Psychedelic rock in Latin America

The Brazilian psychedelic rock group Os Mutantes formed in 1966, although little known outside Brazil at the time (due to the fact that they recorded in Portuguese), they have since accrued a substantial international cult following.

[1] Os Mutantes also played a central role in the short-lived but revolutionary Brazilian aesthetic movement Tropicália, also known as 'Tropicalismo' (Tropicalism), an anti-authoritarian artistic reaction to the repressive military junta that seized power in Brazil in 1964.

[3] The musical manifesto of the Tropicalist movement was the landmark 1968 collaborative LP Tropicália: ou Panis et Circencis ("Tropicalia: or Bread and Circuses") which brought together the talents of Os Mutantes, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Tom Zé and Gal Costa, with arrangements by avant-garde composer-arranger Rogerio Duprat (who had studied with Pierre Boulez) and lyrical contributions from poet Torquato Neto.

[citation needed] In September 1968 Caetano Veloso gave two tumultuous performances at the third annual International Popular Song Festival in Rio, where the audience included a large contingent of left-wing students who were vehemently opposed to the Tropicalistas.

Dressed in a shiny green plastic suit, festooned with wires and necklaces strung with teeth, Veloso provoked the students with his sensual movements and startling new psychedelic music.

The ideological conflict climaxed three days later when Veloso returned for the second round of the competition on 15 September, at which he performed a new song entitled "Prohibido a Prohibir" ("It is Forbidden to Forbid"), which was recorded live and later released as single.

Meanwhile, in the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires, a burgeoning psychedelic scene gave birth to three of the most important bands in Argentine rock: Los Gatos, Manal and Almendra.