Beyond Ipanema

I recently went to see Beyond Ipanema at SIFF (Seattle International Film Festival) and was surprised that I actually enjoyed the film as much as I did. Beyond Ipanema is a documentary about the history of Brazilian music and it's impact on cultures throughout the world. You may not know this but much of the music popular in America, past and present, has been majorly influenced by the many different styles of Brazilian music.

When I hear the name Carmen Miranda one thing comes to mind, bananas. What I didn't know was she was the first Brazilian performer to reach international stardom. What I really like about Carmen Miranda is although she conformed slightly to meet Hollywood standards at the time (bleaching her hair and singing in English) she refused to assimilate completely. All of her film contracts included at least one or two songs sung in Portuguese, even though American audiences could not understand her. She was also the highest paid woman in the United States!

Carmen Miranda paved the road to global success for other Brazilian artists. Because of this exposure, American music has maintained a Brazilian influence throughout the decades.

Bossa Nova, a genre of Brazilian music popular in the late 1950s, was said to have been an offshoot of American Jazz. But when Jazz musicians began to travel to Brazil in search of inspiration they found that Bossa Nova had a much more complex beat and brought this sound back to the U.S. For years Bossa Nova set the mood for cocktail parties and other social events in America and around the world.

What I really liked about this movie and what I learned about the many different genres of Brazilian music is how diverse the music is while maintaining a strong sense of culture. It doesn't appeal to just one race, class, or gender and there are no borders or boundaries.