Recorded to capitalize on the success of the forward-looking "Alegria, Alegria" at the TV Record Festival, the album mostly continued in the new direction in which Caetano and his fellow tropicalistas (though that term had not yet been employed to describe them) wanted to take Brazilian popular music.

Where his debut Domingo had been primarily based on more traditional Brazilian musical styles such as bossa nova, his second album relied heavily on sounds and instrumentation more common to rock and roll and psychedelia.

In fact, Caetano had already completed the song's composition when film producer Luiz Carlos Barreto suggested "Tropicália" as its title, seeing similarities between its content and that of the art exhibit.

[2] The Noel Rosa song "Coisas nossas", with its listing of various elements of Brazilian society, inspired the lyrics to "Tropicália", which similarly list cultural icons, such as the Portuguese-born but Brazilian-raised international superstar Carmen Miranda, a line from the popular Roberto Carlos song "Quero que tudo vá pro inferno", and the Louis Malle film Viva Maria.

[6][7] It was very popular upon its release in Brazil, and the Brazilian press used the song title "Tropicália" to christen the larger artistic movement it represented "Tropicalismo", to the disdain of Caetano himself.