Renato Russo and the City

Abstract

Renato Russo and the city examines how the urban centre pervades the universe of the poetic songs "Música Urbana", "Fábrica" and "Música Urbana 2", making use of utopic and dystopic discourses. For that, the article begins with a city reference in a poem by Almeida Garrett, moving on to Walter Benjamin’s critical perspective on modernity and the absence of the hero, since modern literature tends to turn the hero’s place vacant, making room for the creation of hero representatives. Next, the article deals with the theory of Russel Jacoby, in which he defines dystopia as the other side of utopia. Without utopia, the existence of dystopia would be inconceivable. On the bitterness of dystopia, Renato Russo makes the city present, giving emphasis to the ugly, the degraded and the ordinary. Renato Russo’s city is composed of population clusters, which result in city-themed music.