I just posted Episode 29 of my podcast Sound Philosophy, an episode entitled “Bossa Nova and Middle-Class Melancholy.”
This episode begins by asking the deceptively difficult question: what is the middle class? Moreover, what is the middle class’s relationship to music? In the second segment, I discuss the rise of the middle class in Brazil alongside the increasing popularity of the samba, along with middle-class criticisms of the Afro-Brazilian genre and Brazilian representation abroad as embodied by Carmen Miranda. In the third segment, I delve into the musical characteristics of Bossa Nova and the manner in which they encourage, reflect, and model a middle-class sensibility. Might its success in this account for its relatively short lifespan as a truly popular genre?
The photograph of the Palacio do Planalto used for the episode art comes courtesy of Ministério da Cultura (Creative Commons license) and can be found HERE: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Homologação_do_tombamento_de_obras_do_Niemeyer_(35035168191).jpg.
In the episode I talk a bit about the architecture in Brasilia of Oscar Niemeyer. There are many sites that include fantastic photographs of his work. Here are just a few to get you started:
A good introduction to his work from ArchDaily HERE.
A great discussion by Eric Allen of 16 works by Niemeyer HERE.