One of the best known forms of Afro-Brazilian music, Samba was a result of the Afro-Brazilian culture, which was developed through a blending of various cultures.

This vibrant and exciting culture was a result of the Portuguese colonization of Brazil and is expressed in different ways in various parts of Brazil . Samba music,as known in Europe, is usually a term used to collectively describe some diverse forms of music such as samba, samba-reggae and afro bloc, to name a few.

It was in the beginning of the 20th century, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that Samba was developed as a distinctive kind of music. The major credit for this goes to the immigrant black people from the Brazilian state of Bahia, who had a strong influence on the Brazilian music. Though it has been confused to be an offshoot of jazz, with a lot of similarities, they both have uniquely different origins of development.

The first Samba School was founded by Ismael Silva and his group, in the early1930s, in Deixa Falar. They changed the musical genus of that time, to make it suitable for the carnival parade, and very soon, samba became Brazil 's "official music".

Other than Brazil , Samba is extremely popular in Japan also, with the most popular Sambistas like Nelson Sargento and Wilson Moreira, recording specially for the Japanese market.

Although being popular in some other countries as well, Samba, which mostly refers to the carnival music, associated closely with Rio and is still one of the most fashionable and popular musical genuses in Brazil.