Music of Brazil

The music of Brazil encompasses various

regional musical styles influenced by
African, European and Amerindian forms.
Brazilian music developed some unique
and original styles such as forró, repente,
coco de roda, axé, sertanejo, samba,
bossa nova, MPB, música nativista,
pagode, tropicália, choro, maracatu,
embolada (coco de repente), funk carioca,
frevo, brega, modinha and Brazilian
versions of foreign musical styles, such as
rock, soul, hip-hop, disco music, country
music, ambient, industrial and psychedelic
music, rap, classical music, fado, and
gospel.

Samba has become the best known form

of Brazilian music worldwide, especially
because of the country's carnival, although
bossa nova, which had Antônio Carlos
Jobim as one of its most acclaimed
composers and performers, have received
much attention abroad since the 1950s,
when the song "Desafinado", interpreted by
João Gilberto, was first released.
The first four winners of the Shell Brazilian
Music prize[1] have each left a very
important legacy on Brazilian music and
are among the most important
representatives of Brazilian popular music:
Pixinguinha (choro), Antônio Carlos Jobim
(bossa nova), Dorival Caymmi (samba and
samba-canção).

Instrumental music is also largely

practiced in Brazil, with styles ranging
from classical to popular and jazz
influenced forms. Among the later,
Pixinguinha, Hermeto Pascoal and Egberto
Gismonti are significant figures. Notable
classical composers include Heitor Villa-
Lobos, Carlos Gomes and Cláudio Santoro.
The country also has a growing
community of modern/experimental
composition, including electroacoustic
music.

Art music
Origins

The first registration of musical activity in

Brazil comes from the activities of two
Jesuit priests in 1549. Ten years later, they
had already founded settlements for
indigenous people (the Reduções), with a
musical-educational structure.
One century later, the Reduções of the
southern Brazil, which were founded by
Spaniard Jesuits, had a strong cultural
development, where some music schools
were founded. Some of the reports of that
time show the fascination of the
indigenous people for European music.[2]
The indigenous people also took part in
the music, with both the construction of
musical instruments and practice of vocal
and instrumental performance. The
musical styles were, naturally, from the
European culture, and the purpose of the
musicalization for the indigenous people
was mostly for Catechism, with negligible
original creative contribution by
themselves. Later, the remaining Indians
who survived the massacres and
epidemics went to the more remote
regions of Brazil, escaping from contact
with the European settlers, and their part in
the national musical life diminished,
eventually almost completely
disappearing.

The 18th-century school

Ouro Preto, in Minas Gerais: one of the most important
musical centers in Brazil during the 18th century

In the 18th century, there was intense

musical activity in all the more developed
regions of Brazil, with their moderately
stable institutional and educational
structures. The previously few private
orchestras became more common and the
churches presented a great variety of
music.

In the first half of this century, the most

outstanding works were composed by Luís
Álvares Pinto, Caetano de Mello de Jesus
and Antônio José da Silva ("the Jew"), who
became successful in Lisbon writing
librettos for comedies, which were
performed also in Brazil with music by
António Teixeira.

In the second part of the 18th century,

there was a great flourishing in Minas
Gerais, mostly in the regions of Vila Rica
(currently Ouro Preto), Mariana and Arraial
do Tejuco (currently Diamantina), where
the mining of gold and diamonds for the
Portuguese metropolis attracted a sizable
population. At this time, the first
outstanding Brazilian composers were
revealed, most of them mulattoes. The
musical pieces were mostly sacred music.
Some of the noteworthy composers of this
period were Lobo de Mesquita, Manoel
Dias de Oliveira, Francisco Gomes da
Rocha, Marcos Coelho Neto and Marcos
Coelho Neto Filho. All of them were very
active, but in many cases few pieces have
survived until the present day. Some of the
most famous pieces of this period are the
Magnificat by Manoel Dias de Oliveira and
the Our Lady's Antiphon by Lobo de
Mesquita. In the city of Arraial do Tejuco,
nowadays Diamantina, there were ten
conductors in activity. In Ouro Preto about
250 musicians were active, and in all of
the territory of Minas Gerais almost a
thousand musicians were active.[3]
With the impoverishment of the mines at
the end of the century, the focus of the
musical activity changed to other centers,
specially Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo,
where André da Silva Gomes, a composer
of Portuguese origin, released a great
number of works and dynamized the
musical life of the city.

The Classical period

José Maurício Nunes Garcia

A crucial factor for the changes in the

musical life was the arrival of the
Portuguese Royal family to Rio de Janeiro
in 1808. Until then, Rio de Janeiro was
musically similar to other cultural centers
of Brazil but was even less important than
Minas Gerais. The presence of the
Portuguese Royal family, in exile, radically
changed this situation, as the Capela Real
of Rio de Janeiro was established.

