Latin American music
Encyclopedia
Latin American music, found within Central and South America, is a series of musical styles and genres that mixes influences from Spanish, African and indigenous sources, that has recently become very famous in the US.
, Milonga, Cueca
, Zamba and Chamamé
. More modern rhythms include El Cuarteto, and Argentine Cumbia
. Argentine rock
(known locally as Rock Nacional) was most popular during the 60s, and still remains Argentina's most popular music. Rock en Español became first popular in Argentina, then it swept through other Latin American countries. That movement is called the "Argentine Wave."
many people dance to the music and after have a great feast called samba. the eat spicy food and eggs that represent new life.
n music is perhaps the most strongly linked to its native population amongst national styles of South America. Following the nationalistic period of the '50s, Aymara and Quechua culture became more widely accepted, and these styles of folk music gradually fused in a more pop-like sound. Los Kjarkas
played a pivotal role in this fusion. Other forms of native music, such as huayño
s and caporales
are also widely played. cumbia is another music enjoyed today. There are regional forms less known internationally such as the music from Santa Cruz and Tarija where music such as Cueca
and Chacarera
is quite much so popular.
is a large and diverse country with a long history of popular musical development, ranging from the early 20th century innovation of samba
to the modern Música Popular Brasileira
. Bossa nova
is internationally well-known, and Forró
is also widely known and beloved in Brazil.
that originated in the 1960s and 1970s and spread then after the 1973 Chilean coup d'etat when most musicians where either arrested, killed or exiled. In hearland of Chile, Central Chile, several styles can be found: the Cueca
(the national dance), the Tonada, Refalosa, the Sajuriana, Zapateado
, Cuando and Vals. In the Norte Grande
region
traditional music bears high resemblance with the music of Southern Perú and Western Bolivia, and it is called normally "Andean music
". This music, which reflects the spirit of the indigenous people of the Altiplano
, was one of the inspirations of the Nueva canción
. In Chiloé Archipelago
has folk music styles by its own due to its isolation far from the cultured centres of Santiago or Lima. Music from the Chilean Polynesia
, Rapa Nui music, is deived from Polynesian languages rather than from the colonial society or European influences.
to the rumba
.
The Atlantic coast, the Pacific coast, the Andean region and Los Llanos.
The Caribbean (Atlantic) music vibrates with hot rhythms, such as the cumbia, porros and mapalé.
The music from the Pacific coast, such as the currulao, with a strong use of drums, is tinged with Spanish influence.
Music of the Colombian Andes has been strongly influenced by Spanish rhythms and instruments, and differs noticeably from the Indian music of Peru or Bolivia. Among the typical forms are the bambuco, pasillo guabina and torbellino, played with string instruments like tiple guitarra, and also with piano.
The music of Los Llanos, "música llanera", is usually accompanied by a harp, cuatro (a sort of four-string guitar) and maracas. It has much in common with the music of the Venezuelan Llanos.
Apart from these traditional forms, two newer musical styles have conquered large parts of the country. These are "la salsa" which has spread throughout the Pacific coast, and the "vallenato", which emanated from La Guajira and César (northern part of the Caribbean coast). The latter is based on the European accordion.
Amongst all the mentioned above, throughout the nation Salsa, and merengue can be heard as well. More recently the development of music styles such as reggaeton and bachata have also had a great impact within the nation.
has been popular in the Dominican Republic for many decades, and is widely regarded as the national music.
Bachata is a more recent arrival taking influences from the Bolero and derived from the country's rural guitar music. Bachata has evolved and risen in popularity over the last 40 years in the Dominican Republic and other countries such as Puerto Rico
, with the help of artists such as Antony Santos
, Luis Segura
, Luis Vargas
, Teodoro Reyes, Yoskar Sarante
, Alex Bueno
, and Aventura. Bachata, Merengue and Salsa are now equally popular among Spanish speaking Caribbean people. When Spanish Crusaders sailed over the Atlantic they brought with them a new type of music called Hesparo, which contributed to the development of Dominican music.
Also, the romantic style is present in the Dominican Republic, wonderful voices like Angela Carrasco, Anthony Rios, Dhario Primero, Maridalia Hernandez and Olga Lara among others.
Indian music in Ecuador is determined in varying degrees by the influence of quichua culture. Within it we find sanjuanitos (different from the meztizo sanjuanito), capishkas, danzantes and yaravis. Non-quechua indigenous music ranges from Tsáchila
music of Santo Domingo
which is influenced by the neighboring afro marimba; or Amazonian music of groups such as the Shuar.
Black Ecuadorian music can be classified in two main forms. The first type is black music from the coastal Esmeraldas province and is characterized by the use of the marimba. The second variety is black music from the Chota Valley in the northern Sierra, mainly known as Bomba del Chota
, and is characterized by a more pronounced mestizo and Indian influence than marimba esmeraldeña. Most of these musical styles can also be played by windbands of varying sizes in popular festivals all around the country.
Like other Latin American countries Ecuadorian music includes several local exponents of international styles from opera to salsa to rock to cumbia to thrash metal to jazz and everything in between. Such is the state of being a modern nation despite the traditionalist folkloric gaze of this article which presupposes that Latin music is ethnic music.
but different style which is more well know outside El Salvador
Popular styles in moder El Salvador besides Cumbia are Salsa
, Cumbia
, Bachata, Reggaeton
. "Political chaos tore the country apart in the early 20th century, and music was often suppressed, especially those with strong native influences. In the 1940s, for example, it was decreed that a dance called "Xuc" was to be the "national dance" which was created and led by Paquito Palaviccini's and his "ORQUESTA INTERNACIONAL POLIO." In the last ten years Reggaeton
and Hip hop
have many popularity and Salvadorian youths form groups such as Pescozada
and Mecate. Salvadorian music have many styles such as Mayan
music on the border of El Salvador and Guatemala which is known as Chalatenango
. Another style of music not originally from El Salvador could be known as Punta a Belizean and Honduran much more style.
One of the leading classical composers from El Salvador is Carlos Colón-Quintana.
