Latin America on Music Theory Print

Afoxê

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Afoxé in Afro-Brazilian Carnival#

The annual Carnival that takes place in several cities of Brazil is considered the country’s largest public festival. Specifically, Carnival in Bahia Salvador is the birthplace of several groups from the Afro-Brazilian tradition, afoxé, which relates to Afro-Brazilian Carnival traditions linked to the Candomblé religion. The term “Afro” is utilised with reference to a phenomenon originating in Africa but developed in Brazil. Rather than celebrating the sacred Candomblé religion privately, the afoxé Carnival traditions are a public affirmation of the religion, which is openly displayed on the streets in a Carnival context. Carnival plays a fundamental role in defining black identities in the context of the larger society. In Brazil, Carnival is a moment when the racial heritage of Brazil as well as its hybrid cultural traditions is continually presented.

Afro-Brazilian music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Musicians#

There are many artists that influenced the Afro-Brazilian music and culture. Gilberto Gil is one of the most well-known Afro-Brazilian artists, not only because of his award-winning music, but also because of his political activism. In his career, he won two Grammys in the Best World Music Album category and received seven Grammy nominations. Other popular artists and groups include Pixinguinha, Abigail Moura, Nei Lopes, Agnaldo Timóteo, Racionais MC’s and many more. These artists play many different genres including, but not limited to, samba, rap, jazz, rock, funk, reggae, and disco. Afro-Brazilian music was influenced by African instruments, rhythms, cultures, and beliefs that are still present in the day-to-day culture of Brazil.

Afro-Peruvian music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Instruments#

Música Criolla includes Spanish-influenced guitar sounds and percussion instruments. Different instruments have been used throughout the evolution of Afro-Peruvian music, demonstrating the blending of Indigenous Andean, European, and African influences and cultures over time, making the genre a combination of musical structures and instruments that changed over time due to different adaptations. Some instruments include the following: * Gourds: Large gourds were dried and hollowed out to make different percussion instruments, such as the checo and different kinds of shakers that were typically filled with either seeds, pebbles, or beans to add texture and support rhythms made by the cajón. Before the creation of the cajón, gourds were used to create different rhythmic foundations during colonial times when Spanish authorities banned the use of traditional instruments. * Quijada: A dried jawbone from either a donkey, horse, mule, or cattle which is struck with a stick to produce a rattling sound from its loosened teeth. * Cajón: A large wooden box, built with coastal woods, that would be sat on and hit with the hand to create rhythmic beats. The cajón was made using local Indigenous wood techniques that were similar to the ones used to create ceremonial boxes. * Cajita: A small wooden box with a lid, stick, and a string attached to its side to be worn, a reflection on various Indigenous ceremonial boxes. To create complex beats, the lid would be opened and closed while being hit with the stick simultaneously. * Claves: Two wooden sticks that would be hit together to create a tempo. * Quena: A traditional Andean flute made from bamboo or llama bone with six holes.

Aguinaldo (music)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Venezuelan aguinaldo#

In Venezuela, aguinaldo is a genre of Christmas music and generally have six verses. It is played by “parranderos” or “aguinalderos” that announce their arrival in song and seek to gain entry to the community houses to relate the story of the birth of Christ, and to share in the joy of the message of Peace on Earth and to all People of Good Will. Aguinaldos are played with typical instruments such as the cuatro (a small, four-string guitar), furruco, and maracas. Other instruments often used are violin, guitar, tambourine, mandolin, bandol, caja (a percussive box instrument), and marímbula (an Afro-Venezuelan instrument). In exchange for the entertainment, “parranderos” are traditionally given food and drink: hallacas, panettone, rum and “Ponche Crema” (a form of alcoholic eggnog). Aguinaldos are also played at Christmas church celebrations. The composer Vicente Emilio Sojo compiled and harmonized more than 100 anonimous agunaldos and other folk songs, achieving a significant preservation of the country’s musical traditions.

