Alceu Valenca was born in countryside Pernambuco, Northeast Brazil. He is considered the most successful artist in achieving an aesthetic balance between traditional northeastern Brazilian music and a broad range of electronic sounds and effects from pop music. One can find traces of maracatu, coco and "repentes de viola" (improvising fast-paced Brazilian folk music) in most of his songs. Alceu was able to utilize the electric guitar the electric bass, and lately even a synthesizer was added to his broad scope of musical instruments.
Because of that, Alceu was able to recreate Northeastern traditional music, like baiao, coco, toada, maracatu, frevo, caboclinhos, embolada and repentes: all sung with a sometimes rock sometimes alternative sounding music background. His music and his themes are intangible, universal and unlimited. However, his aesthetic basis is genuinely Brazilian Northeastern music.
Dente De Ocidente
Alceu Valença Lyrics
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É um dente de ocidente
É um dente, um osso, um dente
Vomitado pelo mar
Vem em ondas poluídas
Vem em nome da moral
Vem na crista dessa onda
E a espuma branca se lança
Na força da preamar
Em ondas-curtas, notícias
Na hora do meu jantar
Vem nos mistérios da noite
Na clarescência do dia
Nos anúncios luminosos
No vestido de Mari
The lyrics to Alceu Valença’s song, “Dente De Ocidente,” describe a sudden and alarming change on a beach. The foam on the shore is compared to a “tooth of the West,” vomited up by the sea. The tooth represents the destructive force of Western values, spreading like pollution and overpowering the local culture. The foam that washes up on the shore is both physical and metaphorical, representing the way that Western consumerism and media infiltrate and overwhelm other cultures. The biggest impact is felt in the visible transformation of the area. As the foam engulfs the beach and spreads into the night, the singer observes the ways in which his world is being slowly but surely consumed by Western consumerism.
Line by Line Meaning
Essa espuma sobre a praia
The foam on the beach
É um dente de ocidente
Is a tooth of the West
É um dente, um osso, um dente
It's a tooth, a bone, a tooth
Vomitado pelo mar
Vomited by the sea
Vem em ondas poluídas
Comes in polluted waves
Vem em nome da moral
Comes in the name of morality
Vem na crista dessa onda
Comes in the crest of this wave
Acultural ocidental
Western unculture
E a espuma branca se lança
And the white foam rushes
Na força da preamar
In the force of the tide
Em ondas-curtas, notícias
In short waves, news
Na hora do meu jantar
At dinnertime
Vem nos mistérios da noite
Comes in the mysteries of the night
Na clarescência do dia
In the clarity of the day
Nos anúncios luminosos
In the luminous advertisements
No vestido de Mari
In Mari's dress
Contributed by Jordyn P. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Éwerton Melo
Dente De Ocidente
(Alceu Valença)
Essa espuma sobre a praia
É um dente de ocidente
É um dente, um osso, um dente
Vomitado pelo mar
Vem em ondas poluídas
Vem em nome da moral
Vem na crista dessa onda
A cultura ocidental
E a espuma branca se lança
Na força da preamar
Em ondas curtas, notícias
Na hora do meu jantar
Vem nos mistérios da noite
Na clarescência do dia
Nos anúncios luminosos
No vestido de Maria
Pedro Rossi
Esse conheceu a psicilocibina...
Senhorita Michelle
❤