical samba percussion instruments arenot used in Wando's records. On the other hand, the featured back-ground singers overlap with the ones who are usually featured in deluxebrega records and the general production standard closely resembles thattendency (the only exception being the absence of bowed strings). Thesong texts, however, do connect Wando to Agep?, as we can see, forinstance, in a Wando song such as "Da tenta~5.0 cantada" ("Fromthe Temptation to the InvitationH-ARCA 803.1003, side 2 , track 4).In this particular case, the erotic appeal of the lyrics ("It is you, in your'cool' way, / Saying that you just love me. / You're the one who teasesme, shakes me, / Provokes me and makes me tremble," etc.) led theBrazilian censorship authorities to prohibit its radio diffusion and publicexecution throughout the country.Example 9 : "Chora cora&?io" ("Cry, Heart, Cry") (Wando-PedrinhoMedeiros). (From ARCA 803.1003, side 1, track 1)


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7 8 : Samuel M . AraljLjoComparing other samples of samba romcintico to the examples presented

here, it can be observed that they somehow gravitate around the genericmusical characteristics of either one of the two "models" discussed hereand sometimes of both (see, for instance, Luiz Ayrzo's CopacabanaCOLP (12876). In any case, it seems reasonable to suggest that sambaromcintico stands within a type of continuum (for an in-depth discussionof similar processes affecting other traditions in world music, see Nett11 9 8 5 ) , having more traditional forms of samba at one pole and a verydiffuse style at the other extremity, where samba features are practicallyunrecognizable. The degree of romantic intensity or overt eroticism mayvary, but most song texts focus on love themes and tend to be descrip-tive.The association of samba romcintico to brega, as the evidence collectedindicates, reflects much more the dynamics of the record business than asystematic process of stylistic assimilation. It would be by no meanssurprising, for instance, to see individual singers moving back and forthalong the continuum suggested above following the sales tendencies ofthe local market. That does not mean, however, that eventual processesof stylistic fusion or innovation are totally determined by establishedmarketing strategies. These variables considered, analyzing further de-velopments within the samba connection, as much as in any other sub-division of brega, surely constitute a provoking subfield in Brazilianpopular music scholarship.

Brega SertanejaTh ey [Milionbrio and Jo s t Rico] d o a brega m usic that has nothing to d owith the values of the man from the [Brazilian] interior. (Folk singer andresearcher Inezita Barroso, in Anonymous 1986b: 153).

W e follow the evolution. Tho se who record folk music d o not sell inthese days. Tonico and Tinoco (a prestigious dupla sertaneja) got stuck withtoada caipira ( a traditio nal sertaneja genre) a n d ar e not capab le of playing abolero . W e play everything an d became c hamp ions . UosC Rico in Anony-mous 1986b: 153) .

The examination of the subfield tentatively defined here as brega ser-taneja demands a few introductory remarks. First of all, the term ser-tanejo, or its feminine form, sertaneja, is generically applied in Brazil topeople who live in the "remote" or rural interior (i .e ., sertio) as well asto various aspects of their respective realities, including music. Thereare, however, significant discontinuities concerning the actual manifesta-


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Brega: Mu si c and Conflict i n U rban Brazi l : 79specificities of each region in a big and heterogeneous country but alsothe different roles assigned to those regions in the context of a capitalisteconomy.So far, brega influences have supposedly been affecting the sertanejatradition developed within the rural areas of the Midwestern and South-ern states of Brazil. Alternatively designated as either mzisica sertaneja or,in a derogatory sense, mzisica caipira (an equivalent perhaps to hillbillymusic in the United States), this body of music encompasses a greatvariety of subgenres and is often believed to remain relatively static or,at least, to change according to indigenous patterns (see the first quota-tion above). Nevertheless, the scarce data available concerning its historyand context raise a suspicion that that is a rather unlikely premise.

Following a musical culture area division proposed by Correa de Aze-vedo, Bastos (1974: 42) analyzed the general features of moda-de-viola,the main subtype of mtisica sertaneja, as a folk or rural manifestation.They include two-voice singing in parallel motion (most often thirdsandlor sixths), a rather "loose" rhythm, and the consistent use of afive-double-string guitar called a viola. Examining a sample collected inthe state of Minas Gerais, Bastos noted the prevalence of the second,followed by the third and unison, as a melodic interval, the parallelmotion of the two voices exclusively in thirds, its isometric rhythm, andits repetitive form a a' a ' ' a ' ' '). He also indicated, without giving anydetails except for the joking contents of the new texts, that profoundchanges had taken place within the style after its transformation into apopular music genre.

