choro has waxed and waned in popularity throughout its history, and is currently enjoying a renaissance amongst young musicians - schools dedicated exclusively to choro (a first in the music's history), teach pupils nationwide the balanço and the malandro - the unique 2/4 feel and the improvisational impulse - that have been the yin and yang of the sound, since its birth in the morros of rio de janeiro.

although bossa nova, born of a jazz and samba fusion happening in the zona sul in the 1950s, would go on to win worldwide acclaim, the sound of the latter third of the 20th century for cariocas and the country as a whole, was another product of the multicultural and working class suburbs.