The Music:
Influenced by jazz and considered a form of samba-jazz, the bossa nova is distinctive in its rhythm and fairly simple in its instrumentation. In its basic form, it is performed with a finger-picked guitar and vocalist. Piano is often added, and percussion is not a major part of the sound.
The Girl From Ipanema:
Probably the most famous bossa nova song outside of Brazil – typical in both its relaxed music as well as its lyrics – is “The Girl From Ipanema”. It first appeared in 1964 on the Joao Gilberto/Stan Getz album Getz/Gilberto (with the help of Antonio Carlos Jobim). Bossa Nova also received a tremendous boost with the release of the film Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro), with music composed by Luiz Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Social Evolution:
While originally associated with bourgeois taste and social irresponsibility, Bossa Nova nevertheless gave rise in the mid 1960s to a new form of music of protest. Composers of Bossa Nova increasingly used the vehicle of music to reach the wider population with a message of nationalism and patriotism in the face of dictatorship, sometimes using musical instruments of native Brazilian origin, to form a new sense of social consciousness in the Brazilian public.