We learn in Tinhorzo (1974) that as early as 1929 both the Columbiaand the Victor companies, through their respective Brazilian branches,started releasing the first records containing samples of mzisica sertaneja.According to the author, "On October 25, 1929, the expression moda deviola appears for the first time on the label of a commercial record [issuedby Victor], released not only for being sold in the central and southernregions [as the precedent Columbia issues were], but throughout Brazilas a whole" (Tinhorzo 1974: 197).

Having the commercial viability of their style progressively assured bya satisfactory public response, sertanejo musicians, quite often in pairs ofsingers (duplas) , continued developing that tradition in sort of a bifur-cated way. While the production of mtisica sertaneja remained predomi-nantly concentrated in the interior, the area in question went through arapid process of urbanization, accelerated in the 1950s by massive in-dustrialization. On the other hand, its diffusion became more and more


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80 : Samuel M. Aratijooffered not only the conditions for an intermittent interaction betweenmzisica sertaneja and a whole variety of other musical idioms but alsocreated new conditions for its production. Aimed at and disseminatedthrough films, records, and radio and T V shows, mzisica sertaneja couldhardly remain unaffected by its new environment (see, for a substantialsociological study of sertaneja music within the mass media, Caldas 1977).

A key figure connected with stylistic changes in the moda-de-viola genrewas radio singer/composer Raul Torres (the son of Spanish immigrantsborn in the state of SZo Paulo) who, drawing upon Paraguayan stylessuch as the guarania and the rasqueado, recorded the first pieces labeled asmoda guarania and rasqueado estilo paraguaio in the mid-1940s. In the wordsof TinhorZo, that tendency would progressively consolidate itself withinthe sertanejo style adopted by professional musicians and bring with itthe "distortion and impoverishment" (1974: 200) of that style. Onceagain, no detailed description of how the process of musical assimilationtook place is provided, except for a brief commentary on the addition ofan accordion to the accompanying ensemble of guitar and viola.

In any case, the development of a commercially successful trend with-in mzisica sertaneja elaborating (or claiming to elaborate) upon populartraditions of Spanish-speaking Latin American countries is today a well-established phenomenon in the Brazilian record market. According toone producer, "It evolved from the dupla caipira in SBo Paulo but uni-versalized itself by drawing upon both Paraguayan and Mexican rhythmsand the record industry strategies" (Biaggio Baccarin, ex-artistic direc-tor of the main record company in the sertanejo market, Continental,quoted in Anonymous 198613: 154).

It is precisely at this juncture that critics of that tendency startedapplying the term brega to it, directing their bitter commentaries notonly to the "Paraguayan and Mexican rhythms" but also to concomitantchanges in performance practices (electric guitars, synthesizers, etc.) andpoetical focus (urban imagery, "affected" sentimentalism, machismo,etc.).

Despite all criticism concerning its authenticity, the brega sertanejastream has become a key factor boosting the overall sales of mzisica ser-taneja in the Brazilian market. It is usually by showing its representa-tives' (e .g ., Milionbrio and JosC Rico, SCrgio Reis, and Carmen Silva)sales figures that record companies justify their continuous investmentin sertaneja music as a whole. Yet, a comparison between two uniquesources (see Arafijo 1987) suggests that the region of the country wherethe sertanejo market is mostly concentrated (see Anonymous 1986b: 154)fairly coincides with the moda-de-viola culture area delineated by Correa


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Brega: Music and Confict in Urban Brazil : 81and JosC Rico are frequently cited (and eventually blamed) as embody-ing most of the characteristics found in modern sertaneju music. An ex-amination of their 1984 and 1985 LPs confirms many of the statementsmade by previous writers about borrowings from other Latin Americanstyles. The singerlcomposer JosC Rico himself acknowledges those in-fluences but adds a few others: "I have as inspiring figures in my workNelson Ned, Miguel Aceves Mejia, Roberto Carlos, Miltinho and Nel-son Gon~a lves .We balanced the influences but the stronger one is [still]that of the Mexican mariachi" UosC Rico, quoted in Anonymous 1986b:153). Thus, besides external influences of Mexican origins (i.e., Mejiaand the mariachi ensemble), he also credits as his inspirers two deluxe bregasingers enjoying a wide popularity in Latin America (i.e., Roberto Car-los and Nelson Ned) and two romantic singers specializing in the samba-cayrio genre (i.e., Miltinho and Nelson Gon~alves).

