If you want to learn more about vintage music from South America, Música Popular Brasileira is good place to start. It emerged in the 1960s as a cultural movement of resistance, and you can hear it in the sounds. Música Popular Brasileira is a great combination of traditional Brazilian rhythms with global influences and a solid entry point into South American music.

An essential album for beginners is “Clube da Esquina” (1972) by Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges. This album highlights much of what makes MPB special with its signature melodies and rich sound. A true masterpiece is “Construção” (1971) by Chico Buarque that is highly sophisticated with beautiful songs. And a special album that combines several iconic artists of the genre is “Tropicália ou Panis et Circencis” (1968). Here you can find a large mix of different songs that are bold and true classics.

Música Popular Brasileira was a courageous genre, some of its leading artists were actually arrested by the Brazilian government for participating in it. It was underground from the start, and still underground today. The newsletter will dive deeper into that – and into other rare directions of music in Latin America.