page_title: Samba
section_title: Popularization in the 1930s and 1940s
hierarchical_section_title: Samba / History / Popularization in the 1930s and 1940s
caption_attribution_description: Photo of Carmen Miranda published by the New York Sunday News in 1941. Dating is at upper right of uncropped photo.
context_page_description: Samba is a Brazilian music genre and dance style, with its roots in Africa via the Central African slave trade and African religious traditions, particularly of Congo, through the samba de roda genre of the northeastern Brazilian state, from which it derived. Although there were various forms of samba in Brazil with popular rhythms originated from African drumming and the African structures of polyrhythm of Beat and Off-Beat, Time-Line-Pattern and the elementary pulse, that are performed by different instruments of the bateria of the samba schools of the famous Samba-Enredo, that has its origins in Rio de Janeiro.
  Samba is recognized around the world as a symbol of Brazil and the Brazilian Carnival. Considered one of the most popular Brazilian cultural expressions, the samba has become an icon of Brazilian national identity.
  The Bahian Samba de Roda, was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2005. It is the main root of the samba carioca, the samba that is played and danced in Rio de Janeiro.
context_section_description: After the founding of "Deixa Falar", the phenomenon of the samba schools took over the scene and helped boost Rio's samba subgenera of Partido Alto, singing and challenging in candomblé terreiros the samba-enredo.
  From the 1930s, the popularization of radio in Brazil helped to spread the samba across the country, mainly the subgenres samba-canção and samba-exaltação. The samba-canção was released in 1928 with the recording "Ai, yo-yo" by Aracy Cortes. Also known as "samba half of the year", the samba-canção became established in the next decade. It was a slow and rhythmic samba music and had an emphasis on melody and generally easy acceptance. This aspect was later influenced by the rhythms of foreigners, first by foxtrot in the 1940s and then bolero the 1950s. The most famous composers were Noel Rosa, Ary Barroso, Lamartine Babo, Braguinha (also known as João de Barro), and Ataulfo Alves. Other practitioners of this style were Antonio Maria, Custódio Mesquita, Dolores Duran, Fernando Lobo, Ismael Neto, Lupicínio Rodrigues, Batatinha, and Adoniran Barbosa (this latter by sharply satirical doses).
  The ideology of Getúlio Vargas's Estado Novo changed the scene of the samba. With Aquarela do Brasil, composed by Ary Barroso and recorded by Francisco Alves in 1939, the samba-exaltação become the first success abroad. This kind of samba was characterized by extensive compositions of melody and patriotic verses. Carmen Miranda popularized samba internationally through her Hollywood films.
  With the support of the Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas, the samba won status as the "official music" of Brazil. With this status of national identity came the recognition of the intellectual and classical composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, who arranged a recording with the maestro Leopold Stokowski in 1940, which involved Cartola, Donga, João da Baiana, Pixinguinha, and Zé da Zilda.
  Also in the 1940s, there arose a new crop of artists: Francisco Alves, Mário Reis, Orlando Silva, Silvio Caldas, Aracy de Almeida, Dalva de Oliveira, and Elizeth Cardoso, among others. Others such as Assis Valente, Ataulfo Alves, Dorival Caymmi, Herivelto Martins, Pedro Caetano, and Synval Silva led the samba to the music industry.
caption: Portuguese Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda helped popularize samba internationally.
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