Sounds of April: musical styles and cultural policy in the Portuguese Revolution of 1974

Abstract

The Portuguese Revolution of April 25, 1974 was associated with a specific sonic universe, characterized by politically engaged songs and music in general, the «Sounds of April». The author analyses the relationship between the main aims of cultural policy movements and the different musical styles developed. The Revolution is considered in an enlarged context including a long period of preparation and a period of stabilization marked by a decreasing revolutionary activity. Thus, the author contemplates the Canções heróicas from the period of political resistance which started right after World War II, the «music of resistance» of the sixties, the «intervention songs» of the short Marcelist Spring, the period of «canto livre» from the Revolution years, and that of the Grupos de Acção Cultural of the democratic period. Portuguese colonial policy promoted the exile of many young men and it is precisely from their exile in Paris that the «intervention music» entered the Portuguese mass-media channels.