Salsa, tango, and bachata have very different historic backgrounds, but come from the same culture. Latin music is popular for various genres in Latin America, mainly in Cuba, and is unique for the type of rhythmic structure it builds. The music is so alive that is pulls at the feet and hips of dancers, driving them to the dance floor. When dancing to the music their hips sway in time, and their feet mark the beat. If people did not grow up with this type of music, its complex rhythms can be intimidating.
Salsa is a word that inspires Latin music lovers everywhere. The reason why it’s called salsa is because it’s “hot” and “spicy”. The salsa that is eaten in Latin America is added to spice up food, but DJ’s, bandleaders, and musicians started yelling “salsa!” when introducing an energetic musical act. There are debates about where the birth place of salsa is. Some say it is from Cuba because of the traditional Afro-Cuban rhythms; some say that it is from New York, New York because of all the traveling Latin musicians do. A Latin musician summed up their general feelings when asked about the thought of salsa by replying: “I’m a musician, not a cook.” (Tito Puente) There are musicians from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and South America going to New York to perform. Bringing their own native rhythms and musical forms with them, but as they listened to each other and played music together, the musical influences mixed, fused, and evolved. The music went back to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and South America and evolved there. It evolved a little differently in each place, so that today we have Cuban salsa, Puerto Rican salsa, and Columbian salsa. All different kinds of salsa are driving, electric energy that is the main sound of salsa, but also have d...
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...Latin music has produced a variety of genres in Latin America. It includes the music of all the countries in Latin America. There are many diverse styles, one of which is Afro-American, meaning African and indigenous music fused. Latin music also absorbed influences from English and American music. The music is so intense and energetic a dancers’ body could not help, but step on the dance floor and dance the night away.
Works Cited
History of salsa." Musica Latina-The portal of Latin Music, Reviews, Information, Concerts, Festivals, Workshops. 11 July 2009. 9 Oct. 2009
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"Dances-history of bachata dance-bachata music." Learn to dance with DanceCrazy, the definitive collection of dance videos. Learn Ballroom dancing, learn Salsa dancing, and any other Latin dance. 9 Oct. 2009 .
Latin Jazz is a style of music that blends rhythms and percussion instruments of Cuba and the Caribbean with jazz and its fusion of European and African music. Latin jazz, also called Afro-Cuban jazz, was the culmination of the long interaction between American and Cuban musical styles. A distinctive syncopated rhythm and the Cuban habanera rhythm were endowed to American jazz music in the early 20th century. In the following decades, Latin American melodies and dance rhythms permeated the United States, while American jazz made its way into the Caribbean and Central and South America. In the 1940's the swing era expanded their repertory to include rumbas and congas. The d...
Bachata is a creolized music, meaning that there is both European and African influence. It is also a descendent of a few different Dominican Republic and Cuban forms of music – primarily son, but also merengue and ranchera. Son is music of the African diaspora, commonly involved in debates of African retention. Elements of African music, such as call-and-response and preference for polyrhythm survived the middle passage and are deeply rooted in Caribbean tradition. Stringed instruments are believed to have been part of the European influence on the area, as well as harmonic patterns, as well as verse-chorus structure and prominent duple meter. Modern groups consist of two electric acoustic guitars, an electric bass guitar, a guira (A Dominican Republic percussion instrument), and bongos (Hutchinson). Bachata is thought to have originated in the rural areas, being the music of choice at rural friendly gatherings, similar to son’s roots. Bachata then migrated to the cities with the impoverished as they looked for work. With this move the music transformed into something entirely different from its romantic, seren...
Morales, Ed. The Latin Beat: The Rhythms and Roots of Latin Music from Bossa Nova to Salsa and Beyond. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo, 2003. Print.
Ruiz, R. Mariachi – An Evolving Mexican Tradition. La Prensa. San Antonio: Dec 1, 2002. Vol. XIV, Iss. 22; pg. 8B.
Music and dance are important parts of Peruvian culture. “Andean Folk Music is common in Peru. People perform a stylized dance to energetic music mixed with sad songs. Popular instruments include clay panpipes, flutes, conch shell trumpets, and puma-skin drums”(Falconer, Kieran, and Quek 102). The music follows themes of religion, war, and profanity. Peruvians are always found dancing, whether at a festival, carnival, or just for fun. Music shows important parts of Peruvian culture.