The king John VI of Portugal brought with

him to Brazil the great musical library from
the House of Bragança, one of the best of
Europe at that time, and ordered the arrival
of musicians from Lisbon and the castrati
from Italy, re-ordering the Royal Chapel.
Later, John VI ordered the construction of
a sumptuous theater, called the Royal
Theater of São João. The secular music
had the presence of Marcos Portugal, who
was designated as the official composer
of the household, and of Sigismund von
Neukomm, who contributed with his own
work and brought the works of the
Austrian composers Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart and Joseph Haydn. The works of
these composers strongly influenced the
Brazilian music of this time.
José Maurício Nunes Garcia, the first of
the great Brazilian composers, emerged at
this time. With a large culture for his origin
– he was poor and mulatto – he was one
of the founders of the Irmandade de Santa
Cecília, in Rio de Janeiro, teacher and
mestre de capela of the Royal Chapel
during the presence of John VI in Brazil.
Nunes Garcia was the most prolific
Brazilian composer of this time. He also
composed the first opera written in Brazil,
Le Due Gemelle (The Two Twins), with text
in Italian, but the music is now lost.

Other important composers of this period

are Gabriel Fernandes da Trindade, who
composed the only Brazilian chamber
music from the 19th century which has
survived to the present times,[4] and João
de Deus de Castro Lobo, who lived in the
cities of Mariana and Ouro Preto, which
were decadent at this time.

This period, however, was brief. In 1821,

John VI went back to Lisbon, taking with
him the household, and the cultural life in
Rio de Janeiro became empty. And,
despite the love of Peter I of Brazil for the
music – he was also author of some
musical pieces like the Brazilian
Independence Anthem – the difficult
financial situation didn't allow many
luxuries. The conflagration of the Royal
Theater in 1824 was another symbol of
decadence, which reached the most
critical point when Peter I renounced the
throne, going back to Portugal.

The Romantic period

Antônio Carlos Gomes

The only composer who had a relevant
work in this period was Francisco Manuel
da Silva, disciple of Nunes Garcia, who
succeeded him as kapellmeister. In spite
of his few resources, he founded the
Musical Conservatory of Rio de Janeiro.
He was the author of the Brazilian National
Anthem's melody. His work reflected the
musical transition for the Romanticism,
when the interest of the national
composers was focused in the opera. The
most outstanding Brazilian composer of
this period was Antônio Carlos Gomes,
who composed Italian-styled operas with
national themes, such as Il Guarany (based
on José de Alencar's novel O Guarani) and
Lo Schiavo. These operas were very
successful in European theaters, like the
Teatro alla Scala, in Milan. Other important
composer of this time is Elias Álvares
Lobo, who wrote the opera A Noite de São
João, the first Brazilian opera with text in
Portuguese.

The opera in Brazil was very popular until

the middle of the 20th century, and many
opera houses were built at this time, like
Teatro Amazonas in Manaus, Municipal
Theater of Rio de Janeiro, Municipal
Theater of São Paulo do Rio, and many
others.
At the end of the 19th century, the greatest
composers for the symphonic music were
revealed. One of the most outstanding
name of this period was Leopoldo Miguez,
who followed the Wagnerian style and
Henrique Oswald, who incorporated
elements of the French Impressionism.

Nationalism
Heitor Villa-Lobos

In the beginning of the 20th century, there

was a movement for creating an
authentically Brazilian music, with less
influences of the European culture. In this
sense, the folklore was the major font of
inspiration for the composers. Some
composers like Brasílio Itiberê da Cunha,
Luciano Gallet and Alexandre Levy, despite
having a European formation, included
some typically Brazilian elements in their
works. This trend reached the highest
point with Alberto Nepomuceno, who used
largely the rhythms and melodies from the
Brazilian folklore.
An important event, later, was the Modern
Art Week, in 1922, which had a large
impact on concepts of national art. In this
event the composer Heitor Villa-Lobos,
regarded as the most outstanding name of
the Brazilian nationalism, was revealed.

Villa-Lobos did researches about the

musical folklore of Brazil, and mixed
elements both from classical and popular
music. He explored many musical genres
such as concertos, symphonies,
modinhas, Fados, and other symphonic,
vocal and chamber music. Some of his
masterworks are the ballet Uirapuru and
the two series of Chôros and Bachianas
Brasileiras.

Other composers of Brazilian national

music of this era include Oscar Lorenzo
Fernández, Radamés Gnattali, Camargo
Guarnieri, Osvaldo Lacerda, Francisco
Mignone, and Ernesto Nazareth.

The avant-garde movement

As a reaction against the nationalist

school, who was identified as "servile" to
the centralizing politics of Getúlio Vargas,
in 1939 the Movimento Música Viva (Living
Music Movement) appeared, led by Hans
Joachim Koellreutter and by Egídio de
Castro e Silva, defending the adoption of
an international style, derived from the
dodecaphonism of Arnold Schoenberg.
This group was integrated by composers
like Cláudio Santoro, César Guerra-Peixe,
Eunice Catunda and Edino Krieger.
Koellreutter adopted revolutionary
methodes, in respect to the individuality of
each student and giving to the students
the freedom of creativity before the
knowledge of the traditional rules for
composition. The movement edited a
magazine and presented a series of radio
programs showing their fundaments and
works of contemporary music. Later,
Guerra-Peixe and Santoro followed an
independent way, centered in the regional
music. Other composers, who used freely
the previous styles were Marlos Nobre,
Almeida Prado, and Armando
Albuquerque, who created their own
styles.

