Samba In Brazil

In its early history, Brazil had no nationally unifying events. With a plethora of people from all different heritages spread out across the 5th largest country in the world, this lack of unity also meant a lack of identity. Parts of the country were Portuguese while others were native and so on. Samba began to build bridges between the people of Brazil. Because it was developed by Afro-Brazilians after the conclusion of slavery, early samba has an African flare to it. Rhythm was a large aspect of the music, as was the call-and-response and the interlocking notes. Unfortunately, people in the higher social classes disliked the samba. People in samba schools could even be arrested for playing and dancing outside the favelas. Eventually, after growing into a more complex form of music, samba gained more acceptance from those in the middle class. Just seven years after the first samba school was formed, the president of Brazil recognized the parades officially. This was an enormous step in the right direction. As time passed, more approval came for the samba, with a stadium for the parades being built in 1984.

The government also began to see a need for a national identity. As the samba became more popular worldwide thanks to radio, Brazil accepted this as a large component of what it means to be Brazilian. Now Carnaval, one of the best known celebrations in the world, is filled with samba musicians and dancers. There are prestigious competitions for samba schools, with rehearsals lasting for months out of each year. Obviously, despite the initial dislike of samba by the higher classes, Brazil has turned samba into one of the best known genres in the world and its