Making Samba: A New History of Race and Music in Brazil

Nine. After the Golden Age: Reinvention and Political Change

9 After the Golden Age Reinvention and Political Change The ubc’s foundational years occurred during an era of great political change in Brazil.Within the União’s first twenty years of existence,Vargas fell from power, reclaimed it, and then took his own life in 1954.The same years saw the crystallization of de facto urban segregation in Rio and of a conservative “social peace,” sealed in 1964 with a military coup.1 The most brutal phase of military rule commenced in late 1968 with the enactment of Institutional Act No. 5 and Supplementary Act No. 38, which resulted in the dissolution of Congress, harsh censorship, and the purging and suspension of local legislatures and the judiciary. In 1969, the Brazilian National Security Council identified academic studies that documented racial discrimination as examples of “leftist subversion,” and the military forcibly retired seventy professors, most of whom taught at the University of São Paulo.2 In the face of criticism, the regime remained tenaciously optimistic. Its ufanismo, or hyperpatriotic love for Brazil, was bolstered by the nation’s 1970 World Cup victory and summarized by the government slogan “Brazil: Love It or Leave It.” During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, samba ceded space to newer rhythms, among them bossa nova, música cafona, rock ’n’ roll, soul, and tropicália.3 Debates about those forms frequently overlapped with larger political and economic discussions. Especially during the late 1960s and early 1970s, censors combated offenses that included explicit critiques of the military, protests wrapped in code, and the flouting of religious, sexual, and social mores. Under the administration of Ernesto Geisel (1974–79), 228 Chapter Nine the military altered its approach to music and focused less on censorship. Among other initiatives, it created a National Arts Foundation (Fundação Nacional de Artes) and administered the Pixinguinha Project, a program designed to provide low-­ cost musical entertainment to working-­ class audiences and also bolster the international visibility of Brazilian artists .4 Meanwhile, now-­ elderly Afro-­ Brazilian musicians reinvented themselves , often in collaboration with journalists. In some cases, reinvention returned the musicians to familiar places. At other times, members of the Pelo Telefone Generation adopted identities and postures that might well have made their younger selves cringe. Music at a Crossroads In 1960, President Juscelino Kubitschek, well known for his passion for music, signed Law 3.857, which created the Ordem dos Músicos do Brasil (Order of Brazilian Musicians), a body meant to resolve long-­ standing issues regarding professionalization and music. For all the responsibilities that the ubc held—collecting and distributing author’s rights payments , collaborating with police and censors, courting politicians on behalf of composers, leading public campaigns and legal battles to ensure the enforcement of intellectual property law—its relationship with the state remained unstable and poorly defined. Law 3.857 used the Order of Brazilian Musicians to bring musicians more formally into the state’s fold. The law granted it jurisdiction throughout the country and made it officially responsible for “the selection, discipline, and defense of the [musician] class,” tasks that the ubc and other author’s rights societies had performed for years.5 While Law 3.857 extended to professional musicians the protections afforded to other workers, the legislation, like many earlier laws, provided more details about musicians’ responsibilities to the state than about the state’s obligations to musicians. The majority of the agency’s funding would come from its members, who could only “exercise the profession” after registering with two separate government offices. The musician’s workday was limited to five hours, except in the cases of “popular celebrations ” or “national interest.” At least eleven hours of break had to separate one performance from the next.The law recognized four categories of employers and nine categories of professional musicians, including composers , instructors, instrumentalists, singers, conductors, and arrangers. Law 3.857 also prescribed a list of activities and responsibilities that musi- 229 After the Golden Age cians were expected to pursue on their own in the interest of the common good. Singers and instrumentalists, for example, should hold private recitals , participate in various bands and groups, and provide musical instruction . It is significant that Law 3.857 did not address author’s rights, a topic that the government would not revisit fully until thirteen years later. Meanwhile, the music market was experiencing yet another period of phenomenal growth. Between 1970 and 1976...