Sobre flores e canhões: canções de protesto em festivais de música popular

Abstract

O presente artigo aborda algumas canções de protesto apresentadas nos Festivais da Música Popular realizados no período 1965-1969, buscando compreendê-las em sua inserção no momento social e político em que surgiram e se fizeram ouvir. Foram realizadas análises de vídeos e áudio das apresentações das canções escolhidas, segundo a visão da História Cultural, baseada em aportes teórico-metodológicos da fenomenologia e da dialética. Desse modo, foram privilegiadas a escuta e as observações das autoras frente às gravações da época. Os festivais de música popular brasileira foram realizados durante a ditadura militar no Brasil, na década de 60 do século XX, abrigando, entre outras, manifestações das chamadas canções de protesto, da autoria de compositores como Chico Buarque, Geraldo Vandré, Caetano Veloso, Paulinho da Viola, entre outros. As conclusões apontam algumas convergências entre as características das canções analisadas, revelando também que elas atuaram veladamente como instrumento político de contestação.

Rap and Brazilian Popular Music as Movements of Social Protest in Brazil

“…Just as political events in the past have altered current social relations, previously documented musical movements have influenced and fed current ones in a consciously informed way. Brazilan popular music dates to the establishment of the new dictatorship after the coup of March 31, 1964 (Villarino, 1999: 18–19, quoted in Freire and Augusto, 2014: 221), and brought together a set of songs and of composers and performers that had a marked influence on a Brazilian musical circuit that expressed the anguish and aspirations of a generation. It can be said that “from the 1960s and especially after the coup d’état, protest became an ideological tendency in popular music” (Coutinho, 2002: 69).…”

“…Relating Brazilian popular music to social movements critical of the military dictatorial regime becomes even more precise when observing the numerous protest songs that belong to this musical genre. Although the term “protest songs” 5 is not an irreducible category—“critical” songs or “resistance” songs are also terms that are used (Freire and Augusto, 2014)—it can be said that these “are recognized by many authors as an important presence at festivals of Brazilian popular music” (Freire and Augusto, 2014: 222). Similar to the relationship of metonymy that rap has with the hip-hop movement, protest songs had a role in the Brazilian popular music movement, especially in the decades between 1960 and 1980.…”

“…Sean Purdy is a professor of the history of the Americas at the Universidade de São Paulo. Freire and Augusto (2014). Through songs, members of the movements express the violence they have suffered and the social advances they demand.…”

“…Information was collected in the field and a review of public safety data and journalistic materials was conducted, all in dialogue with a bibliographical review of the fields of the sociology of music and political sociology. First, the article deals with the history of Brazilian popular music as a producer of protest songs (Freire and Augusto, 2014) and a cultural landmark of denunciation between the 1960s and 1980s in Brazil. 3 Second, rap is observed as a plural musical genre in its references and proposals and in its role as an engaged musical movement.…”

“…There is already an ample literature about the importance of music in Brazilian social movements, including studies by Coutinho (2002), Napolitano (2004), and Freire and Augusto (2014). Through songs, members of the movements express the violence they have suffered and the social advances they demand.…”