Research Project

For my potential research project I am hoping to discuss the music that moves Brazil. Specifically, I would like to research the Samba and its importance in modern Brazil’s music. Samba is not only a musical genre, but also a dance style. Arriving with African roots to Bahia, Brazil through the sambia de roda- samba quickly spread to the rest of Brazil starting in the 17th century. While Samba came to Brazil in the 17th century, its significance stayed and spread  until present day.

While analyzing Samba, primary sources are important to my research. Having first hand accounts from artists, composers, and dancers enhances my reader’s understanding of Samba. In my research I will focus on the history of Samba, but I primarily will focus on Samba in the 21st century. Gilberto Gil, a composer and a minister of culture in Brazil, submitted to Unesco an application declaring Samba as a a “Cultural Heritage of Humanity”. His involvement  with Samba over the past 60  years contributes to the historical research along with other primary sources.

The scholarly secondary sources are also important to my research. By reading secondary sources and incorporating them into my research, I will be able to give the reader an unbiased account of the history of Samba. Additionally, the secondary sources will contribute to modern Samba in Brazil. One of my secondary sources is Hello, hello Brazil: Popular music in the making of modern Brazil, which also is the book I will be analyzing later in the semester for this class. Having this book pre-assigned for this class only supported the credibility and importance to modern Brazil’s musical history.

In this research I hope to discover two things. First, the history of music in Brazil and some of the important composers, musicians, or DJ’s that helped shape the music movement in Brazil. Secondly, I hope to discover the historical importance of Samba and the relevance that it has in modern Brazil’s music scene today and in the past. Music and dance are important to every culture, Brazil non the less. By understanding an important music and dance in Brazil, we can better understand the culture and social impact.

Scholarly Secondary Sources:

  • McCann, Bryan, 1968. 2004. Hello, hello Brazil: Popular music in the making of modern brazil. Durham: Duke University Press.
  • Vianna, Hermano, 1960, and John Charles Chasteen 1955. 1999. The mystery of samba: Popular music and national identity in brazil. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
  • Shaw, Lisa, 1966. 1999. The social history of the brazilian samba. Aldershot, England;Brookfield, VT;: Ashgate.
  • Hertzman, Marc A. 2013;2014;. Making samba: A new history of race and music in brazil. Durham: Duke University Press.

Primary Sources:

  • Jones, Quincy (2002). Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones. Three Rivers Press.
  • Pele Telefone, o primeiro samba. CD release.
  • MYERS, R., and G. GIL. 1990. brazilian popular-music in bahia, the politics of the future an interview with gil,gilberto. Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 9 : 297-309.