ABSTRACT
Ary Barroso’s ode to the Brazilian motherland, “Aquarela do Brasil” (literally, “The Watercolors of Brazil,” known to English-speaking audiences as simply “Brazil”), is one of the most well-known musical clichés in screen media since the start of World War II. Unlike other internationally famous Brazilian songs such as “Tico-Tico no Fubá” and “The Girl From Ipanema,” “Brazil” has been so popular that it is now known through the quick shorthand of a rhythmic vamp. Through its travels in film soundtracks, trailers, and cartoons, it joins other ubiquitous songs from Latin America that serve as musical tropes, such as the tango “La Cumparsita” and the ranchera “Cielito Lindo.” Thus, it should be no surprise that Barroso’s song often musically accompanies a range of stereotypes about Brazilian (and, more generally, Latin) culture as part of the US entertainment industry’s grotesque reduction of the region to Carmen Miranda, football, and coffee. In this chapter, I trace the song’s changing meanings when it is used in various audiovisual contexts. Further, I uncover the relationship between the song’s complex network of associations to changing geopolitical realities on the ground.
