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Samb One Of The Most Popular Musical Styles Of Brazil

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Samba is one of the most popular musical styles of Brazil, it first gained popularity within the favelas and then gradually around Brazil, continuing on to the rest of the world. Samba became extremely popular during the 20th Century and became introduced internationally from the 1940’s onwards. There are many variations of samba including Bossa Nova and Pagode, which all follow a similar pattern to samba. Samba music is usually quite syncopated; the key instruments used in samba are the Surdo, Pandeiro, Agogo, Afoxé, guitar and the Cavaquinho. The principal reasons for the international popularity of samba are; Brazilian Carnival, its African roots, the influence of celebrities in the twentieth century, the influence of celebrities in the …show more content…

One song that represents this is ‘Más que Nada’ which Sergio Mendes re-recorded with the Black Eyed Peas in 2006. It is an unusual take on samba- as it had the traditional components such as the drums and repetition but it was also infused with pop rhythm and rap from the Black Eyed Peas. The lyrics of this song were not sung in just Portugese as traditional samba is, they were also mixed with English to make the song more attractive in international markets as many countries speak English. This song “reached number 13 on the Billboard Dance Music Singles chart, while it made number six in the UK”.; this success in the two major Western music markets shows how through the introduction of a major band to an otherwise traditional samba song and musician shows how the cultural appropriation of traditional samba to fit into the modern markets has contributed to its success and popularity internationally. Another song is ‘Lo Hecho Está Hecho’ by Shakira, this is the Colombian version of samba mixed with electropop. The samba traits in this song are very distinctive; in the chorus there are the African drums playing, the beat is repeated and percussion instruments are used such as clapping. This song by Shakira is extremely popular worldwide, especially in the English version ‘Did it Again’; both songs have the samba influences in them and are a good way to see how samba has diversified as it has become more popular internationally. The addition of electropop to the song makes it more familiar to Western listeners and makes it more of a pop song than a traditional samba song. The influence of celebrities from both the Latin American world and the American world has helped samba to enjoy popularity internationally as the songs have been adapted and modified to fit into different cultures yet the traditional

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