"Tropicalismo, a term coined by artist Helio Oiticica, was the name taken up by a group of musicians, poets, and thinkers clustered around singer/songwriters Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil. In the 20's the Brazilian modernists described themselves as 'anthropophageous' (cannibalistic): they ingested indigenous American, European, and African cultures and what they regurgitated was Brazilian. The Tropicalistas continued this metaphor and also borrowed from what was seen as Brazilian kitsch, from their Hispanic neighbors, as well as from Andy Warhol, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones. They rejected political oppression and the narrow nationalism of those who felt Brazilian culture needed to be protected from outside encroachment.

Most of the Tropicalistas came from the Northwestern state of Bahia to live and work in Sao Paulo in the industrialized South of Brazil. In the short time before Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil were exiled by the military dictatorship then in power they had an enormous impact."

-Arto Lindsay in liner notes for Tropicália 2

Tropicalismo brought, among other things, rock to Brasil. More importantly it connected with early modernist literary notions of open adaptation of foreign sources to serve local creativity, a precious thing on a continent that too often considers itself a poor cousin to Europe in some respects and North America in others.