.
Evolving in Haiti in the 1850s, the Haitian merengue, called the "mereng," is regarded as the oldest surviving form of merengue still performed today.
Haitiean Creole, méringue in French is a national symbol in Haiti. according to Jean Fouchard, mereng evolved from the fusion of slave musics such as the chica and calenda with ballroom forms related to the French contredanse Mereng's name, he says, derives from the mouringue music of the Bara, a Bantu people of Madagascar. That few Malagasies came to the Americas renders this etymology dubiou, but it is significant because it foregrounds what Fouchard, and most Haitians, consider the essentially African-derived nature of their music and national identity. Dominican merengue, Jean Fouchard suggests, developed directly from Haitian mereng
Dominicans are often disinclined to admit African and Haitian influences on their culture. As ethnomusicologist Martha Davis points out, many Dominican scholars "have, at the least, ignored African influence in Santo Domingo. At the worst, they have bent over backwards to convince themselves and their readers of the one hundred percent Hispanic content of their culture. This is not an uncommon Latin American reaction to the inferiority complex produced by centuries of Spanish colonial domination".
, the local genre of the Garifunas, to Caribbean music like Salsa
, Merengue
, Reggae
, and Reggaeton
all widely heard especially in the North, to Mexican rancheras heard in the interior, rural part of the country. The country's ancient capital of Comayagua is an important center for modern Honduran music, and is home to the College for Fine Arts.
is perhaps one of the most diverse countries in the world when it comes to music. Each of its 31 States and its capital city (and its Burroughs) claim unique styles of music. The most representative is the Mariachi serenade music. Although commonly portrayed as music wanderers play, it is extremely technical and purist mariachi music follows very strict rules. Most of its music is sang with verses and prose of complex poetry. Other regional music includes:
Son Jarocho or Mexican mambo, Mexican pop
, Ranchera
s which differs from Mariachi music as it is less technical and its lyrics are not sang in prose - form of Mexican country music, Bolero
s, etc.
Another popular style called or Norteña
mainly played in the Northeastern part of the country it assimilates Mexican Ranchera with Colombian cumbia and is usually played with Bavarian accordions and it is very similar to Tex-Mex music. Many other versions exist such as Mexican Spanish rock, Duranguense, Veracruzan Danzon, Trio, Cha Cha Cha, Sinaloan Tambora, etc. Cuba usually disputes ownership of mambo music, but notably one of its major composers was Perez Prado, a Mexican. The Mexican mambo however is highly technical and its use of metal is less aggressive than its Caribbean counterpart, some opine the Mexican mambo is more refined.
is Palo de Mayo
which is a dance and genre of music, as well as a festival in which the dance and music originated. Other popular music includes marimba
, punta, Garifuna music
, son nica, folk music, merengue, bachata, and salsa.
is Spanish reggae. Spanish reggae is a style of music that originated here in 1977 and continues to the present, even though reggaeton enventually was created in Puerto Rico and it has strong Puerto Rican
influences such as the island's bomba
and plena
soca. Salsa, bachata, and merengue can be heard as well throughout the nation. Other Hispanic and Latino styles can be heard as well as can Caribbean, Salsa and West Indian music.
The polka usually is based on poetic lyrics, but there are some emblematic pieces of Paraguayan music that exist, such as Pájaro Campana, or Songbird, by Félix Pérez Cardozo.
Guarania is the second best known Paraguayan music style and was created by the great musician José Asunción Flores in 1925.
Paraguayan music depends largely upon two instruments: the guitar and the harp, whose first copies were brought by the conquistadors and found their own style in the country.
vian music is made up of indigenous, Spanish, and West African influences. Coastal Afro-Peruvian
music is characterized by the use of the Cajón peruano
. Amerindian
music varies according to region and ethnicity. The most well known Amerindian
style is the huayño
, also popular in Bolivia
, played on instruments such as the charango
and guitar
. Mestizo music is varied and within it we find as most popular valses and marinera
from the northern coast.
's musical exports, it is known for its version of salsa music
as well as reggaeton
. Bomba
and plena
have been popular in Puerto Rico for a long time, while reggaetón is a relatively recent invention. Reggaeton is a form of urban contemporary music, which often combine other Latin musical styles and Caribbean and West Indies music together such as reggae and soca and Spanish reggae, most commonly salsa music and merengue music and bachata. Now in current times in Puerto Rico it has a genre known as Malianteo
which is blend Rap, Regaeton, and Rap Core version
has similar roots to Argentina. Uruguayan tango
and milonga
are both very popular styles. Plus, their folk music from along the River Plate
is indistinguishable from its Argentine counterpart. Uruguay rock and cancion popular, essentially their versions of rock and pop music, are currently the most popular local forms. Candombe
, a style of drumming descending from African slaves in the area, is one of the few things that can be deemed quintessentially Uruguayan, although it does also occur to a lesser-extent in Argentina. It is most popular in Montevideo
but can be found in a number of other internal cities too.
) in rhythm, tempo, baseline, riffs and instrumentation, Salsa represents an amalgamation of musical styles, including rock, jazz, and other Latin American musical traditions including Puerto Rico. Modern salsa as it became known worldwide was forged in the pan-Latin melting pot
of New York City in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
can be categorized as a blend of country music
, rock
, and R&B
born in Texas and performed in both Spanish and English with a variety of cultural influences.
Most Tejano
s today reside in South Texas
and have their own unique form of folk and popular music, greatly influenced by yet quite distinctive from both traditional genres of Mexican music
and mainstream genres of American music
. Latina Superstar Selena
brought Tejano music to the mainstream and is credited frequently for bringing it to the top.
has become an Latin American phenomenon and is no longer classifiable merely as a Panamanian or even Puerto Rican genre. It blends Jamaica
n musical influences of reggae
and dancehall
and Trinidadian
soca
with Latin American music, such as the Puerto Rican bomba
and plena
, as well as that of American hip hop
and rap. The music is also combined with rapping (generally) in Spanish
.
