Brazilian music is famous worldwide — from bossa nova, to choro, to samba.
Bossa is cool, choro is amazing, but my favorite things about samba is that despite being “pop music” it still has complex rhythms and harmonies.
My top favorite thing is the prevalence of the 7 stringed guitar and their use of counterpoints (i.e., parallel melodies).
I love how what (I think) started as guitarists just playing harmonies, turned into them improvising bass lines and counterpoints every once in a while, which eventually became them doing MOSTLY counterpoints and bass lines and barely playing the harmony lmao.
These bass lines and counterpoints, from what I understand, are often times arpeggiations of the chords and so forth, but they add such an amazing effect to the music.
Examples:
- This guy solo playing over a recording.
- This solo guitar + singer.
- Most music by Cartola which features the absolute timeless 7 stringed legend Dino. This one is a classic.
My theory on metal:
Metal is 90% terrible / discordant background, with 30 seconds of pure blissful harmony that you just wouldn’t appreciate if that 90% terrible contrast didn’t exist.
With time, and repeated exposure, you pick up on the small harmonies within that discord that will continue to blow your mind for the next 10 years as you recognise more patterns in the chaos.
This usually means that your least favourite song by Metal Band X a decade ago is now your favourite, and your most favourite song of theirs a decade ago now sounds like a mere nursery rhyme.
/endtheory