Brazil produced some of the decade’s most sophisticated popular music. Bossa nova brought jazz harmony, understated singing and samba rhythm into an intimate modern style, while MPB and Tropicália later expanded Brazilian pop through politics, psychedelia and experimentation.
Bossa nova goes international
Antônio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto and Astrud Gilberto helped carry bossa nova into the international jazz and pop world. “The Girl from Ipanema” became the most famous symbol of that crossover.
MPB and Tropicália
Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and others mixed Brazilian traditions with rock, avant-garde ideas and political tension, creating one of the late 1960s’ most adventurous pop movements.
Why it matters
Brazilian music showed that the decade’s innovation was not centered only in London and America. Its influence reached jazz, pop, singer-songwriters and later world-music culture.