ABSTRACT
After 1930 the Brazilian samba developed in line with the reformulation of the class structure in the city of Rio de Janeiro. A product of the carioca proletariat, mostly of Afro-Brazilian descent, samba was, however, defined by the socio-economic rather than racial background of its first creators. The discourse of the lyrics of sambas written in the Vargas era was affected by the relationship between their creators and the target audience. Bourgeois samba differed from its proletarian forerunner in that it emphasized melody rather than rhythm, and added more complex harmonies and more sophisticated lyrics. In reaction to the growing respectability of commercial samba, the lesser-known popular composers of the morros and poorer quarters of the city of Rio de Janeiro made their samba more syncopated, creating the sub-genre of samba-de-breque, with its satirical, anti-establishment lyrics. Noel Rosa was instrumental in foregrounding the lyrics of samba and elevating the status of popular music as a whole.