After 1960, the Brazilian avant-garde

movement received a new wave, focusing
on serial music, microtonal music,
concrete music and electronic music,
employing a completely new language.
This movement was called Música Nova
(New Music) and was led by Gilberto
Mendes and Willy Corrêa de Oliveira.
Brazilian Opera

Carlos Gomes was the first composer on

non-European origin to achieve wide
recognition in the classical music
environment of the Golden age of Opera in
Italy. Bossa Nova was created as anti-
opera in a time when opera seemed to
represent the art-form of the elite. [5] In
recent years the style has been revived
with works by Jorge Antunes, Flo
Menezes, and others.

Since 2014 the International Brazilian

Opera (IBOC) has been producing new
works, most notably by its Artistic Director
and resident composer Joao MacDowell.

Contemporary

Nowadays, Brazilian music follows the

guidelines of both experimentalism and
traditional music. Some of the
contemporary Brazilian composers are
Amaral Vieira, Sílvio Ferraz, Flo Menezes,
Marcos Balter, Alexandre Lunsqui, Rodolfo
Caesar, Felipe Lara, Edson Zampronha,
Marcus Siqueira, Rodrigo Lima , Jorge
Antunes, Roberto Victorio and João
MacDowell.
Brazil has a large number of internationally
recognized orchestras and performers,
despite the relatively low support of the
government. The most famous Brazilian
orchestra is probably the São Paulo State
Symphony Orchestra, currently under the
French conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier.
Other Brazilian orchestras worthy of note
are the São Paulo University Symphony,
the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira and the
Petrobras Sinfônica, supported by the
Brazilian state oil company Petrobras.

There are also regular operas scheduled

every year in cities such as São Paulo and
Rio de Janeiro. The state of São Paulo
also hosts the Winter Festival in the city of
Campos do Jordão.

Some of the most famous Brazilian

conductors are Roberto Minczuk, John
Neschling and Isaac Karabtchevsky. The
instrumentalists include, among others:
Roberto Szidon, Antonio Meneses, Cussy
de Almeida, Gilberto Tinetti, Arnaldo
Cohen, Nelson Freire, Eudóxia de Barros,
Guiomar Novaes and Magda Tagliaferro.
And some of the most famous Brazilian
singers were, historically, Zola Amaro,
Constantina Araújo and Bidu Sayão; living
singers include Eliane Coelho, Kismara
Pessatti, Maria Lúcia Godoy, Sebastião
Teixeira, and others.

In the 1980s, a wave of Brazilian heavy

metal bands gained public attention. The
most commercially successful of these
was Sepultura, founded in São Paulo in
1983, preceded by Dorsal Atlantica and
followed by Sarcofago.

The intrusion of alien elements into

Brazil’s cultural system is not a destructive
process. The return of a democratic
government allowed for freedom of
expression. The Brazilian music industry
opened up to international styles and this
has allowed for both foreign and local
genres to co-exist and identify people.
Each different style relates to the people
socially, politically, and economically.
“Brazil is a regionally divided country with
a rich cultural and musical diversity among
states. As such, musicians in the country
choose to define their local heritage
differently depending on where they come
from.” This shows how globalization has
not robbed Brazil of its identity but instead
given it the ability to represent its people
both in Brazil and the rest of the world.

In recent years Brazilian artists have

become more interested in Africa, the
Caribbean and their own indigenous and
folk music. While there are some artists
who continue to perform rock and Western
pop, there are now just as many
contemporaries playing a fusion of African
and European influences with those from
across The Americas. Some artists have
even become influenced by Asian music,
noticing some parallels between music
from the North-East of Brazil and music
from India.

Indigenous and folk music

The native peoples of the Brazilian
rainforest play instruments including
whistles, flutes, horns, drums and rattles.
Much of the area's folk music imitates the
sounds of the Amazon Rainforest. When
the Portuguese arrived in Brazil, the first
natives they met played an array of reed
flutes and other wind and percussion
instruments. The Jesuit missionaries
introduced songs which used the Tupi
language with Christian lyrics, an attempt
to convert the people to Christianity,[5] and
also introduced Gregorian chant and the
flute, bow, and the clavichord.
Drum known as Ilú used in Xambá religion in
Pernambuco

The earliest music in what is now Brazil

must have been that of the native peoples
of the area. Little is known about their
music, since no written records exist of
this era. With the arrival of Europeans,
Brazilian culture began to take shape as a
synthesis of native musical styles with
Portuguese music and African music.
Jongo, a dance and musical genre of African origin, c.
1822

Brazilian dance-song lundu, c. 1835

Capoeira music
Three berimbau players

The Afro-Brazilian sport of capoeira is

never played without its own music, which
is usually considered to be a call-and-
response type of folk music. The main
instruments of capoeira music include the
berimbau, the atabaque and the pandeiro.
Capoeira songs may be improvised on the
spot, or they may be popular songs written
by older, and ancient mestres (teachers),
and often include accounts of the history
of capoeira, or the doings of great
mestres.