, it have Several variants, such as salsa
and cumbia
romantic between others. In the second half of the twentieth and in twenty-first century a number of artists have popularized the genre such as Julio Iglesias
, Luis Miguel
and Christian Castro.
, Argentine rock
and Chilean rock
, and Cuban
and Mexican hip hop, all based on styles from the United States (jazz
, rock and roll
and hip hop
). Music from non-Latin parts of the Caribbean are also popular, especially Jamaica
n reggae
and dub
, Trinidadian
calypso music
and Soca
. See also Spanish Tinge
. Flamenco
, rumba
and pasodoble
from Spain is popular in some segments due to the Spanish heritage of Latin-America.
Argentina
The tango is perhaps Argentina's most famous music, becoming famous all around the world. Others include the ChacareraChacarera
The Chacarera is a dance of Argentine origin. It is a genre of folk music that, for many Argentines, serves as a rural counterpart to the cosmopolitan imagery of the Tango...
, Milonga, Cueca
Cueca
Cueca is a family of musical styles and associated dances from Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina. In Chile, the cueca holds the status of national dance, where it was officially selected on September 18, 1979.- Origins :...
, Zamba and Chamamé
Chamamé
Chamamé is a folk music genre from the Argentine Northeast, Mesopotamia and in the south of Brazil. Paraná, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and Mato Grosso do Sul....
. More modern rhythms include El Cuarteto, and Argentine Cumbia
Cumbia
Cumbia is a music genre popular across Latin America. The cumbia originated in the Caribbean coast of Colombia, where it is associated with an eponymous dance and has since spread as far as Mexico and Argentina...
. Argentine rock
Argentine rock
Argentine rock , is composed or made by Argentine bands or artists, in the Spanish language. For nearly half a century it has been a major popular genre, and it is considered part of the popular music tradition of Argentina alongside Argentine Tango, and Argentine folk music.The moment when...
(known locally as Rock Nacional) was most popular during the 60s, and still remains Argentina's most popular music. Rock en Español became first popular in Argentina, then it swept through other Latin American countries. That movement is called the "Argentine Wave."
many people dance to the music and after have a great feast called samba. the eat spicy food and eggs that represent new life.
Belize
The music of Belize has a mix of Kriol, Mestizo, Garifuna, and Maya influences. After many centuries of Maya habitation, Spanish and then British colonizers arrived in the area, the latter keeping Belize as its only colony in Spanish-dominated Central America. Far more influential than either European power's arrival, however, was the importation of African slaves. Europeans brought polkas, waltzes, schottisches and quadrilles, while Africans brought numerous instruments and percussion-based musics, including marimba. African culture resulted in the creation of brukdown music in interior logging camps, played using banjo, guitar, drums, dingaling bell, accordion and an ass's jawbone played by running a stick up and down the teeth. Among the most popular styles created by Kriol musicians is brukdown. Brukdown evolved out of the music and dance of loggers, especially a form called buru. Punta and Punta rock jazz hiphop are the most popular dance in Garifuna culture. It is performed around holidays and at parties, and other social events. Punta lyrics are usually composed by the women. Chumba and hunguhungu are a circular dance in a three beat rhythm, which is often combined with punta.Bolivia
BoliviaBolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
n music is perhaps the most strongly linked to its native population amongst national styles of South America. Following the nationalistic period of the '50s, Aymara and Quechua culture became more widely accepted, and these styles of folk music gradually fused in a more pop-like sound. Los Kjarkas
Los Kjarkas
Los Kjarkas is a Bolivian band from the Capinota Province in the department of Cochabamba, one of the most popular Andean pop bands in the country's history...
played a pivotal role in this fusion. Other forms of native music, such as huayño
Huayno
Huayno is a genre of popular Andean Music and dance from Andean countries. It is especially common in Peru. It originated in Serrania, Peru as a combination of traditional rural folk music and popular urban dance music...
s and caporales
Caporales
Caporales is a traditional Bolivian dance originating in the Department of La Paz, Bolivia; it was created and presented to the public for the first time in 1969 by the Estrada brothers, who were inspired in the Afro-Bolivian Saya character of the Caporal, a dance that belongs to the region of the...
are also widely played. cumbia is another music enjoyed today. There are regional forms less known internationally such as the music from Santa Cruz and Tarija where music such as Cueca
Cueca
Cueca is a family of musical styles and associated dances from Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina. In Chile, the cueca holds the status of national dance, where it was officially selected on September 18, 1979.- Origins :...
and Chacarera
Chacarera
The Chacarera is a dance of Argentine origin. It is a genre of folk music that, for many Argentines, serves as a rural counterpart to the cosmopolitan imagery of the Tango...
is quite much so popular.
Brazil
BrazilBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
is a large and diverse country with a long history of popular musical development, ranging from the early 20th century innovation of samba
Samba
Samba is a Brazilian dance and musical genre originating in Bahia and with its roots in Brazil and Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions. It is recognized around the world as a symbol of Brazil and the Brazilian Carnival...
to the modern Música Popular Brasileira
Música Popular Brasileira
Música Popular Brasileira or MPB designates a trend in post-Bossa Nova urban popular music. It is not a discrete genre but rather a constellation that combines original songwriting and updated versions of traditional Brazilian urban music styles like samba and samba-canção with contemporary...
. Bossa nova
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
is internationally well-known, and Forró
Forró
Forró is a kind of Northeastern Brazilian dance as well as a word used to denote the different genres of music which accompanies the dance. Both are much in evidence during the annual Festa Junina , a part of Brazilian traditional culture which celebrates some Catholic saints...
is also widely known and beloved in Brazil.
Chile
Among the newer musical movements in Chile the most important is perhaps the Nueva CanciónNueva canción
Nueva canción is a movement and genre within Latin American and Iberian music of folk music, folk-inspired music and socially committed music...
that originated in the 1960s and 1970s and spread then after the 1973 Chilean coup d'etat when most musicians where either arrested, killed or exiled. In hearland of Chile, Central Chile, several styles can be found: the Cueca
Cueca
Cueca is a family of musical styles and associated dances from Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina. In Chile, the cueca holds the status of national dance, where it was officially selected on September 18, 1979.- Origins :...
