America's culture invaded Brazil, like so many countries, through movies, television, and music. U.S. creations, such as blue jeans, were enthusiastically received in Brazil and affect Brazilian style and taste from fashion to food. Many packaged products (such as toothpaste, sodas, and canned goods) used by Brazilians in their daily life are the same as those used by Americans because theyu are produced by American subsidiaries located in Brazil.

Brazilians, like Americans, spend many hours during the day watching television and in both countries viewers have wide program choices ranging from locally-produced shows to international programming broadcast from satellites. The third largest television network in the world, after ABC and NBC in the U.S., is Brazil's TV Globo. Magazines are also very popular in Brazil with the Brazilian market offering a variety of specialized magazines - news, sports, personalities, and hobbies - similar the the American market. Of the four largest magazines in the world in circulation, the first three are American - Time, Newsweek, and US News & World Report - the fourth largest is Veja published in Brazil.

Milton Nascimento

Many well-known artists have contributed to the musical exchange between Brazil and the United States. Superstar vocalist and composer Milton Nascimento has performed throughout the United States and has recorded with Herbie Hancock, James Taylor, and Quincy Jones to name a few. Nascimento's songs have been recorded by Stan Getz and Manhattan Transfer. In the 1960s many Brazilian musicians moved to the United States where they attained success both performing and recording: guitarist Oscar Castro Neves, percussionist Nana Vasconcellos, Paulinho da Costa, Airto Moreira, vocalist Flora Purim, composer Luis Bonfá, composer and performer Dori Caymmi, arranger and band leader Sergio Mendes (Brazil'66). These and other Brazilian performers have recorded with top American pop and jazz artists as diverse as Miles Davis, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Pat Metheny, and Lee Ritenour. Sepultura, a Brazilian heavy metal band, has a wide audience in the U.S.

Sports have also created links between Brazil and the United States. Soccer, a Brazilian obsession, began to gain popularity in the U.S. in the 1970s. Worl-renowned Brazilian soccer player, Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento), was hired by the Cosmos Soccer Club in New York where he played from 1974 to 1977. U.S. interest in soccer got another boost when the 1994 World Cup soccer games were held in the United States. The final match, in which Brazil was victorious, was played in Los Angeles. Although soccer is Brazil's most popular sport, American-invented men's and women's basketball, in which Brazilian teams have won major world championships, are important sports in Brazil. With its huge open spaces Brazil has adopted other American-invented sports that require ocean and high terrain such as surfing, windsurfing, and hang gliding.

One of the most significant changes in the life of the two countries is the migration in the 1980s of Brazilian citizens to the U.S. accompanied by an increase in U.S. visits by Brazililan tourists. Of the roughly 600,000 Brazilians who reside in the U.S., most live in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Florida. American tourism in Brazil is not large although the country attracts U.S. citizens to its beaches, to its cultural life, and increasingly to a new kind of vacation - eco-tourism.

In the 1980s cultural exchanges between the two countries continued in a spontaneous way, mostly through music. American guitarist George Benson recorded the music of Brazilian composer Ivan Lins; composer and singer Paul Simon released Rhythm of the Saints, an album performed with Brazilian musicians fusing American pop with Brazilian rhythms while Djavan, a Brazilian composer and singer, invited Stevie Wonder to record with him on a Brazilian-produced album. American contemporary composer Philip Glass has a large audience in Brazil where his music is performed in concert, at the ballet, and has been used on the soundtrack of a Brazilian film. Also in cinema, Brazilian film star Sonia Braga has appeared in many American films, such as the 1985 award-winning Kiss of the Spider Woman.