Search results
Latin American music, musical traditions of Mexico, Central America, and the portions of South America and the Caribbean colonized by the Spanish and the Portuguese. These traditions reflect the distinctive mixtures of Native American, African, and European influences that have shifted throughout.
- Gerard Béhague
Due to its highly syncretic nature, Latin American music encompasses a wide variety of styles, including influential genres such as cumbia, bachata, bossa nova, merengue, rumba, salsa, samba, son, and tango.
Jun 26, 2021 · Latin America – stretching from Mexico down to Chile’s southernmost tip – is home to an abundance of distinct landscapes, cultures, languages and people, making it one of the most musically diverse regions of the world and the source of some of the most celebrated musical treasures in human history.
- Salsa. ‘Salsa’ originated in Cuba and has its roots in Afro-Cuban music. It features a syncopated rhythm section that follows a ‘call and response’ structure.
- Merengue. ‘Merengue’ originated in the Dominican Republic in the 1800s. The earliest form incorporated European instruments such as the guitar, which were eventually replaced with the accordion and the ‘Tambora’, a traditional drum.
- Tango. Like many other genres of Latin music, dance is an integral part and the music is often played to facilitate it. Similarly, in Tango, the beat is on a 2/4 or 4/4 pattern, and instruments such as the guitar, piano, flute, trumpet, and double bass are used to create an accompanying melody.
- Reggaeton. Even those who may not have extensively heard Latin music, are probably familiar with this genre of music that originated in Panama in the 1980s and spread to Puerto Rico, before gaining popularity in the mainland US.
Is there something we could call Latin American music? And if there is, does this mean there is also something we might call Latin American identity? In this three-episode documentary, we explore the history behind some songs, dances, and instruments from this region.
Sep 13, 2022 · Most of what is known as Latin music comes from the melding of cultures that took place during the Spanish and Portuguese colonization of the Americas.
Dec 1, 2021 · As a cultural category, Latin America emerged in the 1930s in direct relation to music, an issue Palomino elegantly demonstrates through the analysis of four case studies framed mostly between the 1900s and 1920s, which had little or nothing in common with one another.
