up until mid nineteenth century, many types of music were referred to as samba, assuming different characteristics in different parts of brazil - for many years it remained associated with an earlier form of dance called ' maxixe ', and it was only in the second half of the 19th century that what would be called samba started to take its own shape.

urban samba, specifically, became the kind of dance people enjoyed in groups, sometimes involving whole neighborhoods.

what would eventually be called samba-canção (samba song) originated in an era of profound transformation of the samba culture.