Música popular brasileira or MPB is a trend in post-bossa nova urbanpopular music in Brazil that revisits typical Brazilian styles such as samba, samba-canção and baião and other Brazilian regional music, combining them with foreign influences, such as jazz and rock. This movement has produced and is represented by many renowned Brazilian artists, such as Jorge Ben Jor, Ivan Lins, Belchior and Dominguinhos, whose individual styles generated their own trends within the genre. The term is often also used to describe any kind of music with Brazilian origins and "voice and guitar style" that arose in the late 1960s. Variations within MPB were the short-lived but influential artistic movement known as tropicália, and the music of samba rock.
History
MPB, loosely understood as a "style", debuted in the mid-1960s, with the acronym being applied to types of non-electric music that emerged following the beginning, rise and evolution of bossa nova. MPB artists and audiences were largely connected to the intellectual and student population, causing later MPB to be known as "university music." Like bossa nova, MPB was an attempt to produce a "national" Brazilian music that drew from traditional styles. MPB made a considerable impact in the 1960s, thanks largely to several televised music festivals. The beginning of MPB is often associated with Elis Regina's interpretation of Vinícius de Moraes and Edu Lobo's "Arrastão." In 1965, one month after celebrating her 20th birthday, Elis appeared on the nationallybroadcastFestival de Música Popular Brasileira and performed the song. Elis recorded Arrastão and released the song as a single, which became the biggest selling single in Brazilian music history at that time and catapulted her to stardom. This brought MPB to a national Brazilian audience and many artists have since performed in the style over the years. Many of the albums on Rolling Stone Brazils list of the 100 greatest Brazilian albums fall under this style.
