Henrique Rocha

Afro house is a subgenre of house music that took shape in South Africa in the 1990s. It blends classic house’s 4/4 pulse with African rhythmic sensibilities, emphasizing hand percussion such as congas, bongos, shakers and djembe alongside warm basslines and steadily dancing kick drums. Tracks often sit around 118–124 BPM and lean into hypnotic, polyrhythmic grooves, soulful harmonies, and an organic, spiritual atmosphere. Producers commonly use piano, saxophone, synthesizers, marimba/kalimba and rich pads, while vocals appear in a variety of African languages in call‑and‑response or chantlike phrases. The result is music that feels both deeply communal and club‑ready, equally at home on outdoor dance floors and late‑night sets.

Choro is an urban Brazilian instrumental genre that arose in Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century. It blends European dance forms (polka, schottische, waltz, mazurka) with Afro-Brazilian rhythmic sensibilities from styles like lundu and early maxixe, producing a supple, highly syncopated groove. Typical choro ensembles (regionais) feature a lead melodic instrument—often flute, clarinet, or bandolim (mandolin)—supported by cavaquinho and 6-string guitar for harmony, a 7‑string guitar providing counter-melodic bass lines (baixarias), and pandeiro for light percussion. Pieces commonly use multi-strain forms (e.g., AABBACCA), incorporate modulations, and encourage melodic variations and counterpoint rather than long harmonic solos. The result is music that is both virtuosic and lyrical, at once salon-refined and street-savvy.

Instrumental is music created and performed without sung lyrics, placing the expressive weight on melody, rhythm, harmony, and timbre produced by instruments. As an umbrella practice it appears in many cultures, but its modern identity cohered in Baroque-era Europe when purely instrumental forms such as the sonata, concerto, and dance suites began to flourish. Since then, instrumental thinking—developing motives, structuring form without text, and showcasing timbral contrast—has informed everything from orchestral music and solo piano repertoire to post-rock, film scores, and beat-driven electronic styles. Instrumental works can be intimate (solo or chamber) or expansive (full orchestra), narrative (programmatic) or abstract (absolute music). The absence of lyrics invites listeners to project imagery and emotion, making the style a natural fit for cinema, games, and contemplative listening.

Samba-choro is a Brazilian hybrid style that fuses the syncopated groove and songcraft of samba with the virtuosic melodies, counterpoint, and instrumental interplay of choro. Typically in 2/4 at a lively, dancing tempo, it showcases agile melodies over a buoyant pandeiro-driven pulse, with cavaquinho, guitar, flute, and bandolim trading lines. Emerging in Rio de Janeiro’s golden age of radio and records, samba-choro functions both as a vocal song style and as an instrumental format. Its harmony favors rich turnarounds, chromatic approach chords, and circle-of-fifths movement, while arrangements highlight call-and-response between lead voice (or lead instrument) and a tight regional ensemble. The result is music that feels simultaneously urbane, playful, and nostalgic.

World fusion is a broad, exploratory approach that blends musical traditions from different cultures with contemporary forms such as jazz, rock, ambient, and electronic music. Rather than being tied to a single folk lineage, it privileges hybrid instrumentation, modal and rhythmic vocabularies from around the globe, and collaborative performance practices. Compared with the more pop-oriented worldbeat, world fusion tends to be more improvisational, texture-driven, and studio- or ensemble-focused. It commonly juxtaposes instruments like oud, kora, sitar, tabla, duduk, and frame drums with electric guitar, synthesizers, and jazz rhythm sections, often emphasizing modal harmony, drones, polyrhythms, and odd meters.

Brazilian music is an umbrella term for the many popular and traditional styles that emerged from Brazil’s fusion of Indigenous, African, and Portuguese (Iberian) cultures. It is defined by rich rhythmic vocabularies (from samba’s syncopation to northeastern baião/forró grooves), melodically expressive singing, and harmonies that range from simple folk cadences to the jazz-inflected sophistication of bossa nova and MPB. Instruments such as the violão (nylon-string guitar), cavaquinho, pandeiro, surdo, cuíca, and berimbau sit alongside brass, woodwinds, and modern studio production. Under this umbrella lie internationally known styles like samba, choro, frevo, maracatu, bossa nova, MPB, forró, axé, pagode, sertanejo, and funk carioca (baile funk), each linking regional traditions to ongoing global exchanges.