Everyone knows that music is an important part of the Brazilian culture. We talked in class about patrimony and how music represents a big part of Brazilian patrimony. I would say that in general, people around the world know that samba started in Brazil, but they may not know very much about MPB (Música Popular Brasileira), or the type of music connected to the" Forró" dances. Samba is heavily influenced by the African sounds of the "batuque", where the distinct beat of percussion lead the songs and dances. MPB started in the late 60's and became popular in the following generations. MPB is heavily influenced by bossa-nova and jazz, but it contains other influences from other types of music, such as rock and soul. I remember really enjoying listening to Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa while I still lived in Portugal and fell in love with this type of music.
Here in the Northeast, and even though the festas juninas are over, we can still listen to its most popular dance, the "Forró". Today we went to a ward activity, a dance. When Michele and I got there, there weren't very many people there and they were playing "Forró". The young people really get into this type of dance; several times during the dance party, I heard them requesting "play more Forró!". I was a bit surprised that the youth likes "Forró" so much, because in general, and due to the popularity of American and British type music, like rock and other types, they tend to embrace the newer styles of music and dance and don't enjoy the traditional ones.
A highlight for us was being able to share a couple of American dances, the "Electric Slide" and Hanna Montana's "Hoedown throwdown".
"1,2,3, everybody come off your feet
I'm gonna tell you about a beat
That's gonna make you move your feet"
We tried to include as many Brazilian participants as possible and I think they enjoyed learning and dancing these dances. It was a lot of fun.
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