978-1-4222-3341-2

In the 1930s, Brazilian music found its way north when Brazilian love songs became popular in the United States. Yet, those songs would never be as pop- ular as the bossa nova. In 1958, the bossa nova, a fusion of samba and jazz, rocked the music world. Musicians generally performed the bossa nova on gui- tar, but instead of the plucking the strings with a pick, players strummed the guitar with their fingers. BOSSA NOVA HIT You might not have heard of "The Girl from Impenema" before, but back in 1962, it helped fuel the bossa nova craze. Songwriters Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinícius deMoraes wrote the song after they were inspired by an eighteen-year-old named Heloisa Pinto who the composers saw walking by one day in Rio. They put music to paper and came up with a melody and lyrics. “Tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Ipanema goes walking . . .” the song begins. It was a hit. The song topped out at No. 5 in the United States.

The samba is probably the most well- known dance and musical genre to emerge from Brazil. It has its roots in West African religious traditions, although many people consider the samba a unique expression of Brazilian culture. Today, it is a popular ball- room dance, in which a couple uses rapid foot movements as they rock and sway their bodies around the dance floor. Brazilian music has also been influ- enced by North America and Europe. In the 1960s, Brazilian musicians created the trop- icália  style, which some consider one of the most important musical movements to take root in the country. The style of music developed when Brazil was under dictato- rial control. The tropicália embraced the same counter-culture activism found at the

Brazilian musician Carlinhos Brown plays at a concert in Barcelona, Spain, in 2003.

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CHAPTER FIVE: ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT