Renato Russo and the political-existencial disenchantment of the 80s

Abstract

The article assumes that many songs produced by Brazilian rock bands in the early 1980s help us to understand the political and existential disenchantment of many young people of the time. The text retrieves information about this historical moment of Brazilian culture, delimited as a time frame (80s until the mid-90s), focusing on the poetic-literary production of Renato Russo, composer, lyricist and vocalist of the band Legião Urbana. The article argues that Renato Russo offered in his lyrics a true portrait of a slice of the middle-class youth of the time, especially young people born and / or raised in the Federal Capital (Brasília) who faced the contradictory situation of being the children of public officials and state agencies in full force of the military dictatorship. The cultural climate of disenchantment, bureaucratization, pressures and family conflicts was very well perceived by the lyricist who, through the band’s songs, expressed these anxieties and yearnings for freedom. The text seeks clues to understand that the great success of Renato Russo with the young people of the time, is due to the fact that he managed to offer in his lyrics the political and existential disenchantment of this generation.