ABSTRACT
Noel Rosa played a decisive role in creating a new kind of popular music in Brazil. Women and love affairs constitute a major thematic strand in Noel’s sambas, and he reproduces break with convention with authenticity. Adopting the persona of the malandro here, Noel introduces innovations into the typical treatment of the theme by incorporating elements of discourse and mundane aspects of daily life into the lyrics. The cronista is, by nature, an exhibitionist, who is able to create something out of nothing, and Noel takes the most stock topics but transforms them into novel creations. A debunking of national mythology and iconography can be seen in many of Noel’s sambas. Underpinning Noel’s depiction of the cotidiano is an assertion of the true Brazil, the flip-side of which is, of necessity, a rejection of the phoney symbols of an imagined Brazilian identity based on European templates.
