This dissertation examines the intersection between individual creativity and cultural practice in the production of music in contemporary Brazil. Specifically it explores the artistry of one renowned Afro-Brazilian musician, Neguinho do Samba, and reconsiders the musical genre samba-reggae through his participation within an apprenticeship system of neighborhood-based public rehearsals, while critically examining how cultural practice informed his creative work. Through a dedication to improving the conditions of Afro-Brazilian life within the poorest neighborhoods in Salvador da Bahia, Neguinho do Samba created in the 1980s a musical process that used percussion instruments as a stimulus to actively engage local youth. Neguinho‘s musical experiments and his rigorous pedagogical process, later coined as samba-reggae, became extremely popular through the rehearsals of Olodum and thus, samba-reggae gained the status as a prominent new musical style.

Samba-reggae music is thought to be inspired by a collective consciousness, or from an international musical exchange through the appropriation of numerous musical styles from within and outside of Brazil. Ethnographic research on Neguinho‘s motivations, and a musical analysis of samba-reggae performance reveals, however, that the representations of samba-reggae as musical object, and in particular a hybrid form is an unfortunate simplification of a highly interactive and customized musical process. My doctoral research examines cultural practice and the musical dimensions of samba-reggae in terms of Neguinho's artistic intent, pedagogical use, and highly interactive potential and subsequently unveils how musical innovation in contemporary society is heavily reliant on the initiative of influential individuals, and musical creativity is definitively more than merely stylistic borrowing. My dissertation argues that by de-centralizing the notion of global consumption and examining more critically the complexities of artistic production, this approach grounds musical creation within musico-cultural process, thus providing alternatives to notions about "globalization's impact on the loss of culture" that seems to dominate our understanding about popular culture in the twentieth century.