Maracatu

Maracatu.

This type of music is played primarily in

the Recife and Olinda regions during
Carnaval. It is an Afro-Brazilian tradition.
The music serves as the backdrop for
parade groups that evolved out of
ceremonies conducted during colonial
times in honour of the Kings of Congo,
who were African slaves occupying
symbolic leadership positions among the
slave population. The music is played on
large alfaia drums, large metal gonguê
bells, snare drums and shakers. An
important variant is found in and around
Fortaleza, Ceará (called maracatu
cearense), which is different from the
Recife/Olinda tradition in many respects:
triangles are used instead of gonguês,
surdos or zabumbas instead of alfaias.
Also, important female characters are
performed by cross-dressed male
performers, and all African and
Afrobrazilian personages are performed
using blackface makeup.

Afoxé

Afoxê is a kind of religious music, part of

the Candomblé tradition. In 1949, a group
called Filhos de Gandhi began playing
afoxé during carnaval parades in Salvador;
their name translates as Sons of Gandhi,
associating black Brazilian activism with
Mahatma Gandhi's Indian independence
movement. The Filhos de Gandhi's 1949
appearance was also revolutionary
because, until then, the Carnaval parades
in Salvador were meant only for light-
skinned people.

Repente

Repentista.

Northeastern Brazil is known for a

distinctive form of literature called
literatura de cordel, which are a type of
ballads that include elements incorporated
into music as "repentismo", an improvised
lyrical contest on themes suggested by the
audience.

Similar to Repentismo, appears among the

Caipira culture a musical form derived
from viola caipira, which is called cururu.

Popular music
Choro

Choro guitar.
Urubu Malandro

"Urubu Malandro", recorded in 1930 by

Pixinguinha in the flute

Problems playing this file? See media help.

Harmonia Selvagem

Choro "Harmonia Selvagem" composed by

Dante Santoro. Recorded by Dante Santoro
(flute) in 1938.

Problems playing this file? See media help.

Atraente

"Atraente", composed by Chiquinha

Gonzaga, recorded by Pixinguinha
(saxophone) and Benedito Lacerda (flute).

Problems playing this file? See media help.

Choro (literally "cry" in Portuguese, but in

context a more appropriate translation
would be "lament"), traditionally called
chorinho ("little cry" or "little lament").
Instrumental, its origins are in 19th century
Rio de Janeiro. Originally choro was played
by a trio of flute, guitar and cavaquinho (a
small chordophone with four strings). The
young pianist Ernesto Nazareth published
his first choro (Não Caio Noutra) in 1878 at
the age of 14.[6] Nazareth's choros are
often listed as polkas;[7] he also composed
waltzes, schottisches, milongas and
Brazilian Tangos. (He resisted the popular
term maxixe to represent Brazilian
tango.)[8] Chiquinha Gonzaga was another
important composer of choros and started
shortly after Nazareth. Chiquinha Gonzaga
composed her first success, the polka-
choro "Atraente", in 1877. In the beginning,
the success of choro came from informal
groups of friends which played in parties,
pubs (botecos), streets, home balls
(forrobodós), and also the musical scores
published by print houses.[9] By the 1910s,
much of the Brazilian first phonograph
records are choros. The mainstream
success of this style of music (By the
1930s) came from the early days of radio,
when bands performed live on the air. By
the 1950s and 1960s it was replaced by
samba and Bossa Nova and other styles
of Brazilian popular music, but was still
alive in amateur circles called "rodas de
choro" (informal choro gatherings in
residences and botecos). However, in the
late 1970s there was a successful effort to
revitalize the genre carried out by some
famous artists: Pixinguinha, Waldir
Azevedo and Jacob do Bandolim.

Samba
Singer and actress Carmen Miranda.

In 1929, prompted by the opening of the

first radio station in Rio de Janeiro, the so-
called radio era began spreading songs –
especially the novelty Samba in its current
format – to larger masses. This period
was dominated by few male interpreters –
notably Almirante, Braguinha, Mário Reis,
Sílvio Caldas, Francisco Alves and
singer/composer Noel Rosa and even
fewer chanteuses such as Aracy de
Almeida and sisters Aurora Miranda and
Carmen Miranda, who eventually came to
Hollywood becoming a movie star.[10]

Na Pavuna

Almirante, released in 1929.

Problems playing this file? See media help.

Alô... Alô?

Carmen Miranda and Mário Reis, released

in 1934

Problems playing this file? See media help.

Popular music included instruments like
cuicas, tambourines, frying pans ('played'
with a metal stick), flutes and guitars.
Noteworthy Samba composers at this
early stage included said Noel Rosa plus
Lamartine Babo and, around World War II
time, Ary Barroso.

