Brazil Music Guide - Forro

Forro is a maniacal upbeat music based on a heavy accordion with syncopated rhythms and often quite lewd lyrics. All over the North-East of Brazil and increasingly, in Rio de Janeiro and the other big cities, forro clubs attract a strong crowd to dance the night away.

Forro has been compared to cumbia in Colombia and Mariachi in Mexico and is very much the folk music of the North East. Forro is almost always danced in couples and can be quite intimate.

The music videos surrounding popular forro are often very sexy with lots of girls wiggling around in mini skirts while a sauve singer chants:

“He doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink, doesn’t fuck.”

Forro can also be much simpler though and is very powerful when performed with choral singing and basic clave and triangel percussion.

In the state of Pernambuco there are more rhythms flying around than you could shake a drum stick at and only the afficionados could tell you the difference between some of the styles. You’ll always have a good time at maracatu sessions with it’s distinctive heavy beat or at any coco concerts.

PREVIOUS: Guide to MPB

NEXT: Brazil Music Resources