As stated earlier, there is no one creator of salsa, but the genre includes traditional elements of its cultural influences. Additionally, different cultures will play salsa in a particular way that is unique to their country: “. . . each African nation re-traditionalised the salsa sound along its own ethnic lines” (Román-Velasquez: 218). Despite these traditional elements, salsa can also be marketed as popular music. For example, there is a large market for salsa and Latin music in Europe (Román-Velasquez: 216). The music is also used to promote Latin themed businesses: “. . . salsa music has become popular along with Latin food and themed bars and there has been a growth of commercially run clubs, bars and restaurants” (Román-Velasquez: 217). The popularity and party culture associated with salsa, streaming from clubs and dancing, allowed promoters to easily commercialize the
All around the world, there are thousands of cultures. Although they are different, every culture partakes in dance. Dancing is something known worldwide. Every culture has traditional cultural dancing they partake in. Mexico has many cultural dances. La danza del venado is one traditional dance from Northern Mexico. La danza del venado, is known as the deer dance.
Since its humble beginnings, salsa has been quickly becoming a global sensation. At the beginning, Salsa was not the most popular genre of music because there were many other dominant genres in Latin America that shadowed salsa. As time progressed and multiple talented artists refined the music, it began gaining recognition by the world. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the evolution of salsa from its beginning.
The Latin Americans never wanted to be left in this music development. The Latin Americans had their own music, Jazz (Gordon, 2005). They wanted to influence in the development of the music. Soon, Salsa was born out if mixture from the Jazz music and Mambo. Salsa took the bodily movements and the Cuban beats as a contribution from the Caribbean culture. The Latin America contributed the wording of Salsa music. Diversity necessitated the growth of Salsa as Mambo had been viewed with suspicion as it was linked to ghetto status hence it was
Hispanic culture is used to name the Spanish-speaking, Latin American countries. It also refers to the beliefs, values, norms, language, arts, practices, history, etc. of those countries. Some countries such as Brazil and Haiti are also considered part of Latin America, even though Spanish is not their primary language.
During the course of this semester, the several musical styles that have been discussed and analyzed have displayed various similarities and differences. These differences in certain musical elements have accounted for the distinctiveness and uniqueness of each style of music. The culture behind these countries’ music adds even more to their individualism. Cultural aspects such as religion play a huge role in the music of each country as well. Styles of music in Africa might be more upbeat than certain styles in India, for example. Some cultures use music in religion, while others may not. Aspects such as dance are important factors in all three types of music. Despite the differences and similarities, however, without music, these cultures would perhaps not be as fascinating and unique as they are now.
If one were to look back into the world’s history, one would find that an important and consistent element is the world of music. Music has presented itself in various forms throughout its spread and through our identification of its magical realm, people have been fortunate enough to come across a means of relation. Whether it is blues and reggae or rap and pop rock, there is music out there for everyone. Music can serve as a stabilizer for some, a relaxant to others, and to many a form of inspiration.
Stone, A. (2008, January 1). History and Evolution of Rhythm and Blues. . Retrieved May 28, 2014, from http://www.last.fm/user/Alex_Stone91/journal/2008/03/03/b87fp_the_history_and_evolution_of_rhythm_and_blues_
According to his review of A Guide to Latin American Music by Gilbert Chase, Charles Seeger describes Chase’s description of the music culture, “The quantitative distribution of more than 2700 entries, which include some multiple listing, is interesting” (Seeger, 1946, 304). Chase explains a plethora of countries in Latin America and their specific musical features. Furthermore, thanks to his detailed work, the reader can see how many common features can be seen. Firstly, a common feature among all genres is the use of aerophones. The aerophones used could include, panpipes of various varieties, flutes, trumpets (as seen at the Boogat performance in Ottawa) and many more. Another common feature among all the genres is a strong rhythmic presence. In essentially all Latin American music, a steady, metrical rhythmic quality can be heard keeping the music energetic and easy to follow. To keep the rhythm, another common feature to Latin American culture is the drum. Most commonly found in the Afro-Latin genre, as a result of influence from African culture, can be seen throughout Latin America. A popularized western form of this type of music, is that of mariachi. Finally, Latin American culture is known for its vibrancy in their music. The music is generally quite expressive of feelings, strong moral messages found in protest songs, and their colorful, elaborate
Music is a form of communication, letting others knows what is going on in the country, political, social or economic and any other problems the people of the Caribbean faced. With so many different ethnic backgrounds in the Caribbean, they are people with Asians, Indians, and Africans descents. This created a language and culture barrier but each ethnic background shared a common link music. Music bridged the gap between the different ethnicities Music is part of everyone’s culture especially here in the Caribbean. Our culture is recognized worldwide for its music. The Caribbean has different genres of music such as calypso, reggae, dance hall, zouk and many others. Our music has roots in both African and European cultures. The drum rhythm comes from the African in...