the movement emerged from both national and foreign artistic trends, avant-garde in nature and therefore rich of true aesthetic innovations.

though the defining characteristics of tropicália are fairly difficult to characterize, as the approach varied from artist to artist, the general idea was always that of mixing the international and avant-garde with traditional brazilian expressions to form something new and unheard of.

some of the most pronounced influences from the exterior include psychedelic rock, particularly the works of jimi hendrix and the beatles, musique concrete (experimental music made with tape loops), soul and funk music.