Roberto Carlos

Roberto Carlos initiated a major revolution of customs in Brazil in the '60s. Reaching success in a period coinciding with the youth movement started by the Beatles that was taking over the world, Carlos was the leader of Jovem Guarda. He led the TV show that became a generic denomination of a musical style and what was a definitive change of face to the Brazilian phonographic market and of the very art of marketing itself (with the advent of an aggressive merchandising of the JG's top figures, including films, clothes, etc.), encompassing deep behavioral/gestual/language influences widespread through his entire generation. His light music, derived from British pop, and his (and his partner's Erasmo Carlos') lyrics (happy, humorous, and full of fashionable youth slang and naïve though unexpectedly sexual) were deeply contrasting to the serious mpb, with its somber images and protest songs. After all, Brazil was living in a dark period of the military dictatorship, or the "years of lead" as they became known.