Music has been termed the 'soundtrack' of Brazilian life, and nowhere is this inextricable connection between the beat of life and the beat of the drum more evidenced than in Rio.

One can hardly think of the city without linking it to the rich and varied music that has been produced and performed on its shores.

Rio was birthplace of a number of different iconic and varied forms of music, from the fast-paced African-influenced Samba in the early 20th Century, to the rap and soul infused 'Baile Funk' that emerged in the 1980s and has grown in popularity since, famous for its vocalization of the struggles and adversity of the impoverished as well as its sometime lewd eroticism.