A new kind of Brazilian music is poised for a global boom
Bossa nova and samba are out. Funk is in
The world is watching Brazil after the country won its first Oscar for “I’m Still Here”, a film set in Rio de Janeiro during the dictatorship in the 1970s. The film’s smooth soundtrack feeds into foreigners’ imagination of Brazil as a country where samba and bossa nova bands croon jazzy songs on sandy boardwalks. But this image is out of date. Modern Brazilians prefer sertanejo, a bouncing country genre, and funk, a style that emerged from Rio’s favelas. Funk in particular could go global, and change Brazil’s brand in the process.
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This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Getting funky”
From the March 8th 2025 edition
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