MODERNISM, ITS CRITICISM AND BRAZIL

The Unfulfilled Promise of Musical Happiness

Abstract

This article examines how the São Paulo-based Modernist movement of the 1920s constructed a memory of itself as a decisive force in shaping Brazilian culture in the twentieth century. At the same time, it identifies that, at least since the 1980s, a critical perspective has emerged and solidified, challenging this narrative and highlighting the plurality of modernizing forces in the country’s art. This critique has underscored an unresolved question central to Modernism itself: how to escape the elitism of art when thinking about Brazil? For Mário de Andrade, music would be the most likely path, due to its communicative power; a notion that, despite his contradictions, found undeniable strength in popular music throughout the twentieth century. From this emerged a promise of happiness through culture, one that remains largely unfulfilled in Brazil’s social reality. The article ultimately questions whether what Chico Buarque once considered the negation of popular music as we know it – with rap music - might, in fact, expose the rift between the Modernist dream and national reality, where Brazil’s enduring challenge is encoded.