Andean music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Instruments#

The panpipes group include the sikú (or zampoña) and Antara. These are ancient indigenous instruments that vary in size, tuning, and style. Instruments in this group are constructed from aquatic reeds found in many lakes in the Andean region of South America. The sikú has two rows of canes and are tuned in either pentatonic or diatonic scales. Some modern single-row panpipes modeled after the native antara are capable of playing full scales, while traditional sikús are played using two rows of canes wrapped together. It is still commonplace for two performers to share a melody while playing the larger style of sikú called the toyo. This style of voicing with notes interspersed between two musicians is called playing in hocket and is still in use today in many of the huaynos traditional songs and contemporary Andean music. Quenas (notched-end flutes) remain popular and are traditionally made out of the same aquatic canes as the sikús, although PVC pipe is sometimes used due to its resistance to heat, cold and humidity. Generally, quenas are played only during the dry season, while vertical flutes, either pinkillos or tarkas, are played during the wet season. Tarkas are constructed from local Andean hardwood sources. Marching bands dominated by drums and panpipes are commonplace today and are used to celebrate weddings, carnivals and other holidays.

Argentine cumbia

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

In the 1990s, cumbia first found a place among the working classes, who attended large dancing halls called bailantas, often to listen and watch live concerts by cumbia groups. Some bands, most notably Ráfaga, chose a glamorous style with theatrically presented messages about romantic love and sensuality, hope and despair. Others took to more explicit themes, such as sex, alcoholism, and the cumbia subculture itself, often in a very light, irreverent style, sometimes intentionally humorous. The rhythm and themes of cumbia then spread to the whole of society, as its romantic and humorous manifestations were adopted to lighten up parties and other social events. Around the beginning of the 2000s, probably influenced by the 1998–2002 Argentine great depression, romantic cumbia drifted slowly away from the spotlight, while the rest of the bands slowly gave way to the much more aggressive cumbia villera (“shantytown cumbia”) -with lyrics that explored the themes of crime and drug abuse-, which was from the start mostly restricted to the urban lower classes. Key albums of the early cumbia villera include La vanda más loca (1999) by Flor de Piedra, Cumbia villera (2000) by Yerba Brava, Ritmo sustancia (2000) by Mala Fama, Para los pibes (2000) by Damas Gratis and Arriba las manos (2001) by Pibes Chorros. Over 25 years of history, cumbia in Argentina was heavily influenced by other Argentine folkloric kinds of music, like chamamé, guaracha, and cuarteto. Cumbia songs tell stories about love and experiences of common people. Cumbia in Argentina also has different styles depending on the country region, like norteña, santafesina, cordobesa, sonidera, and other more recent styles like cumbia-rap and cumbia villera. In the present, cumbia bands play electric guitars, bass guitars, electronic percussion and synthesizers, all common instruments of rock bands, and there are also other instruments like bongos, trumpets, accordions, etc.. The clothing is also a very important characteristic of cumbia bands. Each band has its own way of dressing, usually all members of the band wear the same special costume or exclusive clothes. In the late 2000s a new brand of cumbia that could be defined as Argentine cumbia became popular in some clubs in Buenos Aires, most notably Zizek Club, led by artists such as El Remolón, Fauna, Chancha via Circuito and Tremor. These artists, who focused on electronic productions featuring the cumbia rhythm, began releasing records largely on the ZZK Records imprint and achieved some international exposure, with their style of music being labelled as digital cumbia.

