Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T09:56:19.095Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tom Zé and the performance of citizenship in Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2009

CHRISTOPHER DUNN
CHRISTOPHER DUNN
Affiliation:
302 Newcomb Hall, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118-5698, USA E-mail: cjdunn@tulane.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines the recent historical trajectory of the idea of citizenship in Brazil through the perspective of Tom Zé, a composer and musician noted for his juxtaposition of avant-garde poetics and popular music. My study begins with his participation in the watershed Tropicália movement of the 1960s, focusing on his critique of consumer society and its implications for popular citizenship. In the early 1970s, the figure of the bourgeois citizen, or senhor cidadão, appears in his work as a caustic critique of those who benefited most from the expansion of capitalism during the period of authoritarian rule. With the re-emergence of civil society and redemocratisation in the 1980s, Tom Zé's work reveals a more affirmative notion of citizenship premised on the discourse of self-represenation among working-class subjects. Finally, this paper discusses Tom Zé's most recent work and its contribution to insurgent forms of citizenship in contemporary Brazil involving historically marginalised and impoverished urban communities within the context of neo-liberal globalisation.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , May 2009 , pp. 217 - 237
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Caldeira, T., and Holston, J. 1998. ‘Democracy and violence in Brazil’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 41/4, pp. 691–729Google Scholar
Campos, A. 1972. Balanço da bossa e outras bossas (São Paulo, Perspectiva)Google Scholar
Canclini, N.G. 2001. Citzens and Consumers: Globalization and Multicultural Conflicts. (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press)Google Scholar
Carvalho, J.M. 2001. Cidadania no Brasil: O longo caminho. (Rio de Janeiro, Civilização Brasileira)Google Scholar
Chauí, M. 1986. Conformismo e Resistência: Aspectos da cultura popular no Brasil (São Paulo, Editora Brasiliense)Google Scholar
Dagnino, E. 1998. ‘Culture, citizenship, and democracy: changing discourses and practices of the Latin American Left’, in Cultures of Politics, Politics of Cultures: Re-visioning Latin American Social Movements, ed. Alvarez, S., Dagnino, E. and Escobar, A. (Boulder, Westview Press), pp. 33–63.Google Scholar
DaMatta, R. 1987. A Casa e a rua: Espaço, cidadania, mulher e morte no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, Editora Guanabara)Google Scholar
Dunn, C. 2001. Brutality Garden: Tropicália and the Emergence of a Brazilian Counterculture (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foucault, M. 1990. The History of Sexuality Volume I: An Introduction (New York, Vintage)Google Scholar
Foucault, M. 2003. ‘Society Must Be Defended’: Lectures at the Collége de France, 1975–76 (New York, Picador)Google Scholar
Galvão, W.N. 1976. Saco de Gatos (São Paulo, Livraria Duas Cidades)Google Scholar
Moehn, F. 2007. ‘Music, citizenship, and violence in postdictatorship Brazil’, Latin American Music Review, 28, pp. 181–219CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pardue, D. 2007. ‘Hip hop as pedagogy: a look into “heaven” and “soul” in São Paulo, Brazil’, Anthropological Quarterly, 80, pp. 673–710CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perrone, C. 2002. ‘Performing São Paulo: vanguard representations of a Brazilian cosmopolis’, Latin American Music Review, 23, pp. 60–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinto, T. et al. , 1999. ‘Fala Tom Zé, o popular e erudito que pratica a imprensa cantada’, Revista Imprensa, 8/137, pp. 4–10Google Scholar
Porto, R. et al. , 1999. ‘O genio de Irará’, Caros Amigos, 31, pp. 28–39Google Scholar
Prado, P. 1997 (1928). Retrato do Brasil: Ensaio sobre a tristeza brasileira (São Paulo, Companhia de Letras)Google Scholar
Ricardo, S. 1991. Quem quebrou meu violão (Rio de Janeiro, Editora Record)Google Scholar
Ridenti, M. 2000. Em busca do povo brasileiro: Artistas da revolução, do CPC à era da tv (Rio de Janeiro, Editora Record)Google Scholar
Rollefson, J.G. 2007. ‘Tom Zé's Fabrication Defect and the “Esthetics of Plagiarism”: a postmodern / postcolonial “Cannibalist Manifesto”’, Popular Music and Society, 30/3, pp. 305–327CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwarz, R. 1977. Ao vencedor as batatas: Forma literária e processo social nos inícios do romance brasileiro (São Paulo, Duas Cidades)Google Scholar
Scliar, M. 2003. Saturno nos Trópicos: A melancolia européia chega ao Brasil (São Paulo, Companhia das Letras)Google Scholar
Skidmore, T. 1993 (1974). Black into White: Race and Nationality in Brazilian Thought (Durham, Duke University Press)Google Scholar
Yúdice, G. 2003. The Expediency of Culture: Uses of Culture in the Global Era (Durham, Duke University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zé, T.(António José Martins Santana) 2003. Tropicalista Lenta Luta (São Paulo, Publifolha)Google Scholar

Discography

Tom Zé, Fabrication Defect: Com defeito de fabricação. Luaka Bop/Warner Bros. 946953. 1998Google Scholar
Imprensa cantada. Trama 894-2. 2003Google Scholar
Jogos de armar. Trama 111-2. 2000Google Scholar
Nave Maria. RGE 3086062. 1984Google Scholar
‘Se o caso é chorar’, on Tom Zé: Série Dois Momentos Vol. 14, Continental 57384242-2. 2000 (1972)Google Scholar
The Best of Tom Zé: Massive Hits. Luaka Bop/Warner Bros. 26396. 1990Google Scholar
The Hips of Tradition. Luaka Bop/Warner Bros. 945118. 1992Google Scholar
Todos os olhos. Continental 10121. 1973Google Scholar
Tom Zé. Sony 495712. 2000 (1968)Google Scholar
Tom Zé. RGE 3476007. 1994 (1970)Google Scholar