World Music

MPB (musica popular Brasileira) is kind of an umbrella term to describe everything that came after Bossanova. It’s Brazilian music at it’s most Western and is where most of the Brazilian songwriters turn to express themselves.

So to say that a song or artist in Brazil is MPB doesn’t tell you very much except that it’s not samba, forro or bossa nova. Then again, often these streams are mixed in as music evolves beyond all standard definitions.

Still, MPB is probably the most digestible of Brazilian music styles to the Western ear and artists such as Gilberto Gil, Jorge Ben, Milton Nascimiento and Maria Rita now attract an international following.

It’s also the music that will attract the biggest concert crowds and that fuels the gossip colums in the newspapers. Teenage girls are more likely to fall for a national MPB star than the local samba singer.

Artists worth looking out for include:

Gilberto Gil

Milton Nascimiento

Jorge Ben

Djavan

Maria Rita

Elis Regina

Gal Costa

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