1001 Albums
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55 albums · 1959–2023

Music of Brazil, from samba and bossa nova to Tropicália, MPB, mangue beat and today

· 2 min read · by 1001 Albums

Caetano Veloso singing with his arms spread on stage, with drums and bass behind him
A drummer of a samba school's bateria in a yellow and blue costume with a vinyl-record headdress, playing a caixa in the Sambódromo at nightOlodum's drummers in white shirts with their surdos and repiques on stage beside a singer with a guitar
Caetano Veloso on stage at the Natura Musical festival in Belo Horizonte, 2013. Photo: Lunna Campos, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · The bateria of Paraíso do Tuiuti in the Sambódromo of Rio de Janeiro, carnival 2013. Photo: Circuito Fora do Eixo, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Olodum with the singer Narcizinho at the Terça do Olodum in the Pelourinho, Salvador, 2012. Photo: Rita Barreto, Setur, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Brazil's popular music has samba and choro at its root, Pixinguinha, Cartola, Nelson Cavaquinho, Clara Nunes and Paulinho da Viola, then the bossa nova of João Gilberto's Chega de Saudade, Tom Jobim, Nara Leão and Elis & Tom, the Tropicália of Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Os Mutantes and Tom Zé, the MPB of Chico Buarque's Construção, Milton Nascimento's Clube da Esquina from Minas, Jorge Ben, Novos Baianos and Marisa Monte, Luiz Gonzaga's forró and Alceu Valença from the northeast, Tim Maia's soul, the rock of Raul Seixas, Legião Urbana, Titãs and Sepultura, Olodum and Daniela Mercury in Bahia, Chico Science's mangue beat from Recife, the hip hop of Racionais MC's, Emicida and Criolo in São Paulo, and Anitta, Liniker, Tim Bernardes and Marília Mendonça today, with Nelson Freire's Villa-Lobos for a nod to the concert hall. The list has 55 records from 1959 to 2023, one or two by each of the names above and only a small part of what they made; sertanejo beyond a nod, the samba schools' own records, the regions' own rhythms from the maracatu to the carimbó, the funk of Rio's bailes and most of the classical tradition would each need a list of their own. About 38 hours of music, 5 days of a few records each.

By genre

Latin 30%Rock 11%Hip hop 3%Other 56%
  • Latin 30%
  • Rock 11%
  • Hip hop 3%
  • Other 56%

The genres named most: brazilian, mpb, samba, rock, hip hop, bossa nova.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 1 country: Brazil 55. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1950s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Countries first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.