(the national dance), the Tonada, Refalosa, the Sajuriana, Zapateado
Zapateado
The zapateado is a dance of Mexican Indian origin characterized by a lively rhythm punctuated by the striking of the dancer's shoes, akin to tap dance...
, Cuando and Vals. In the Norte Grande
Norte Grande, Chile
The Norte Grande is one of the five natural regions into which CORFO divided continental Chile in 1950. It borders Peru to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Altiplano, Bolivia and Argentina to the east, and the Copiapó River to the south, beyond which lies the Norte Chico natural...
region
traditional music bears high resemblance with the music of Southern Perú and Western Bolivia, and it is called normally "Andean music
Andean music
Andean music comes from the general area inhabited by Quechuas, Aymaras and other peoples that lived roughly in the area of the Inca Empire prior to European contact. It includes folklore music of parts of Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela...
". This music, which reflects the spirit of the indigenous people of the Altiplano
Altiplano
The Altiplano , in west-central South America, where the Andes are at their widest, is the most extensive area of high plateau on Earth outside of Tibet...
, was one of the inspirations of the Nueva canción
Nueva canción
Nueva canción is a movement and genre within Latin American and Iberian music of folk music, folk-inspired music and socially committed music...
. In Chiloé Archipelago
Chiloé Archipelago
Chiloé Archipelago consists of several islands lying off the coast of Chile. It is separated from mainland Chile by Chacao Channel in the north, the Sea of Chiloé in the east and Gulf of Corcovado to the southeast. All of the archipelago except Desertores Islands, which are part of Palena...
has folk music styles by its own due to its isolation far from the cultured centres of Santiago or Lima. Music from the Chilean Polynesia
Easter Island
Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
, Rapa Nui music, is deived from Polynesian languages rather than from the colonial society or European influences.
Cuba
Cuba has produced many of the world's most famous musical genres, and a number of renowned musicians in a variety of styles. Creolized styles range from the danzónDanzón
Danzón is the official dance of Cuba. It is also an active musical form in Mexico and is still beloved in Puerto Rico where Verdeluz, a modern danzón by Puerto Rican composer Antonio Cabán Vale is considered the unofficial national anthem...
to the rumba
Rumba
Rumba is a family of percussive rhythms, song and dance that originated in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves and Spanish colonizers. The name derives from the Cuban Spanish word rumbo which means "party" or "spree". It is secular, with no...
.
Colombia
Colombian music can be divided into four musical zones:The Atlantic coast, the Pacific coast, the Andean region and Los Llanos.
The Caribbean (Atlantic) music vibrates with hot rhythms, such as the cumbia, porros and mapalé.
The music from the Pacific coast, such as the currulao, with a strong use of drums, is tinged with Spanish influence.
Music of the Colombian Andes has been strongly influenced by Spanish rhythms and instruments, and differs noticeably from the Indian music of Peru or Bolivia. Among the typical forms are the bambuco, pasillo guabina and torbellino, played with string instruments like tiple guitarra, and also with piano.
The music of Los Llanos, "música llanera", is usually accompanied by a harp, cuatro (a sort of four-string guitar) and maracas. It has much in common with the music of the Venezuelan Llanos.
Apart from these traditional forms, two newer musical styles have conquered large parts of the country. These are "la salsa" which has spread throughout the Pacific coast, and the "vallenato", which emanated from La Guajira and César (northern part of the Caribbean coast). The latter is based on the European accordion.
Amongst all the mentioned above, throughout the nation Salsa, and merengue can be heard as well. More recently the development of music styles such as reggaeton and bachata have also had a great impact within the nation.
Dominican Republic
Merengue típico and Orchestra merengueMerengue music
Merengue is a type of music and dance from the Dominican Republic. It is popular in the Dominican Republic and all over Latin America. Its name is Spanish, taken from the name of the meringue, a dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar...
has been popular in the Dominican Republic for many decades, and is widely regarded as the national music.
Bachata is a more recent arrival taking influences from the Bolero and derived from the country's rural guitar music. Bachata has evolved and risen in popularity over the last 40 years in the Dominican Republic and other countries such as Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, with the help of artists such as Antony Santos
Antony Santos
Antony Santos is a bachata musician from the Dominican Republic, renowned for his role in redefining the genre to include romantic music.Santos entered onto the scene in the early 1990s, beginning his career as the guira player for fellow bachatero Luis Vargas, only to leave the group and maintain...
, Luis Segura
Luis Segura
Luis Segura , is a Dominican singer known as 'The Father of Bachata'. He is considered one the best at his art with hits like "Pena por ti", "Dicen", and "No me celes tanto". He is also known for the use of double entendre in his songs, like "El Salon" .- References :...
, Luis Vargas
Luis Vargas (musician)
Luis Vargas is one of the Dominican Republic's most popular bachata musicians. When he began in the early 1990s, Antony Santos, considered by some to be one of the most influential bachata musicians of all time, was his güira player....
, Teodoro Reyes, Yoskar Sarante
Yoskar Sarante
Yoskar "El Prabu" Sarante is a prominent Dominican bachatero. Yoskar Sarante, born in 1970, is one of the most popular singers of new Bachata of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Born of the union of his parents Domingo and Ramona Sarante Ventura, is the second son of the family, but he's...
, Alex Bueno
Alex Bueno
Alex Bueno is a singer and guitarist from the Dominican Republic, specializing in merengue and bachata music. He joined Gerardo Vera's All-Stars in 1979 and formed Orquesta Liberacion in 1982.- References :...
, and Aventura. Bachata, Merengue and Salsa are now equally popular among Spanish speaking Caribbean people. When Spanish Crusaders sailed over the Atlantic they brought with them a new type of music called Hesparo, which contributed to the development of Dominican music.
