Bossa Nova

The musical style of the Bossa Nova was created in Brazil in the late 1950s during a period of economical growth and political change, the bossa nova has been often described as the music of the Brazilian middle and upper classes. This music style started in the upper class regions along the beaches of the city of Rio de Janeiro and both its music and lyrics were composed by middle and upper-class musicians and marketed to the same economic group. For this reason, bossa nova was criticized by some for emphasizing a carefree way of living that little resembled the life of most Brazilians, the great majority of which belonged to the working class (3).

Indeed, bossa nova songs often spoke of love, the beach, and beautiful women and seemed to be a reflection of the author’s casual life rather than a story of Brazilians’ daily life and struggles as usually happened with the samba musical style, a music genre popular among the working class. “The Girl from Ipanema, which became popular outside of Brazil both in its original Portuguese form and in translation, is a perfect example of the uncommitted quality of bossa nova songs.”(1) The Girl from Ipanema is nothing more than the singer’s description of a