Interestingly enough, and unlike the vast majority of popular musicrecords in Brazil, each piece in Milion5rio's and JosC Rico's productionshas its respective style named next to its title both on the record labeland the back cover. An inventory of the styles featured in the two sam-ples examined shows that the songs identified as Mexican styles (i.e.,cangrio rancheira, corrido, and huapango) account for 37.5 percent of therepertoire, while Paraguayan genre names ( i. e. , rasgueado and guarania)cover 20.8 percent. If we add to those figures the percentage correspond-ing to genres which have been indistinctly assimilated by various nationaltraditions in Latin America (i.e., bolero and polka), the resulting per-centage would increase to 91.6 percent. Of the three other genres found,only one, forrd, might be said to represent a recognizable Brazilian tra-dition, although bairio (instead of the more generic term forrd) wouldprobably be a more proper form of categorization.

The overall ambience of the records is indeed dominated by a mariachitype of sound, to which the idiomatic passages for both trumpets andviolins are fundamental. Other commonly employed instruments are theguitar, electric bass, drums, the Mexican requinto, and the viola sertaneja.Occasionally, flute, organ, accordion, and/or percussion instruments jointhe accompanying ensemble.

Many arrangements follow a scheme in which an instrumental intro-duction, with emphasis on either trumpets or violins, is followed by thealternation between JosC Rico's vocal solos and two-part singing (a thirdand/or a sixth apart) passages. Frequent are also spoken interpolationsduring the instrumental sections. In Example 10, the cay50 rancheira "Duascamisas" ("Two Shirts"), we will find all those musical features repre-


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Example 10: "Duas camisas." (From Chantecler LP 1-7 1-405-644, side A,track 1)

"Duas camisas"Miltinho Rodrigues -Waldemar de F. Assunqa'o


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Brega; Mu si c and Conflict i n Ur ban Brazil : 83Contrastingly, the vocal duet in parallel thirds comes right after the

instrumental introduction (plucked strings solo) in the bolero "Entre1Lgrimas" ("In between Tears"-Chantecler LP 1-7 1-405-644, side A,track 3) and is maintained through the entire piece. It is important tonotice in this case that, despite the melodic chromaticism characteristicof bolero, the harmony remains rather more static than is typical of thebolero standards.

In spite of maintaining a certain lamenting mood also characteristicof no&-de-viola and other subtypes of mlisica sertaneja, the singing styleoften tries to emulate exogenous styles; for example, in the case of thehuapango "Minha casa" ("My House"-Chantecler LP 1-71-405-654,side B, track I), where the use of falsetto and vibrato clearly evokes theidiom of its Mexican model.

Particularly intriguing are the pieces labeled as balan~o ,where theoverall form follows the scheme outlined above (instrumental introduc-tion-solo voicelstanza-vocal duet in thirds andlor sixthslrefrain) but themusical atmosphere is somehow a combination of deluxe brega formulas(i .e ., the basic drum beat, the bass line, and the stereotyped orchestralclimaxes) and the sertanejo idiom (i .e ., two-voice harmonies in parallelmotion and predominance of the second as a melodic interval).

As far as texts are concerned, passionate love themes account for thevast majority of the repertoire (twenty-one pieces), a fact that reinforcesthe connections with other brega tendencies. Most of the lyrics refer toimpasses or frustrations in romantic situations, sometimes exposing whatcritics have deplored as either moralist or machista principles (Exam-ple 11).Example 11: Text excerpt from Mil ionhi0 and Josh Rico song. (FromChantecler LP 1-71-405-654, side B, track 6)

"Flor da lama" ("Mud Flower"; GuarAnia)Paiozinho-Bendito Seviero

Now I came to say goodbye to my friends.I can't live in this place anymoreBecause the woman who had been living with me

since the beginningDisgraced my name and went to live in the mud.