Argentine heavy metal

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The Argentine Rock of the late 1970s included bands such as Pappo’s Blues, El Reloj, Vox Dei, Billy Bond y La Pesada del Rock and Roll, and Pescado Rabioso. The fans of those bands would eventually create the first heavy metal bands. There was no specialized press at the time, and bands and concerts were scarce. Pappo, who was already a famous musician and had been in Europe for some time, created a band influenced by the new wave of British heavy metal, Riff. V8, a relatively lesser-known band, mixed heavy metal and punk rock, and gained attention during an incident at the “Buenos Aires Rock” concert. The end of the national reorganization process in 1983 allowed an increased activity. Metal was the first heavy metal magazine in Argentina, published in 1983, and “Cuero Pesado” () the first radio program. Many bands, like V8, could release their first full-length albums. However, activity decreased a short time later. Riff broke up when a concert at the Ferrocarril Oeste stadium ended with widespread vandalism, and V8 tried to emigrate to Brazil. Riff returned in 1985, and V8 returned as well with a new lineup. The international success of Glam metal increased the interest in heavy metal music as well. A new magazine, Riff Raff, appeared and the discos Halley and Cemento became important venues for concerts. The activity decreased again in 1989, during a national economic crisis caused by an hyperinflation. Glam metal itself never caught on in Argentina, but some hard rock bands used the glam visual style, such as Alakran, Kamikaze and Escocia. The most successful of those bands was Rata Blanca, who made a concert at the José Amalfitani Stadium, the highest attended concert of an Argentine heavy metal band to date. Those bands appeared in Argentina in the late eighties and the initial nineties, some years after the international boom of glam metal; and so did the first thrash metal bands as well. Some of those bands were Horcas, Lethal and Nepal; the most popular one was Hermética, led by ex-V8 bass player Ricardo Iorio. The Argentine Currency Board established in 1991 eased the imports of foreign albums and the tours of international bands. As of 1995, the popularity of Rata Blanca had declined, and Hermética broke up, with their members starting the rival bands Almafuerte (with Iorio) and Malón (the rest of the band). A.N.I.M.A.L. was popular among the fans of 1990s heavy metal, and they defended their homage to their country. Horcas increased their popularity with singer Walter Meza. The number of thrash metal bands declined, and the number of power metal bands increased; with Imperio being the most popular in the genre. Malón broke up years later, and Almafuerte regained and increased the popularity of Hermética. The genre had a huge drawback in the early 2000s, first with the 2001 economic crisis, which forced many small bands to break up. The República Cromañón nightclub fire forced most nightclubs to increase their security; most of them had to close and the remaining ones became too expensive for heavy metal bands. The genre had a slow recovery since then. As of 2014, the most popular bands are Rata Blanca and Almafuerte.

Argentine rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins in the mid-1950s#