Also, the romantic style is present in the Dominican Republic, wonderful voices like Angela Carrasco, Anthony Rios, Dhario Primero, Maridalia Hernandez and Olga Lara among others.
Ecuador
Traditional Ecuadorian music can be classified in mestizo, Indian and black musics. Mestizo music comes out of the interrelation between Spanish and Indian music. In it there are rhythms such as pasacalles, pasillos, albazos and sanjuanitos and is usually characterized by the use of string instruments. There are also regional variations such as more Coastal styles such as vals (similar to Vals Peruano (Waltz)) and montubio music, referring to the coastal hill country.Indian music in Ecuador is determined in varying degrees by the influence of quichua culture. Within it we find sanjuanitos (different from the meztizo sanjuanito), capishkas, danzantes and yaravis. Non-quechua indigenous music ranges from Tsáchila
Tsáchila
The Tsáchila people of Ecuador live in the county of Santo Domingo in the province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas.- Legend of the origin of their ornamentation :...
music of Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
which is influenced by the neighboring afro marimba; or Amazonian music of groups such as the Shuar.
Black Ecuadorian music can be classified in two main forms. The first type is black music from the coastal Esmeraldas province and is characterized by the use of the marimba. The second variety is black music from the Chota Valley in the northern Sierra, mainly known as Bomba del Chota
Bomba (Ecuador)
Bomba or Bomba del Chota is an Afro-Ecuadorian musical form from the Chota Valley area of Ecuador in the province of Imbabura and Carchi. Its origins can be traced back to Africa via the middle passage and the use of African slave labor during the country's colonial period...
, and is characterized by a more pronounced mestizo and Indian influence than marimba esmeraldeña. Most of these musical styles can also be played by windbands of varying sizes in popular festivals all around the country.
Like other Latin American countries Ecuadorian music includes several local exponents of international styles from opera to salsa to rock to cumbia to thrash metal to jazz and everything in between. Such is the state of being a modern nation despite the traditionalist folkloric gaze of this article which presupposes that Latin music is ethnic music.
El Salvador
Salvadorian music can be compared to the Colombian style of music call CumbiaCumbia
Cumbia is a music genre popular across Latin America. The cumbia originated in the Caribbean coast of Colombia, where it is associated with an eponymous dance and has since spread as far as Mexico and Argentina...
but different style which is more well know outside El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
Popular styles in moder El Salvador besides Cumbia are Salsa
Salsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
, Cumbia
Cumbia
Cumbia is a music genre popular across Latin America. The cumbia originated in the Caribbean coast of Colombia, where it is associated with an eponymous dance and has since spread as far as Mexico and Argentina...
, Bachata, Reggaeton
Reggaeton
Reggaeton is a form of Puerto Rican and Latin American urban and Caribbean music. After its mainstream exposure in 2004, it spread to North American, European and Asian audiences. Reggaeton originated in Puerto Rico but is also has roots from Reggae en Español from Panama and Puerto Rico and...
. "Political chaos tore the country apart in the early 20th century, and music was often suppressed, especially those with strong native influences. In the 1940s, for example, it was decreed that a dance called "Xuc" was to be the "national dance" which was created and led by Paquito Palaviccini's and his "ORQUESTA INTERNACIONAL POLIO." In the last ten years Reggaeton
Reggaeton
Reggaeton is a form of Puerto Rican and Latin American urban and Caribbean music. After its mainstream exposure in 2004, it spread to North American, European and Asian audiences. Reggaeton originated in Puerto Rico but is also has roots from Reggae en Español from Panama and Puerto Rico and...
and Hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
have many popularity and Salvadorian youths form groups such as Pescozada
Pescozada
Pescozada is a hip-hop group formed in Chalatenango, El Salvador. They usually rap in Spanish, sometimes throwing in bits of English like "Yeah" "Uh-huh" or "Hip hop", and use an extreme amount of Caliche. Their name, which used to refer to an honor given to a knight by royalty, literally means...
and Mecate. Salvadorian music have many styles such as Mayan
Maya peoples
The Maya people constitute a diverse range of the Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the term...
music on the border of El Salvador and Guatemala which is known as Chalatenango
Chalatenango Department
Chalatenango is a department of El Salvador, located in the northwest of the country. The capital is the city of Chalatenango. The Chalatenango Department encompasses 2,017 km² and contains more than 220,000 inhabitants. Las Matras Archaeological Ruins contains the relics of prehistoric...
. Another style of music not originally from El Salvador could be known as Punta a Belizean and Honduran much more style.
One of the leading classical composers from El Salvador is Carlos Colón-Quintana.
Haiti
Rich blend of African and European sounds; along with Cuban and Dominican influences, come together to create Haiti's diverse music. The most notable styles are Kompa and MéringueMéringue
Méringue, also spelled "mereng" in Creole, is a music genre native to Haiti . It is musically and historically connected to Dominican Merengue. It is a guitar-based style , and is generally sung in Haitian Creole.-History:The history of méringue is similar to that of much Caribbean popular music...
.
Evolving in Haiti in the 1850s, the Haitian merengue, called the "mereng," is regarded as the oldest surviving form of merengue still performed today.
Haitiean Creole, méringue in French is a national symbol in Haiti. according to Jean Fouchard, mereng evolved from the fusion of slave musics such as the chica and calenda with ballroom forms related to the French contredanse Mereng's name, he says, derives from the mouringue music of the Bara, a Bantu people of Madagascar. That few Malagasies came to the Americas renders this etymology dubiou, but it is significant because it foregrounds what Fouchard, and most Haitians, consider the essentially African-derived nature of their music and national identity. Dominican merengue, Jean Fouchard suggests, developed directly from Haitian mereng
Dominicans are often disinclined to admit African and Haitian influences on their culture. As ethnomusicologist Martha Davis points out, many Dominican scholars "have, at the least, ignored African influence in Santo Domingo. At the worst, they have bent over backwards to convince themselves and their readers of the one hundred percent Hispanic content of their culture. This is not an uncommon Latin American reaction to the inferiority complex produced by centuries of Spanish colonial domination".
