The second volume of History of Brazilian Popular Music – Without Prejudice provides a complete mapping from the late 1970s to the early 2020s.
Rodrigo Faour, in the first volume of Historia da Música Popular Brasileira (History of Brazilian Popular Music ), warned that there isn't just one Brazilian popular music, but rather many, each with its own distinct style. While the previous book covered the history of music from 1500 to the 1970s and covered rhythms such as choro, samba, marchinha, waltz, frevo, carimbó, samba-rock, pagode, forró, sertanejo, brega, etc., this second volume covers just over forty years: from the transgressive end of the explosive 1970s, when there was a great creative and liberating boom in Brazilian music—including the emergence of countless female singers and songwriters simultaneously, unlike anything seen before—to precisely 2022, in a scene divided between the mass production of a very powerful industry in the "sertanejo" segment and the independent market.
In this second volume of History of Brazilian Popular Music – Without Prejudice , the reader will have access not only to the styles that most scholars and the educated media tend to value, such as the so-called "MPB," samba, and national rock, but also to the various genres (and subgenres) that were once considered of lesser value, either because they were aligned with more commercial interests, such as much of the more popular music—labeled "tacky," later "brega"—or because they did not reach Rio de Janeiro (the country's cultural and recording industry capital in the 20th century) with much traction, such as caipira/sertaneja songs and other "regional" phenomena. This volume includes, for example, mini-chapters on the songbooks of Pará, Maranhão, Pernambuco, Bahia, and Rio Grande do Sul, as well as phenomena from São Paulo that are more restricted to the state, such as punk rock and the São Paulo avant-garde. or because they are, in theory, “less Brazilian”, like the more unpretentious pop, soul, disco and dance music, axé-music, electronic forró, funk carioca and hip-hop.
Without aesthetic prejudices, this work showcases all types of artists and musical styles, highlights their most relevant songs or acts, leaving the reader free to draw their own conclusions regarding their quality or importance and the intense transformations that our music market and, more than that, our popular music has undergone in recent decades.
"Rodrigo Faour's book is already good from the title onward. It arrives at a great time, with the strength and true beauty that our music brings. Bravo!" – Maria Bethânia
"This book is a unique document that will survive forever as the most comprehensive book ever written about our musical history. I am shocked by how much I have learned and how much I still have to learn." – Roberto Menescal
"Rodrigo Faour is a walking archive. He unearths magnificent treasures audible in the corners of MPB from any era and expertly explores charming and otherwise details of our artistic culture. He has collaborated countless times in my research. I am his number one fan!" – Erasmo Carlos