Rock and roll first began to appear in Argentina in 1955 after the genre was created in the United States in 1954–1955, based largely on rhythm and blues and country and western. On December 5, 1955, the first recorded rock song in Argentina was made. It was a version of “Rock Around the Clock” performed by trumpeter Roger Santander’s jazz orchestra. Singer and trombonist Eddie Pequenino, a native of jazz (in the 1940s, while still a teenager, he formed the band Jazz Los Colegiales with Ricardo Romero) and R&B (in the early 1950s, he had formed Eddie Parker and his Rhythm Band), was the first, in 1956, to sing rock and roll with Lalo Schiffrin’s orchestra. The Columbia record label approached him about launching a solo career, but he preferred to hide his identity, forming the first rock band in Argentina to release albums: Mr. Roll y sus Rocks, with Arturo Schneider on tenor saxophone, Jaime Rodríguez Anido (aka Ike) on lead electric guitar, Héctor Rea on rhythm guitar, Domingo Malagreca on double bass, and Jorge Padín on drums. Their first recording was released on December 7, 1956, in January 1957, selling more than 27,000 copies. The band recorded several covers of Bill Haley and other rockers such as Bobby Freeman and Alan Dale, including “See You Later, Alligator,” “Mambo Rock,” “Rock,” “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” and “Rancho Rock,” with Bill Haley & His Comets being their greatest influence with their swing-oriented style. At first, the musicians hid their identity so the public would think they were an American band. But Pequenino finally revealed his identity on a live program on Radio El Mundo, where the alleged immorality of rock dancing was being debated. Following this revelation, Mr. Roll and his Rocks were hired to play on that station every Wednesday night, and then moved to Radio Splendid on Fridays at 8:30 p.m. The group’s success was such that their recordings of Bill Haley songs outsold the originals. That same year, Eddie Pequenino was the star of the first original Argentine rock song sung in Spanish, the aforementioned “Rock con leche,” a humorous song created in collaboration with Argentine comedian Délfor Dicásolo, Radio El Mundo’s musical arranger Santos Lipesker, comedy scriptwriter Aldo Cammarota, and music producer Ben Molar. Thanks to the success of the song, the film Venga a bailar el rock was shot, released on August 29, 1957, starring Mr. Roll y sus Rockers and actors Eber Lobato, Nélida Lobato, Alfredo Barbieri, Alberto Anchart Jr., and Pedrito Rico. The film included two of Pequenino’s own English compositions (“Despacio nena” and “Aquí viene el rock”), and a Spanish rock song titled after the film, created by Éber Lobato. In May 1958, Bill Haley visited Argentina with his band, performing at the Metropolitan Theater, and chose Mr. Roll y sus Rockers as the opening act. This was the genre’s most successful moment in Argentina, and it reignited the controversy surrounding rock music, when certain media outlets argued that young people were “going crazy” in movie theaters because of rock movies, sometimes causing damage, and raised their guard against the arrival of Bill Haley, saying that rock and roll was a foreign music. Meanwhile, Antena magazine published an issue featuring Bill Haley wearing a poncho and drinking mate, as a gesture of cultural reconciliation. The arrival of this new musical phenomenon and the formation of Mr. Roll y sus Rocks caught the attention of the Argentine record industry, which saw a segment of society that had previously been unexplored: teenagers and young adults. This would open up a new market for youth music bands and soloists. In 1958, following the success of Bill Haley & His Comets’ visit earlier that year, more rock and roll bands were formed, performing their own songs as well as compositions by groups from the United States. Several members of these musical groups included members who would later become popular pop singers of the so-called “new wave” in Argentina in the 1960s. Rock and roll radio programs also began to appear, such as those on Radio Libertad (now AM del Plata) and Radio El Mundo. Jazzlandia magazine had taken note of the explosion of rock and roll on the Argentine music scene and began publishing articles, lyrics, sheet music, and rock reviews, as well as publishing Estrellas magazine. Rodríguez Luque, the disc jockey for the program Música en el aire, created the Disc-Jockey label, which released emerging rock musicians. In April of that year, Loving You, the third film by Elvis Presley, was released, translated in the country under the title La mujer que yo adoro, It had a media promotion unlike the previous two releases, the result was a “boom” in Elvis’s aesthetics. The Paters was formed with singer Lalo Fransen (future member of El Club del Clan) who at the time called himself Danny Santos. Their two most popular singles were recordings of Marty Robbins’s “A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation)” and Elvis Presley’s “I Forgot to Remember to Forget”. Los Modern Rockers also appeared, and their member Luis Aguilé—who performed his own songs as Los Iracundos and covers of artists like Pat Boone—would also stand out years later, when he was signed to the Odeón label, and with his guitar and the support of Armando Patrono’s orchestra, recorded the bolero “Mirá qué luna”, but also one of the first rock songs originally created in Argentina, “La Balanza”. Accompanied by the Lucio Milena orchestra, the Spanish versions he recorded of Billy Cafaro, Paul Anka’s “Pity, pity and “Personalidad” were a considerable success. It is said from that time that “when Billy would sing on Radio El Mundo, located at Maipú 555, the lines of fans would reach two blocks and clog up the center of the capital. On more than one occasion he would arrive there aboard a helicopter that landed on the obelisk and he would be guarded on the way to the radio station as dozens of young women would try to jump on him, just as they did when he performed in a theater or club.” These hits were followed by several more, such as Marcianita, Bésame Pepita, and Viento, viento (these last two composed by Lucio Milena, at the request of Daniel Tinayre for the 1960 film “La Patota”), selling a million copies of their first long play, “Bésame Pepita”. However, when he performed a Spanish-language rendition of the German hit “Kriminal Tango”, it proved to be very unpopular among tango fans, who misinterpreted the song and considered it an offense to tango. Billy Cafaro suffered repeated attacks from tango fans, so he moved to Spain. A native of this country, Andy Maciá recorded his own songs in Spanish, such as “Rock del vaquero”, “Tú eres mi luna” and “Una motoneta” —the latter being an advertising jingle for Siam-Lambretta scooters, and possibly the first advertising jingle in Argentine history— aided by Horacio Malvicino’s orchestra, who at that time called himself Don Nobody. Later, when he turned to tango in Europe, he would adopt another pseudonym, Alain Debray. In July 1961, the multinational record company RCA hired a musician under the pseudonym Balder, who had appeared on the program Justa del Saber on Channel 7. A 45 RPM single was released with a rock song composed by Balder himself, “El rock del tom tom”, the first Argentine song that can be classified without a doubt within the genre rockabilly. Shortly after, his Spanish-language composition “Zapatos de pom pom” was also released. The artist was Alberto Felipe Soria, known as Johnny Tedesco. The album sold half a million copies in a very short time, also becoming a radio hit. Tedesco developed a style heavily influenced by Elvis Presley, a blend of rock, rockabilly, and country, and established himself as a Spanish-language performer of his own compositions and international rock hits. “Presumida,” “Un monto de amor,” “Preciso tu amor esta noche,” “Ocho días a la semana,” “Coqueta” (his own composition), and “La plaga” are some of his interpretations that helped consolidate the rock genre in Argentina. In August 1961, the multinational CBS, to counteract and contrast the success and the figure of Tedesco, promoted and edited its new artist Tony Vilar, who with his own songs in Spanish like the rockabilly “Rock de Fuego” and “Bailando”, or versions of the Dúo Dinámico like “Quince años tiene mi amor” or “Diablito” by Neil Sedaka. Tony represented the typical son of Italian immigrants of the youth of the moment. He was the first Argentine to interpret the so-called slow rock or slow ballads, and his most important piece in this genre was the slow rock in Spanish “Y los cielos lloraron” with Frank Ferrer and his group (pseudonym of Waldo de Los Ríos). Their second album was released in 1962, featuring the singles “Despeinada”, “Nada vale sin amor”, and “Acomplejada”. While its success was short-lived, it was quickly overshadowed by the dizzying emergence of Club del Clan. At that time, Los Pick Ups, Horacio Ascheri’s band, had emerged, recording their own songs like “Mi promesa” and “Es La Locura”. Radio Antártida, the name that Radio América had at that time, presented a rock and roll program all day long from beginning to end, which included in its schedule the programs A Window to Success with Antonio Barrios, La Discoteca de Juan José with Juan José May, La Whiskería de Johnny Carel and Círculo Musical with Héctor Larrea.