MPB (Popular Brazilian Music)

Gilberto Gil
MPB's early stage (from World War II to
the mid-1960s) was populated by male
singers such as Orlando Silva, Nelson
Gonçalves, Jamelão, Agostinho dos
Santos, Anísio Silva, Ataulfo Alves, Carlos
Galhardo, Ciro Monteiro, Ismael Silva, João
Dias, Jorge Goulart, Miltinho, Jorge Veiga
and Francisco Egídio and female singers
started to mushroom: Nora Ney, Dolores
Duran, Ângela Maria, Emilinha Borba,
Marlene, Dalva de Oliveira, Maysa
Matarazzo, sisters Linda Batista and
Dircinha Batista, among others.
MPB's second stage – after the split
Bossa Nova (1959) / Jovem Guarda
(1965) / Tropicalismo (both 1967) – refers
to mainstream Brazilian pop music. Well-
known MPB artists include, among many
others, singers such as Elis Regina, Nara
Leão, Maria Bethânia, Mônica da Silva,
Simone, Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso,
Roberto Carlos, Jorge Ben Jor, Milton
Nascimento, Gilberto Gil, João Bosco, Ivan
Lins, Djavan.

Bossa nova

The first bossa nova records by João

Gilberto, in the last years of the 1950s,
quickly became huge hits in Brazil. Antonio
Carlos Jobim and other composers helped
further develop this fusion of jazz
harmonies and a smoother, often slower,
samba beat, which developed at the beach
neighborhoods of Ipanema and, later, the
Copacabana nightclubs. Bossa nova was
introduced to the rest of the world by
American jazz musicians in the early
1960s, and song "The Girl from Ipanema"
remains probably the best known Brazilian
musical export, eventually becoming a jazz
standard.

Brazilian gospel
 This section does not cite any sources.

Learn more

Diante do Trono, the main worship ministry in Latin

America.

Gospel music emerged in Brazil before the

1960s with hymnals that were brought and
translated into Portuguese by American
missionaries. From the late 1960s the first
singers of Christian music groups
emerged in Brazil, but the songs were not
highly valued. Gospel music became
popular in Brazil in the late 1990s, with the
emergence of congregational singing and
bands such as Diante do Trono, led by Ana
Paula Valadão. Diante do Trono has
become the largest contemporary worship
music ministry in Latin America.

Brazilian rock

Rita Lee

The musical style known in Brazil as

"Brazilian rock n' roll" dates back to a
Portuguese-version cover of "Rock Around
the Clock" in 1954. In the 1960s, young
singers like Roberto Carlos and the Jovem
Guarda movement were very popular. The
1960s also saw the rise of bands such as
the "tropicalistas" Os Mutantes and the
experimental (mixing progressive rock,
jazz and Música popular brasileira) Som
Imaginário.

The 1970s saw the emergence of many

progressive rock and/or hard rock bands
such as O Terço, A Bolha, A Barca do Sol,
Som Nosso de Cada Dia, Vímana and
Bacamarte, some of which attained some
recognition internationally; Rita Lee, in her
solo career after Os Mutantes,
championed the glam-rock aesthetics in
Brazil; Casa das Máquinas and Patrulha do
Espaço were more bona-fide hard rock
bands, and the likes of (Raul Seixas, Secos
e Molhados, Novos Baianos and A Cor do
Som) mixed the genre with traditional
Brazilian music. In the late 1970s, the
Brazilian punk rock scene kicked off
mainly in São Paulo and in Brasília,
booming in the 1980s, with Inocentes,
Cólera, Ratos de Porão, Garotos Podres,
etc.

The real commercial boom of Brazilian

rock was in the 1980s, with many bands
and artists like Blitz, Gang 90, Barão
Vermelho, Legião Urbana, Lobão,
Engenheiros do Hawaii, Titãs, Kid Abelha,
Paralamas do Sucesso, and many others,
and festivals like Rock in Rio and
Hollywood Rock. The late 1980s and early
1990s also witnessed the beginnings of an
electronica-inspired scene, with a lot more
limited commercial potential but achieving
some critical acclaim: Suba, Loop B, Harry,
etc.

Fernanda Takai, singer Pato Fu

In the 1990s, the meteoric rise of
Mamonas Assassinas, which sold more
than 3 million copies of its only CD (a
record, by Brazilian standards) came to a
tragic end when the band's plane crashed,
killing all five members of the band, the
pilot and the co-pilot. Other commercially
successful bands included Jota Quest,
Raimundos and Skank, while Chico
Science & Nação Zumbi and the whole
Mangue Bit movement received much
critical attention and accolades, but very
little commercial success – success that
declined after the death of one of its
founders, Chico Science. It was also in the
1990s that the first seeds of what would
grow into being the Brazilian indie scene
were planted, with the creation of indie
festivals such as Abril Pro Rock and, later
in the decade, Porão do Rock. The band
Pato Fu was considered by Time magazine
one of the ten best bands in the world
outside the United States.[11] It is also
known to re-record hits Brazilian and
international versions of toy instruments.

Female singer Pitty is also very popular.