Honduras
The music of Honduras is very varied, from PuntaPunta
Punta is a Garifuna music and dance style performed at celebrations and festive occasions. Contemporary punta, including Belizean punta rock, arose in the last thirty years of the twentieth century in Belize, Honduras and Guatemala. It also has a following in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Southern Mexico...
, the local genre of the Garifunas, to Caribbean music like Salsa
Salsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
, Merengue
Merengue music
Merengue is a type of music and dance from the Dominican Republic. It is popular in the Dominican Republic and all over Latin America. Its name is Spanish, taken from the name of the meringue, a dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar...
, Reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, and Reggaeton
Reggaeton
Reggaeton is a form of Puerto Rican and Latin American urban and Caribbean music. After its mainstream exposure in 2004, it spread to North American, European and Asian audiences. Reggaeton originated in Puerto Rico but is also has roots from Reggae en Español from Panama and Puerto Rico and...
all widely heard especially in the North, to Mexican rancheras heard in the interior, rural part of the country. The country's ancient capital of Comayagua is an important center for modern Honduran music, and is home to the College for Fine Arts.
Mexico
MexicoMexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
is perhaps one of the most diverse countries in the world when it comes to music. Each of its 31 States and its capital city (and its Burroughs) claim unique styles of music. The most representative is the Mariachi serenade music. Although commonly portrayed as music wanderers play, it is extremely technical and purist mariachi music follows very strict rules. Most of its music is sang with verses and prose of complex poetry. Other regional music includes:
Son Jarocho or Mexican mambo, Mexican pop
Mexican pop music
The type of Pop music produced in Mexico is called Mexican pop, is a music genre particularly intended for teenagers and young adults.Mexico is the country that exports the most entertainment in Spanish language...
, Ranchera
Ranchera
Ranchera is a genre of the traditional music of Mexico originally sung by only one performer with a guitar. It dates to the years of the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century. It later became closely associated with the mariachi groups which evolved in Jalisco. Ranchera today is also played...
s which differs from Mariachi music as it is less technical and its lyrics are not sang in prose - form of Mexican country music, Bolero
Bolero
Bolero is a form of slow-tempo Latin music and its associated dance and song. There are Spanish and Cuban forms which are both significant and which have separate origins.The term is also used for some art music...
s, etc.
Another popular style called or Norteña
Norteño (music)
Norteño , also norteña or conjunto, is a genre of Mexican music. The accordion and the bajo sexto are norteño's most characteristic instruments. The norteño genre is popular in both Mexico and the United States, especially among the Mexican community...
mainly played in the Northeastern part of the country it assimilates Mexican Ranchera with Colombian cumbia and is usually played with Bavarian accordions and it is very similar to Tex-Mex music. Many other versions exist such as Mexican Spanish rock, Duranguense, Veracruzan Danzon, Trio, Cha Cha Cha, Sinaloan Tambora, etc. Cuba usually disputes ownership of mambo music, but notably one of its major composers was Perez Prado, a Mexican. The Mexican mambo however is highly technical and its use of metal is less aggressive than its Caribbean counterpart, some opine the Mexican mambo is more refined.
Nicaragua
The most popular style of music in Central America NicaraguaNicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
is Palo de Mayo
Palo de Mayo
Palo de Mayo is a type of Afro-Caribbean dance with sensual movements that forms part of the culture of several communities in the RAAS region in Nicaragua, as well as Belize, the Bay Islands of Honduras and Bocas del Toro in Panama. It is also the name given to the month long May Day festival...
which is a dance and genre of music, as well as a festival in which the dance and music originated. Other popular music includes marimba
Marimba
The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
, punta, Garifuna music
Garifuna music
Garifuna music is quite different from the music of the rest of Central America. The most famous form is punta. Its associated musical style, which has the dancers move their hips from right to left in a circular motion...
, son nica, folk music, merengue, bachata, and salsa.
Panama
The popular style of music in PanamaPanama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
is Spanish reggae. Spanish reggae is a style of music that originated here in 1977 and continues to the present, even though reggaeton enventually was created in Puerto Rico and it has strong Puerto Rican
Music of Puerto Rico
The music of Puerto Rico has been influenced by the Spanish, African, Taíno Indians, France, and the United States, and has become very popular across the Caribbean and across the globe...
influences such as the island's bomba
Bomba
Bomba is one of the traditional musical styles of Puerto Rico. it is a largely African-derived music. The rhythm and beat are played by a set of floor drums, cuá and a maraca. Dance is an integral part of the music: the dancers move their bodies to every beat of the drum, making bomba a very...
and plena
Plena
Plena is a folkloric genre native to Puerto Rico. Its creation was influenced by African and Spanish music.-History:The music is generally folkloric. The music's beat and rhythm are usually played using hand drums called panderetas, but also known as panderos or pleneras. The music is accompanied...
soca. Salsa, bachata, and merengue can be heard as well throughout the nation. Other Hispanic and Latino styles can be heard as well as can Caribbean, Salsa and West Indian music.
Paraguay
Polka Paraguaya, which adopted the name from a European beat, is the most typical type of music and has relatively different versions including the Galopa, the Krye’ÿ and the Canción Paraguaya, or Paraguayan Song. The first two are faster and more upbeat than the standard polka, and the third, a slight bit slower and melancholic. Other popular styles include the Purahéi Jahe’o and the Compuesto, which generally tell sad, epic or love stories.The polka usually is based on poetic lyrics, but there are some emblematic pieces of Paraguayan music that exist, such as Pájaro Campana, or Songbird, by Félix Pérez Cardozo.
Guarania is the second best known Paraguayan music style and was created by the great musician José Asunción Flores in 1925.
Paraguayan music depends largely upon two instruments: the guitar and the harp, whose first copies were brought by the conquistadors and found their own style in the country.