Arrocha

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

In 2004, arrocha began gaining ground in many radio stations in Bahia. Some artists have helped spread arrocha and are now nationally recognized: Júlio Nascimento, Tayrone Cigano, Nara Costta, Asas Livres, Pablo, Grupo Arrocha, Márcio Moreno, Nano do Arrocha, Silvanno Salles, Ciel Rodrigues, Nara Costa, and Tatal Matos, considered “Queen of Arrocha,”. The lyrics have much in common with Brega, with the addition of keyboard sounds and electronic beats, and the rhythm is very successful especially in the regions North and Northeast. The term “arrocha” is recent, but the music itself has existed since the mid-1970s, when admirers of Odair José, Reginaldo Rossi, Fernando Mendes and Waldick Soriano began to sing the songs of their idols in bars and nightclubs in suburban areas or inland in the country. After some years, although still remain strong, the pace was being forgotten by the media in general. In the late ’90s, the music business entrepreneurs realize their great popular appeal in a big profit opportunity, and from there came the first idol, since 2000, called Lairton, nicknamed “Lairton and their keyboards,” which became known with the song “Strawberry Northeast”. With the simplification of systems and manufacturing mix CDs, several smaller groups have emerged, which helped spread the “movement”. However, despite the success in the poorest, arrocha still faces a lot of prejudice among the middle class, which simply does not consider it a genre because of their compositions that constantly portray the love life problems. Many singers singing arrocha stood out, as Sandra Cristina, Grupo Belo Ser, Tayrone Cigano, Roberto Bessa, Nara Costa, Silvano Salles, Márcio Moreno, Asas Livres, Grupo Arrocha, Tatal Matos, Trem Xônado, Toque Novo, Latitude 10, Bonde do Maluco, Léo Magalhães, Ninjas do Arrocha, Kuarto de Empregada, Ardente Paixão, Saulo Calmon, Pablo a voz Romântica, Nano do Arrocha, Paula e a Mulherada, Trio da Huanna, among others. Today Arrocha is widely known and popular in Brazil thanks to the new sertanejo generation adding an arrocha style to the music known as Sertanejo Arrocha or Arrocha Universitário. In the late 2010s and early 2020s, arrocha spread to the United States when the Internet Bad Boys released several arrocha-inspired songs.

Avanzada Regia

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

In 1995, the group Zurdok Movimiento won the Battle of the Bands at the Rockotitlan music festival, becoming the first band not from Mexico City to win it, thus creating such expectations towards the city that the record labels began to move there to search for groups. La Ultima de Lucas, made up of young people all under twenty years old, but which had talented musicians in its lineup, was the first band from Monterrey to sign a record contract. The Hispanic American phenomenon of Control Machete was followed by, by way of a domino effect, more bands. Zurdok Movimiento (who started it all) were finally signed by Discos Manicomio, an imprint of PolyGram, as well as the rapcore group called La Flor de Lingo.

