Baião (Portuguese pronunciation: [baˈjɐ̃w]) is a Northeastern Brazilian music genre and dance style based on a syncopated duple meter rhythm, based around the pulse of the zabumba, a flat, double-headed bass drum played with a mallet in one hand and a stick in the other, each striking the opposite head of the drum for alternating high and low notes, frequently accompanied by an accordion and a triangle pattern.
Amerindian elements include the use of flutes, later replaced by the accordion, and wooden shakers; African-influenced baião might be accompanied by atabaque drums and include overlapping call and response singing; and European influences include the use of the triangle, Western harmony, and dance music such as the quadrille, polka, mazurka, and schottische, heavy influences to forró, a dance-oriented variant.
It is said by historian and folklorist Câmara Cascudo to already have been a popular dance since at least the late 19th century, and to have been propelled into the mainstream by the 1946 success of Luiz Gonzaga, which replaced a bolero fad in Brazil.
[citation needed] Baião's reputation as rural music liked by lower-class people caused its avoidance by much of the urban upper class for much of the 20th century.
Although previously not well known outside its native region, a conscious decision by 1960s MPB and Tropicália musicians to embrace and reference traditional and folk music saw a resurgence of baião rhythms.