Although Milionhrio and Josh Rico are far from encompassing the


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84 : Samuel M . Ararijoof a wide range of Latin American musical traditions, usually mergedwith or maintaining compatible features of Brazilian styles (mainly ofmlisica sertaneja subgenres); (2) certainly less representative in number,the inclusion of pieces which remind us of the deluxe brega tendency,still combined with traces of the sertanejo style; and (3) the almost abso-lute predominance of passionate romantic texts. As in the case of sambaromcintico attacks directed at its "lack of authenticity" seem to be the onlyway through which brega sertaneja has deserved its critics' attention. Asin the case of all other brega manifestations, commercial success is ap-parently in direct proportion to its neglect as a field of study.

ConclusionFrom the definitions which have arisen thus far, we can certainly inferthat the term brega consistently implies a depreciative value judgment.Despite its socially determined roots, it can be attached to anything oranyone. In fact, brega is even a commonly used label to qualify the be-havior, attitudes, or values of the upper social strata and particularlythose who reveal the "nouveauness" of their riches.

The various definitions of brega also indicate that music is an impor-tant dimension of the phenomenon. Beginning with a general inventoryof the channels of its diffusion and moving on to an overall profile ofits representatives, we then observed how the contours of the brega uni-verse conform to the trajectories of its musical exponents.

The examination of a selected number of brega substyles provides apicture of a rather complex situation. First, it confirms the pervasiveinfluence of the Jovem Guarda model (and , by extension, of British andAmerican rock of the 1950s and early 1960s) in all subfields examined.Epitomized by Roberto Carlos, this tendency became from the 1970s tothe present time a paradigm in the Brazilian record market. It observes,however, various nuances in its general profile. The Jovem Guarda mu-sical style may appear in a more crystallized fashion (Amado Batista),may be alternated with other styles in different dosages (Carlos Santos,Milionbrio and JosC Rico), or, in its more successful version, mergewith national and international tendencies, producing ambiguous stylis-tic results (Roberto Carlos).

An equally significant fact emerging from the samples analyzed hereis the assimilation of brega influences by established traditions in the pop-ular music of Brazil such as the samba and musica sertaneja. In the caseof samba romcintico, the evidence collected suggests the delineation of a


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Brega: Mu si c and Conflict in Urban Brazil : 85brega seems to reflect both the usual Jovem Guarda derivation and theconsistent adoption of other Latin American models (mainly Mexican),with an almost indistinguishable retention of sertaneja music features inboth cases.

Despite (or, perhaps, because of) its extreme ambiguity, brega opensa quite provoking field to those interested in the ways music expressesthe social dynamics within the global village.

Notes

1. This paper is a condensed version of the homonym master's thesis,supervised by Dr. David Stigberg and submitted to the MusicologyDivision of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

2 . The Milionhrio and JosC Rico tour through China actually createda diplomatic embarrassment to Brazil. Under an agreement for culturalinterchange, China sent to Brazil the Peking Symphony Orchestraand requested in turn Milionhrio and JosC Rico, who were the mostpopular Brazilian artists in that country. As the Brazilian Ministry ofCulture declined to provide funds for their trip, the singers took it attheir own expenses and, according to their report (see Anonymous1986b), presented their show eight times to audiences of about 2,500people per show.

3 . It comprises a network of commercial stores, a school, two AM radiostations (with plans to acquire an FM and a T V station), a recordcompany, and a music publishing company and employs about sixhundred people.4 . A recent fact indicates that brega may be achieving its social "redemp-tion." The title of T V Globo's most recent and extremely successfulnovela is nothing less than "A brega e a chique."

5. It suffices to take a look at the photos contained in albums by artistsas diverse as Amado Batista, Milionkrio and JosC Rico, or WaldickSoriano (see discography at the end of this article). Symbols such asthe bracelet, the medallion supported by a metal chain hanging aroundthe neck, or the shirt always with two buttonholes strategically openare found in nearly all cases.


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86 : Samue l M . Ara i joDiscography

All items share the following characteristics: they are 12" LP recordsissued in Brazil; their respective dates are indicated.Agep&

1984 0 s grandes sucessos de AgepP. Continental 2.04.405.170.1984 Agepi. Som Livre 530.037.1985 AgepZ. Som Livre 403.6333.