Peru
PeruPeru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
vian music is made up of indigenous, Spanish, and West African influences. Coastal Afro-Peruvian
Afro-Peruvian
Afro Peruvians are citizens of Peru mostly descended from African slaves who were brought to the Western hemisphere with the arrival of the conquistadors towards the end of the slave trade.-Early history:...
music is characterized by the use of the Cajón peruano
Cajón
A cajón is a box-shaped percussion instrument originally from Peru, played by slapping the front face with the hands.-Origins and evolution:...
. Amerindian
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
music varies according to region and ethnicity. The most well known Amerindian
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
style is the huayño
Huayno
Huayno is a genre of popular Andean Music and dance from Andean countries. It is especially common in Peru. It originated in Serrania, Peru as a combination of traditional rural folk music and popular urban dance music...
, also popular in Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
, played on instruments such as the charango
Charango
The charango is a small Andean stringed instrument of the lute family, 66 cm long, traditionally made with the shell of the back of an armadillo. Primarily played in traditional Andean music, and is sometimes used by other Latin American musicians. Many contemporary charangos are now made with...
and guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
. Mestizo music is varied and within it we find as most popular valses and marinera
Marinera
Marinera is a coastal dance of Peru, generally called the "National Dance of Peru." Marinera is a graceful and romantic couple's dance that uses handkerchiefs as props. The dance is an elegant and stylized reenactment of a courtship, and it shows a blend of the different cultures of Peru...
from the northern coast.
Puerto Rico
Out of all of Puerto RicoPuerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
's musical exports, it is known for its version of salsa music
Salsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
as well as reggaeton
Reggaeton
Reggaeton is a form of Puerto Rican and Latin American urban and Caribbean music. After its mainstream exposure in 2004, it spread to North American, European and Asian audiences. Reggaeton originated in Puerto Rico but is also has roots from Reggae en Español from Panama and Puerto Rico and...
. Bomba
Bomba
Bomba is one of the traditional musical styles of Puerto Rico. it is a largely African-derived music. The rhythm and beat are played by a set of floor drums, cuá and a maraca. Dance is an integral part of the music: the dancers move their bodies to every beat of the drum, making bomba a very...
and plena
Plena
Plena is a folkloric genre native to Puerto Rico. Its creation was influenced by African and Spanish music.-History:The music is generally folkloric. The music's beat and rhythm are usually played using hand drums called panderetas, but also known as panderos or pleneras. The music is accompanied...
have been popular in Puerto Rico for a long time, while reggaetón is a relatively recent invention. Reggaeton is a form of urban contemporary music, which often combine other Latin musical styles and Caribbean and West Indies music together such as reggae and soca and Spanish reggae, most commonly salsa music and merengue music and bachata. Now in current times in Puerto Rico it has a genre known as Malianteo
Malianteo
-Background:Malianteo is a sub-genre of Reggaeton. It is a fusion of Reggaeton, rap, hip hop and rapcore. Its lyrics tend to deal with violence, drugs, street wars, gangs, etc...
which is blend Rap, Regaeton, and Rap Core version
Venezuela
Llanera is Venezuelan popular music originated in the "llanos" plains, although you will find the more upbeat and festive Gaita beat in the western area, specifically in Zulia State. There is also African influenced styles which emphasize drumming and dance and such diverse styles as music from the Guayana region influenced by the neighboring English speaking countries as well as andean music from Mérida.Uruguay
UruguayUruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
has similar roots to Argentina. Uruguayan tango
Uruguayan tango
Uruguayan tango is a form of dance that originated in the neighborhoods of Montevideo, Uruguay towards the beginnings of the 20th century a few years later than Argentine tango...
and milonga
Milonga
Milonga can refer to an Argentine, Uruguayan, and Southern Brazilian form of music which preceded the tango and the dance form which accompanies it, or to the term for places or events where the tango or Milonga are danced...
are both very popular styles. Plus, their folk music from along the River Plate
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
is indistinguishable from its Argentine counterpart. Uruguay rock and cancion popular, essentially their versions of rock and pop music, are currently the most popular local forms. Candombe
Candombe
Candombe is a musical genre that has its roots in the African Bantu, and is proper of Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil .Uruguayan Candombe is the most practiced and spread internationally and has been recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity...
, a style of drumming descending from African slaves in the area, is one of the few things that can be deemed quintessentially Uruguayan, although it does also occur to a lesser-extent in Argentina. It is most popular in Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
but can be found in a number of other internal cities too.
Salsa
Based on Cuban music (especially Cuban son and son montunoSon montuno
The son montuno is a style of the Cuban son, but exactly what it means is not an easy question to answer. The son itself is the most important genre of Cuban popular music. In addition, it is perhaps the most flexible of all forms of Latin-American music...
) in rhythm, tempo, baseline, riffs and instrumentation, Salsa represents an amalgamation of musical styles, including rock, jazz, and other Latin American musical traditions including Puerto Rico. Modern salsa as it became known worldwide was forged in the pan-Latin melting pot
Melting pot
The melting pot is a metaphor for a heterogeneous society becoming more homogeneous, the different elements "melting together" into a harmonious whole with a common culture...
of New York City in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Tejano music
Tejano musicTejano music
Tejano music or Tex-Mex music is the name given to various forms of folk and popular music originating among the Mexican-American populations of Central and Southern Texas...
can be categorized as a blend of country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, and R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
born in Texas and performed in both Spanish and English with a variety of cultural influences.
Most Tejano
Tejano
Tejano or Texano is a term used to identify a Texan of Mexican heritage.Historically, the Spanish term Tejano has been used to identify different groups of people...
s today reside in South Texas
South Texas
South Texas is a region of the U.S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of and including San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande River, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico. The population of this region is about 3.7 million. The southern portion of this region is...
and have their own unique form of folk and popular music, greatly influenced by yet quite distinctive from both traditional genres of Mexican music
Traditional genres of Mexican music
Traditional Mexican music differs from contemporary Mexican music in that it is much older and uses more conservative instruments.-Classification:There is a classification by*type of ensemble...
and mainstream genres of American music
Music of the United States
The music of the United States reflects the country's multi-ethnic population through a diverse array of styles. Among the country's most internationally-renowned genres are hip hop, blues, country, rhythm and blues, jazz, barbershop, pop, techno, and rock and roll. The United States has the...