The indie scene has been growing
exponentially since the early 2000s, with
more and more festivals taking place all
around the country. However, due to
several factors including but not limited to
the worldwide collapse of the music
industry, all the agitation in the indie scene
has so far failed in translating into
international success, but in Brazil they
developed a real, substantial cultural
movement. That scene is still much of a
ghetto, with bands capturing the attention
of international critics, but many playing
again in Brazil when they become popular
in the exterior, due to the lack of financial
and material support which would allow
for careers to be developed. One notable
exception is CSS, an alternative electro
rock outfit that has launched a successful
international career, performing in festivals
and venues in North America, Europe, Asia
and Australia. Other unique example of
success through independent music scene
that made to the mainstream is the band
Móveis Coloniais de Acaju. The band has
its own style, somewhere between rock
and folk, and is recognized as the most
important independent band in Brazil. The
record company Trama [1] tries to
support some bands with structure and
exposure, and can be credited with early
support to CSS and later to Móveis
Coloniais de Acaju.

Brazilian heavy metal

Sepultura.

Brazilian metal originated in the mid 1980s

with three prominent scenes: Belo
Horizonte, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
The most famous Brazilian metal bands
are Sepultura, Angra, Krisiun, Rebaelliun,
Nephasth, Dr. Sin, Shaaman, Violator and
the singer Andre Matos. Sepultura is
considered an influential thrash metal
band, influencing the development of
death metal.
Famous bands of the 1980s include
Korzus, Sarcófago, Overdose,[12][13] Dorsal
Atlântica, Viper, MX, PUS, Mutilator,
Chakal, Vulcano and Attomica.[14] Bands
from the 1990s include Andralls, MQN,
Macaco Bong, Black Drawing Chalks,
Superguidis, Mental Hor, The Mist, Scars,
Distraught, Torture Squad, Eterna and
Silent Cry. Bands from the 2000s include
It's All Red, Eyes of Shiva, Autoramas,
Tuatha de Danann, Claustrofobia, Quimere,
Apokalyptic Raids, Project46, Wizards and
Andragonia.

Brazilian folk/folk-rock
The new Brazilian folk scene is not to be
mistaken with folkloric Brazilian music.
The first to break into the mainstream was
internet phenomenon Mallu Magalhães,
who played covers of her favourite artists
in English and her own songs in both
English and Portuguese (as well as other
languages). Magalhães only released her
first album in 2008, though by then she
was already widely recognised as the
voice of this sudden new Brazilian folk
scene. Her ex-boyfriend Hélio Flanders is
the lead singer of another Brazilian folk
group called Vanguart. Though Vanguart
had an album released before Mallu
Magalhães, it was her emergence that
consolidated them both and others as a
fully recognised mainstream scene,
topping charts and being featured in prime
time television and advertising. Other acts
emerged after the market was opened up
to folk. Writing in English is more and
more common among Brazilian rock and
folk artists. This has been highly criticised
by Portuguese language purists, though it
has helped to promote Brazilian artists in
other countries (CSS is a perfect example).
The new Brazilian folk scene has just
come to the public's attention and it
continues to thrive.
Os Mutantes, 1969. National Archives of Brazil.

Brazilian psychedelic rock

Brazil has a long tradition of psychedelic

music since artists like Os Mutantes,
Ronnie Von and other rock bands from the
late 60s. Nowadays, there exists a revival
of this psychedelic/vintage inspired music
represented by artists like Jupiter Apple,
Violeta de Outono, Nação Zumbi, Mundo
Livre S/A, Cidadão Instigado, Otto, China,
Kassin, Pata de Elefante, Orquestra
Abstrata, among others.

Sertanejo

Chitãozinho & Xororó.

Música sertaneja or Sertanejo is a term for

Brazilian country music. It originally
referred to music originating among
Sertão and musica caipira. (Caipira music
appeared in the state of São Paulo, and
some the regions of Mato Grosso do Sul,
Goiás Minas Gerais, Paraná and Mato
Grosso. Musical rhythm is very spread out
in the Southeastern and southern regions
of Brazil.)

Northeastern Music

Statue of Luiz Gonzaga

North eastern music is a generic term for
any popular music from the large region of
Northeastern Brazil, including both coastal
and inland areas. Rhythms are slow and
plodding, and are derived from guitars
instead of percussion instruments like in
the rest of Brazil—in this region, African
rhythms and Portuguese melodies
combined to form maracatu. Most
influentially, however, the area around the
state of Pernambuco, the home of frevo
and maracatu.

Gaucho music (Southern

music)
Southern music (Portuguese: Música
gaúcha) is a general term used for the
music originally from the Rio Grande do
Sul state, in Southern Brazil. Some of the
most famous musicians of this genre are
Renato Borghetti, Yamandu Costa, Jayme
Caetano Braun and Luiz Marenco, among
others.