Ayrlo, Luiz1985 Samba na crista. Copacabana COLP 12876.

Batista, Amado1984 Amado. Continental 1-07-405-293.1985a Amado Batista "85." RCA 109.0139.1985b 0 s sucessos de Amado Batista. Continental 1-07-405-305.1986 Vitamina i cura. Continental 1.07.405.311.

Carlos, Roberto1984 Roberto Carlos. CBS 230.095.1985 Roberto Carlos. CBS 230.105.

Dusek, Eduardo1984 Brega-chique, chique-brega. Polydor 82 19744.

Magal, Sidney1982 Magal espetacular. Polygram 245 1 189.

Milion6rio e JosC Rico1984 Lembran~a.Chantecler 1-7 1-405-644.1985 M in ha prece. Chantecler 1-7 1-405-654

Ned, Nelson1984 Caprichoso. EMI-Odeon 31C 052 240 168.

Santos, Carlos1984 Carlos Santos: Vol. 6. Gravasom 823 332-1.1985 Carlos Santos: Vol. 7. Gravasom 825 884-1.


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Brega: Mu si c and Conflict i n Urba n Brazil : 87Soriano, Waldick

1984 Waldick Soriano interprets Roberto Carlos. Arca 809- 1001.Wando

1985 . . . vulgar e comum i ncio morrer de amor. Arca 803.1003.1986 U i -Wa nd o paixcio. Arca 803.1009.

References

Anonymous1984a Folha de Scio Paulo, March 9, p. 30.1984b Folha de Scio Paulo, May 5, p. 41.1985 " 0 s encantos do brega." V q a , July 25, pp. 139-140.1986a "No [email protected] do povo." V g a , January 29, pp. 58-63.1986b " 0 s reis sertanejos." V i a , September 24, pp. 152-154.

Aralijo, Samuel1987 Brega: Mu si c and Conflict in Urban Brazil. M.M. thesis,

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Bastos, Rafael JosC de Menezes

1974 "Las mlisicas tradicionales del Brasil." Revista MusicalChilena 28 (Jan./Mar.): 21-77.

BChague, Gerard1973 "Bossa and Bossas: Recent Changes in Brazilian Urban

Popular Music." Ethnomusicology 17, no. 2: 209-233.1980 "Samba. ' In Th e N e w Grove Dictionary of Mu sic and M us i-

cians, ed. Stanley Sadie, vol. XVI, pp. 447-448. NewYork: Macmillan.

Caldas, Waldenyr1977 Acorde na aurora: Misica sertaneja e indistria cultural. Sao

Paulo: Cia. Editora Nacional.Castro, Ruy

1984 "Sidney Magal." Folha de Scio Paulo, May 5, p. 41.


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88 : Samuel M . AralijoCoon, Caroline

1978 1978: The N e w Wave Punk Rock Explos ion. New York:Hawthorn.

Hoos, Willem1983 "Bright Future Seen for Brazilian Industry." Billboard,

May 10, pp. 72-73.Kubrusly, Mauricio

1984 "A midia chique ainda discrimina o brega." Folha deS i o Paulo , May 27, p. 69.

Luca, Patricia den.d. " 0 s anos sessenta: A quest50 do brega." Radio USP,

SZo Paulo.Marcondes, Marco Antonio

1977 EnciclopLdia da mlisica popular brasileira; erudita, folcldrica epopular. 2 vols. SZo Paulo: ArtEditora.

McGowan, Chris1985 "Brazil: Industry Struggles Uphill against Four-Year

Recession, Aided by Strong Musical Heritage." Billboard,January 26, pp. VL-22, VL-24, VL-35, VL-52.

Mukuma, Kazadi wan.d. A contribui~ciobantu na mlisica popular brasileira. SZo Paulo:

Global.Nettl, Bruno

1985 Th e Western Impact on World Mu sic . New York: Schirmer.Olsen, Dale

1980 "Japanese Music in Peru." Asian Music 11, no. 2: 41-51.Petta, Rosangela

1984 "Esse rock vai passar." Isto i,January 4, pp. 62-64.Rafaelli, JOSE Domingos

1985 "Brazilian Industry Facing Problems." Billboard, January


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araujo - brega

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