. Latina Superstar Selena
Selena
Selena Quintanilla-Pérez , known simply as Selena, was a Mexican American singer-songwriter. She was named the "top Latin artist of the '90s" and "Best selling Latin artist of the decade" by Billboard for her fourteen top-ten singles in the Top Latin Songs chart, including seven number-one hits...
brought Tejano music to the mainstream and is credited frequently for bringing it to the top.
Reggaetón
ReggaetonReggaeton
Reggaeton is a form of Puerto Rican and Latin American urban and Caribbean music. After its mainstream exposure in 2004, it spread to North American, European and Asian audiences. Reggaeton originated in Puerto Rico but is also has roots from Reggae en Español from Panama and Puerto Rico and...
has become an Latin American phenomenon and is no longer classifiable merely as a Panamanian or even Puerto Rican genre. It blends Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
n musical influences of reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
and dancehall
Dancehall
Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably,...
and Trinidadian
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
soca
Soca music
Soca is a style of music from Trinidad and Tobago. Soca is a musical development of traditional Trinidadian calypso, through loans from the 1960s onwards from predominantly black popular music....
with Latin American music, such as the Puerto Rican bomba
Bomba
Bomba is one of the traditional musical styles of Puerto Rico. it is a largely African-derived music. The rhythm and beat are played by a set of floor drums, cuá and a maraca. Dance is an integral part of the music: the dancers move their bodies to every beat of the drum, making bomba a very...
and plena
Plena
Plena is a folkloric genre native to Puerto Rico. Its creation was influenced by African and Spanish music.-History:The music is generally folkloric. The music's beat and rhythm are usually played using hand drums called panderetas, but also known as panderos or pleneras. The music is accompanied...
, as well as that of American hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
and rap. The music is also combined with rapping (generally) in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
.
Latin Ballad
The Latin or romantic ballad is a latin music genres that originated in the 60s. This kind of ballad is very popular in Latin America and Spain and is characterized by a very sensitive musical rhythm. Descendant of the boleroBolero
Bolero is a form of slow-tempo Latin music and its associated dance and song. There are Spanish and Cuban forms which are both significant and which have separate origins.The term is also used for some art music...
, it have Several variants, such as salsa
Salsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
and cumbia
Cumbia
Cumbia is a music genre popular across Latin America. The cumbia originated in the Caribbean coast of Colombia, where it is associated with an eponymous dance and has since spread as far as Mexico and Argentina...
romantic between others. In the second half of the twentieth and in twenty-first century a number of artists have popularized the genre such as Julio Iglesias
Julio Iglesias
Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva , better known simply as Julio Iglesias, is a Spanish singer who has sold over 300 million records worldwide in 14 languages and released 77 albums. According to Sony Music Entertainment, he is one of the top 15 best selling music artists in history,...
, Luis Miguel
Luis Miguel
Luis Miguel Gallego Basteri is a Mexican singer. He is widely known only by the name Luis Miguel and is often referred to as "El Sol de México"...
and Christian Castro.
Imported styles
Imported styles of popular music with a distinctively Latin style include Latin jazzLatin jazz
Latin jazz is the general term given to jazz with Latin American rhythms.The three main categories of Latin Jazz are Brazilian, Cuban and Puerto Rican:# Brazilian Latin Jazz includes bossa nova...
, Argentine rock
Argentine rock
Argentine rock , is composed or made by Argentine bands or artists, in the Spanish language. For nearly half a century it has been a major popular genre, and it is considered part of the popular music tradition of Argentina alongside Argentine Tango, and Argentine folk music.The moment when...
and Chilean rock
Chilean rock
Chilean rock music comes from many decades of evolving musical styles, many of the later conceived artists in the 80's and 90's are highly influenced by artists such as folk musicians Victor Jara and Violeta Parra...
, and Cuban
Cuban hip hop
Hip hop music arrived in Cuba via radio and TV broadcasts from Miami. During the 1980s hip hop culture in Cuba was mainly centred around breakdancing...
and Mexican hip hop, all based on styles from the United States (jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
and hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
). Music from non-Latin parts of the Caribbean are also popular, especially Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
n reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
and dub
Dub music
Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...
, Trinidadian
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
calypso music
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
and Soca
Soca music
Soca is a style of music from Trinidad and Tobago. Soca is a musical development of traditional Trinidadian calypso, through loans from the 1960s onwards from predominantly black popular music....
. See also Spanish Tinge
Spanish Tinge
The phrase Spanish Tinge is a reference to the belief that a Latin American touch offers a reliable method of spicing the more conventional 4/4 rhythms commonly used in jazz and pop music. The phrase is a quotation from Jelly Roll Morton...
. Flamenco
Flamenco
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
, rumba
Rumba
Rumba is a family of percussive rhythms, song and dance that originated in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves and Spanish colonizers. The name derives from the Cuban Spanish word rumbo which means "party" or "spree". It is secular, with no...
and pasodoble
Pasodoble
Pasodoble is a typical dance from Spain march-like musical style as well as the corresponding dance style danced by a couple. It is the type of music typically played in bullfights during the bullfighters' entrance to the ring or during the passes just before the kill...
from Spain is popular in some segments due to the Spanish heritage of Latin-America.
External links
- Latin American Music on the Open Directory Project
- Greatest Latin Contemporary Albums of AllTime
- South American Music and Culture Magazine
Further reading
- Blackburn, Manuella. “Electroacoustic Music Incorporating Latin American Influences: A consideration of implications, reception and borrowing.” eContact! 12.4 — Perspectives on the Electroacoustic Work / Perspectives sur l’œuvre électroacoustique (August 2010). Montréal: CECCanadian Electroacoustic CommunityFounded in 1986, La Communauté électroacoustique canadienne / The Canadian Electroacoustic Community is Canada’s national electroacoustic / computer music / sonic arts organization and as such is dedicated to promoting this progressive art form in its broadest definition: from “pure” acousmatic...
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