Music of Salvador: Late 60s to

mid-70s

In the latter part of the 1960s, a group of

black Bahians began dressing as Native
Americans during the Salvadoran
Carnaval, identifying with their shared
struggles through history. These groups
included Comanches do Pelô and Apaches
de Tororó and were known for a forceful
and powerful style of percussion, and
frequent violent encounters with the
police. Starting in 1974, a group of black
Bahians called Ilê Aiyê became prominent,
identifying with the Yoruba people of West
Africa. Along with a policy of loosening
restrictions by the Brazilian government,
Ilê Aiyê's sound and message spread to
groups like Grupo Cultural do Olodum, who
established community centers and other
philanthropic efforts.

Frevo
Frevo is a style of music from Olinda and
Recife. Frevo bands always play during the
Carnival.

Sambass

Sambass is a fusion of samba and Drum &

Bass. The most famous sambass
musicians are DJ Marky and DJ Patife
whose hit Sambassim might be the most
known sambass track.

Funk Carioca

Funk Carioca is a type of dance music

from Rio de Janeiro, derived from and was
until the late 1990's, superficially similar to
Miami Bass. In Rio it is most often simply
known as Funk, although it is very different
musically from what Funk means in most
other places and contexts. Funk Carioca,
like other types of hip-hop lifts heavily
from samples such as international rips or
from previous funk music. Many popular
funk songs sampled music from the movie
Rocky.[15] Funk was introduced to Brazil in
a systematic way in the 1980s. Many funk
artists have openly associated themselves
with black movements and often in the
lyrics of their songs, comment on race
relations and openly express black
pride.[16]
Hip hop music

In São Paulo and other places in the south

of Brazil, in more urban areas, hip hop
music is very popular. Rappers are referred
to as "Rapeiros". They dress similarly to
American rappers.[17] Early Brazilian rap
was based upon rhyming speeches
delivered over dance bases sampled from
funk albums, with occasional scratches.

Brazilian hip hop is heavily associated with

racial and economic issues in the country,
where a lot of Afro-Brazilians live in
economically disadvantaged communities,
known in Brazil as favelas. São Paulo is
where hip hop began in the country, but it
soon spread all over Brazil, and today,
almost every big Brazilian city, including
Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Curitiba, Porto
Alegre, Belo Horizonte, Recife and Brasilia,
has a hip hop scene. São Paulo has gained
a strong, underground Brazilian rap scene
since its emergence in the late 1980s with
many independent labels forming for
young rappers to establish themselves
on.[18]

In the 1990s in Rio de Janeiro, funk as well

as rap were reported by the press to have
been adopted by the drug lords of the city
as a way to market their drugs at dance
hall events. Some crime groups were
known to subsidize funk parties to recruit
young kids into the drug dealing business.
These events were often called baile funk
(which can mean a funk dance party) and
were sometimes notorious for their blatant
sexuality and violence.[19] However, while
some rap music was used to send
messages out about slums and drugs,
others were used mostly to deliver socio-
political messages about local, regional, or
national issues they are affected by. In
fact, some groups adhered to what they
called rap consciência, socially conscious
rap, and opposed hip-hop which some
considered too alienated and consumerist.
Despite these differences, both hip hop
and rap consciência continue to thrive in
Brazil today.[15][16] One of Brazil's most
popular rappers, MV Bill, has spent his
career advocating for black youth in Rio de
Janeiro.[20]

LGBTQ Music

Homophobia runs rampant in Brazil with

387 LGBTQ Brazilians murdered in
2017.[21] Despite this, many LGBTQ artists
are emerging within Brazil's music scene.
Among this wave of artists are acts such
as Aretuza Lovi, Gloria Groove, Jaloo,
Johnny Hooker, Lia Clark, Linn da
Quebrada, Mulher Pepita, Pabllo Vittar,
Quebrada Queer, and Rico Dalasam.
Spanning a variety of genres, these acts
take a variety of forms. The recently
formed Quebrada Queer is a cypher of five
LGBTQ rappers from São Paulo and is
distinctly a hip hop act whereas Gloria
Groove is a drag performer with songs
spanning hip hop, R&B, trap, and Brazilian
funk.[22] Perhaps the most successful and
mainstream LGBTQ Brazilian artist is
Pabllo Vittar who was nominated for a
Latin Grammy Award in 2018.[23]

Notable record labels

 Far Out Recordings
Malandro Records
Mr Bongo Records
Som Livre

See also
List of Brazilian composers
List of Brazilian singers and bands of
Christian music

