Copying the Bossa Nova

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the initial proliferation of bossa nova in the United States and United Kingdom in the early 1960s, primarily as a jazz and dance fad. By using material culled from top English-language periodicals of the era, it traces the popularity of bossa nova in the United States from its adoption by jazz musicians in the early 1960s, the invention of a dance to accompany the musical trend, and the ultimate rejection of bossa nova by purists in the jazz press. It also shows how the style’s initial popularity was partially due to the divisive racial politics that had overtaken jazz in that era, allowing the Otherness of bossa nova to temporarily offer an alternative for jazz musicians and fans.