ABSTRACT
“Choro” is a genre of Brazilian urban popular music born in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Usually defined as the result of the appropriation by popular musicians of European ballroom dances (polkas, waltzes, mazurkas, and schottisches) mixed with the influences of African dances, choro was quickly absorbed by the recording industry at the time, and became— like samba—a symbol of “national music.” During the 1950s and 1960s, its popularity declined— largely due to the rise of other Brazilian musical genres (such as baião) and foreign genres (boleros, swing, and later pop music). However, the 1970s and 1990s witnessed at least two “revival movements” of choro, related largely to the emergence of new groups and virtuosos— such as guitarist Raphael Rabello (1962–1995) and more recently the guitarist Yamandú Costa (1980–). Especially during the 1990s, choro had a strong revival linked to Lapa, the bohemian neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, where it returned to being played in nightclubs and attracting youth in general.
