Hello Dear Gracie Barra Students,
Today the “B in BJJ” will bring you a little bit of information about Brazilian Music.
There are a lot of different styles of music in Brazil; some examples are Samba, Pagode, Sertaneja, Forro, Olodum, Rock Brasileiro, Bossa Nova, among others. I will talk about many of these styles in the future. But the one I would like to talk about today is a style called “Musica Popular Brasileira” or MPB (Brazilian Popular Music).
It is quite an interesting challenge when I try to explain MPB to non-Brazilians. “What exactly is Brazilian Popular Music?” I ask myself. How do I define something that is a feeling, an experience, something that can only be understood through sound and emotion?
In Brazil, MPB is a household acronym that needs no explanation. To ask a Brazilian “What is MPB?” would be like asking him or her “What is samba?” MPB includes any Brazilian music not categorized as classical, which is to say, all non-classical music ever created since the discovery of Brazil by Pedro Álvares Cabral in April of 1500.
Brazilian music is founded upon the syncretism of European, African, and Indigenous Amerindian musical traditions—all of which contribute to its uniqueness.
The Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa (Houaiss Dictionary of the Portuguese Language) defines “popular music” as “urban music of an oral tradition, the authors of which are usually known” (2001).
This definition implies that popular music is only urban, although it is well documented that MPB arose and evolved in urban as well as rural settings. It also suggests that popular music does not include folkloric music, a genre in which many songs are anonymous.
The term MPB came into general use around 1965, when amazing singers and composers such as Chico Buarque, Tom Jobim e Elis Regina came onto the music scene. Each of these singers reflected their generation in their own way with songs that touched a nation with love, beauty, poetry—and that often also protested against the government and social inequality.
I hope that you guys enjoy the music and if you are interested in searching more MPB artists here is a list of some of the best ones:
-Tom Jobim
- Elis Regina
- Chico Buarque
- Caetano Veloso
- Gilberto Gil
- Gal Costa
- Toquinho
- Milton Nascimento
- Djavan
- Maria Bethania
Thank you,
THE GRACIE BARRA JIU JITSU ESCONDIDO TEAM