References
1. "Prêmio Shell de Música - Shell Brasil" .
Archived from the original on 24 February
2014. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
2. apud Padre Noel Berthold, in: "Trevisan,
Armindo", in A Escultura dos Sete Povos.
Brasília: Editora Movimento / Instituto
Nacional do Livro, 1978. (Portuguese)
3. Mariz, Vasco. História da Música no
Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 2005.
6ª ed. (Portuguese)
4. Castagna, Paulo. Encarte do CD Gabriel
Fernandes da Trindade – Duetos
Concertantes. São Paulo: Paulus, 1995.
(Portuguese)
5. Music . Fmpsd.ab.ca. Retrieved on 2011-
11-23. Archived March 10, 2005, at the
Wayback Machine
6. Childhood Secrets * . bn.br
7. Ernesto Nazareth – Rei do Choro .
Chiquinhagonzaga.com. Retrieved on 2011-
11-23.
8. "Polkas and Tangos" . Archived from the
original on 2007-05-29. Retrieved
2007-05-29.
9. Livingston-Isenhour, T.; Garcia, T. G. C.
(2005). Choro: A Social History of a
Brazilian Popular Music. Bloomington,
Indiana: Indiana University Press.
ISBN 0253345413.
10. A nação das cantoras .
Veja.abril.com.br. Retrieved on 2011-11-23.
11. Butler, Rhett (September 15, 2001).
"Best Bands: And Our Winners Are" . Time.
12. Jeffries, Vincent. "Progress of
Decadence > Review" . Allmusic.
Macrovision. Retrieved 12 April 2009. "One
of the best-known, if not the premier, metal
bands in Brazil, Overdose had actually
released several discs during the eight
years prior to Progress of Decadence—the
group's first record to receive international
distribution."
13. Jeffries, Vincent. "Circus of Death >
Review" . Allmusic. Macrovision. Retrieved
12 April 2009. "On 1999's Circus of Death,
Brazil's second most famous metal band try
again to emerge from beneath the shadow
of Sepultura with their neo-prog thrash."
14. Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Attomica >
Biography" . Allmusic. Macrovision.
Retrieved 12 April 2009. "Arriving in stores
in 1991, the LP's [the band's third album,
Disturbing the Noise] "ultra-speed" style
cemented Attomica's standing as one of
Brazil's top thrash acts; the promo clip for
single "Deathraiser" was showcased on
several TV video shows, including the
Brazilian MTV affiliate."
15. "Funk Carioca" . Sheepish.org. Retrieved
2014-02-24.
16. Béhague, Gerard (2006). "Rap, Reggae,
Rock, or Samba: The Local and the Global in
Brazilian Popular Music (1985–95)". Latin
American Music Review. 27 (1): 79–90.
JSTOR 4121698 .
17. Sansone, Livio (2002). "The Localization
of Global Funk in Bahia and Rio". In Perrone,
Charles A.; Dunn, Christopher. Brazilian
Popular Music & Globalization. London:
Routledge. pp. 135–160. ISBN 0415936950.
18. "The rhymes by African-Americans get a
translation" . Archived from the original on
2009-05-09. Retrieved 2009-05-09.
19. Funk Carioca: The Beat Goes On
20. Gates, Henry Louis (2011). Black in
Latin America . New York: New York
University Press. p. 219.
ISBN 9780814738184. OCLC 692291843 .
21. Cowie, Sam.
[www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/22/
brazil-lgbt-violence-deaths-all-time-high-
new-research "Violent Deaths of LGBT
People in Brazil Hit All-Time High"] Check
|url= value (help). The Guardian.
22. Miranda, Beatriz. "Meet The Queer
Musicians Fighting For Art And Their Lives
In Brazil, The World's LGBTQI Murder
Capital" . The Establishment.
23. "J Balvin leads Latin Grammy
nominations with eight, followed by Rosalía
with five; El David Aguilar, Jorge Drexler,
Kany García, Natalia Lafourcade, and
producers Mauricio Rengifo and Andrés
Torres garnered four nominations each" .
Latin Grammy Awards.

Further reading
Brill, Mark (2017). Music of Latin
America and the Caribbean (2nd ed.).
Routledge. ISBN 9781138053564.
Leymarie, Isabelle (1996). Du tango au
reggae: musiques noires d’Amérique
latine et des Caraïbes. Paris:
Flammarion. ISBN 2082108139.
Leymarie, Isabelle (2015). Del tango al
reggae: Músicas negras de América
Latina y del Caribe. Zaragoza: Prensas
de la Universidad de Zaragoza.
ISBN 8416272743.
 Murphy, John P. (2006). "Music in Brazil:
Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture".
New York: Oxford University Press.
ISBN 0195166833.

External links
(in French) Audio clips: Traditional
music of Brazil. Musée d'Ethnographie
de Genève. Accessed November 25,
2010.
BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes): Forro,
coco and cowboys. Accessed
November 25, 2010.
BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes):
Candomble, Samba and Renato Rosa.
Accessed November 25, 2010.
BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes): Rio, the
samba and Mart'nalia. Accessed
November 25, 2010.
BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes):
Maracatu, ciranda and Mangue bit.
Accessed November 25, 2010.
BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes): Coco
music, the pifano flute and Sebastian
Dias. Accessed November 25, 2010.
Brazilian Embassy in London – Music
Section Brazilian music links
Sounds and Colours Brazil - resource
dedicated to Brazilian music and
culture Accessed June 17, 2014.
 Brazil beyond clichés Vast archive of
podcasts covering Brazilian music of all
styles, regions and time periods, from
vintage sambas to modern blends.

Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Music_of_Brazil&oldid=881624918"

Last edited 6 days ago by Shellwood

Content is available under CC BY-SA 3.0 unless

otherwise noted.