Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008
Música sertaneja could be considered the Brazilian counterpart to American ‘country’ music. What defines the genre is not its rhythmic patterns, which vary considerably, but a performance style involving duplas (duos) singing in parallel thirds to the accompaniment of a guitar and a viola. Having developed out of southeastern traditional genres, it is the popular musical style that most appeals to migrants from these regions now living in the industrial centres of Greater São Paulo. Although today música sertaneja is primarily an urban phenomenon, the style also reaches audiences throughout the rural areas of central and southeastern Brazil.