You Are What You Listen To

A brief analysis of the decline of the Brazilian music scenario

I will try to do something bold with this article: try to convey to you, whose native language is English, what has been happening within a culture that uses another language, Portuguese, and which has been gradually losing quality thanks to immense neglect of an enormous sequence of governments with our country’s education. Nowadays, the average Brazilian barely knows how to speak his language, understands scientific concepts very superficially, and lives in a minimal world due to his lack of knowledge.

That is reflected in our cultural landscape, which is increasingly degraded. I tried to get into the subject by making a “modern” version of a beautiful Brazilian song, “Construction” by Chico Buarque. My version, more simplistic and direct, is below. At the end of this article, I put the translation of the original lyrics. I know that a lot of poetry is lost in translation, but I think it will be possible to capture a sense of what has been happening with Brazilian culture.

Here, then, is my modern version of “Construction”:

Jessica, my love, how good it was to have sex all night! Jessica, my love, how good it was to kiss you, not to fight! Armandinho, Wesley, and Junior, Daddy will work now! I’m going; slowly, today I’m going to sweat, pal!

I climbed on the empty building, today I’m not okay! I made a wall, a little room; it was my day today! Wall, ceiling, and floor, work as usual! What is that? I’m crying; this is not normal!

I’m dizzy, out of my mind, I’ll sit on the floor! Something is missing inside me; where’s the door? It was no use drinking cachaça; I’m crying! I laugh, I’m so stupid, I think I’m dying!

Ai, ai, ai, ai, ai, ai, ai, I’m falling, I fell! Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, I’m flying, I think I jumped! It’s me there, in the middle of the street, there’s no salvation… Ridiculous, I’m still shaking, but my heart has already stopped… And the warden complaining that I committed a traffic infraction!

This aberration up there attempts to recreate a song full of subtleties and poetry that I admire a lot. I just put that annoying voice of our “sertanejo” singers in my head (the equivalent of American country musicians) — I can’t understand why they have to sing that horrible way — and tried to be as explicit as possible.

And I know I didn’t make it.

The current Brazilian popular lyrics are much less subtle, but as my brain is used to slightly more complex songs, it is difficult to make it work on such a superficial level.

And that is the big problem, simplicity.

I am not entering the discussion on the topics here. Nowadays, some things should not even be called music; they are insults, usually aimed at women, who often seem to like it and “assume” their role as objects, rolling around the “singers” in pools rented for music videos of rather dubious taste. I’m trying to talk about the songs that play the most on radio and parties nowadays, which often have slightly more aggrandizing themes, but don’t use any subtlety, which impoverishes them tremendously.

Yesterday I was working at dawn and heard a talk show called “Conversa com Bial” on TV. I usually turn off the TV when the show starts, but since I was immersed in work, I left the TV on and heard an interview with a famous singer and songwriter that I had never heard of and didn’t keep the name.

This guy was very humble. He spoke wrong during the interview itself. Don’t get me wrong; I think people of any background can and should express themselves artistically. But he lacks a minimum of education. One of his songs, for example, said, “COVID, I’m not afraid of you, I’ve got worse.” Yes, there is a joke there… But did the composer thought of the people who lost loved ones to this disease? Or will a daughter who lost her mother to COVID go to a concert by this singer and forget about one of the people she loved most in life? Would she sing the chorus with the audience? Or would she cry out of there?

There are more imaginative ways to say what you mean without having to offend anyone. And subtlety is often one of the best tools for doing this. The significant problem with subtlety is that, to interpret it, you need to use your brain… And many people are too lazy to do this. Worse: the less you use it, the greater the laziness. And what is the advantage, then, of using subtlety?

The biggest one is that when we only indicate certain sensations and actions, each of us draws a different story in our minds, and these “personal” stories tend to resonate more deeply.

The lack of subtlety generates watertight, solid, unique visions. As in this chorus, of a very famous “sertanejo” music here in Brazil:

MIster policeman, I’m not a tramp, I am not a delinquent; I’m just needy! I slept on the park bench… I was thinking about heeeeeeeer!

The ONLY scene you can think of is a man being woken up by a policeman, who wants to arrest him for sleeping in a public square, and who defends himself by saying that he is in love with a woman. For this song to resonate deeply in someone, the person must have slept in the square thinking about someone and be woken up by a policeman. That’s where the magic of subtlety comes. If the author were more subtle, the lyrics could have been something like this:

I can’t be blamed for exposing myself like that, I cannot be judged because this was the end, Only heaven was my company on this night of pain! And I’ll go to jail now, for you, my love!

If you pay attention, I used subtlety to say the same thing as in the song's original version. But my version can generate many scenes in the listener’s mind. And one of these scenes, probably, will resonate with some experience lived by the listener… And make the music have a deeper meaning.

The lack of subtlety of current popular Brazilian music is directly linked to the lack of education in our society, mainly the government's fault. The lyrics’ simplicity is just a reflection of minds that are getting simpler and simpler. And unsophisticated minds are unable to achieve complex goals. The more our country treats education the way it does, the more our culture will “simplify,” and the army of low-skilled people will grow.

What a pity.

One day I believed in this country.

Here is Chico Buarque’s “Construction” translation:

He made love as if it were the last time Kissed his woman as if she were the last one And each child as if they were the only ones And he crossed the street with his shy step

He climbed the construction site as if he were a machine He built in the landing four solid walls Brick by brick in a magical design His eyes dulled by the concrete and tears

He sat down to rest as though it were Saturday He ate beans and rice as though he were a prince Then drank and sobbed as though he were a castaway He danced and laughed as if he were listening to music

And he stumbled in the sky as though he were a drunk And he floated in the air as though he were a bird And he finished on the ground in a messy heap He agonized in the middle of the public sidewalk He died going the wrong way interrupting the traffic