Axé

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Roots and history#

Numerous different African cultures were brought to Brazil due to slavery, which lead to the creation of the vibrancy and complexity of Brazil and its culture. Therefore, several of Brazil’s popular music styles have derived from African cultures and African diasporic influences, including samba, lambada, funk and axé. There is a tendency by Brazilian musicians to draw inspiration and utilize themes, imagery and symbolic symbols from the Candomblé religion and its African roots. Groups such as Timbalada, Olodum and Filhos de Gandhi also shared the heavy beats and rhythms with Ilê Aiyê, as well as utilizing African symbols such as typical outfits and instruments that all these bands use to perform. Olodum’s rehearsals soon became a starting point for up and coming artists, composers, and music. In these rehearsals, artists presented and experimented with their music, in search for legitimacy from the population. As axé has developed over time, all axé ensembles have had one thing in common: structure. Axé music ensembles usually consist of a lead singer, backup singers, an electric guitar, bass, drum set, keyboards, a percussion section, and sometimes even a horn section. As expressed in the earlier parts of this section, a driving beat, which carries out the dancing aspect of the music, also brings with it lyrics that invite those from mass who want to join these carnival parades. Used as a template of originality in the mid 1980s, axé didn’t completely come together until there was a mix of music genres developed by Bahian musicians. For example, samba-reggae, the local rhythm of Salvador’s blocos Afro was a prominent example of this combination. The blocos Afro group was formed to oppose prejudice that struck many poor dark-skinned people from several carnival clubs in Salvador in the 1970s. Opposing this prejudice, the signature music style of the blocos Afro gave a valuable meaning to axé and how it is shaped today. Another example is in 1985, Luiz Caldas released his LP record called Magia, which included the track Fricote. Although the lyrics were not complex, the rhythm was perfect for the climate in Bahia. The song became the representation of the entertainment of Bahia’s musicality.

Bachatón

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Bachatón is a mix of bachata and reggaetón. The histories of the two genres are described below.

Bachata#

Bachata is a genre of music that originated in the Dominican Republic in the early parts of the 20th century and spread to other parts of Latin America and Mediterranean Europe. It became popular in the countryside and the rural neighborhoods of the Dominican Republic. Its subjects are often romantic; especially prevalent are tales of heartbreak and sadness. In fact, the original term used to name the genre was amargue (“bitterness” or “bitter music”), until the rather ambiguous (and mood-neutral) term bachata became popular. The form of dance, bachata, also developed with the music. The earliest bachata was originally developed in the Dominican Republic around the early part of the 20th century, with mixed Cuban boleros which originated from Son with African elements, and Puerto Rican 18th century jibaro music combined with traditional Latin/Caribbean rhythms. During much of its history, bachata music was denigrated by Latino/Caribbean society and associated with rural backwardness and delinquency. The typical bachata group consists of five instruments: lead guitar, rhythm guitar, electric bass guitar, bongos and güira. The rhythm guitar is also known as a segunda and serves the purpose of adding syncopation to the music. Bachata groups mainly play a simple style of bolero (lead guitar instrumentation using arpeggiated repetitive chords is a distinctive characteristic of bachata), but when they change to merengue based bachata, the percussionist will switch from bongo to a tambora drum. In the 1960s and 1970s, maracas were used instead of güira. The change in the 1980s from maracas to the more versatile güira was made as bachata was becoming more dance oriented.

Baião (music)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Description#

Amerindian elements include the use of flutes, later replaced by the accordion, and wooden Shaker; 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. Repente music uses the baião rhythm in the context of acoustic guitar-centric vocal music, featuring the singing of improvised or pre-written lyrics in a specific meter and sometimes accompanied by the baião-style accordion and rhythm section. Some instances were accompanied by European-style orchestras. According to Guerra Peixe, baião mostly borrows harmonically from European music tradition and uses the minor mode and the major scale (Ionian mode), Mixolydian, Lydian and Dorian modes, and the first, second, fourth and fifth scale degrees in chord progressions. The supertonic frequently appears with an augmented fourth. It is notated in duple meter (2/4 time) and most frequently uses eighth notes, quarter notes, half notes, and dotted whole notes.

Baithak Gana

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Instruments#

In basic Baithak Gana there are three instruments, harmonium, dholak and the dhantal. The harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. The dholak is a double headed drum that originated in Northern India, however, it is still used in the folk songs from Pakistan or Nepal. The last instrument that is used in this style of music is the dhantal which serves as the rhythmic piece of the ensemble, it consists of a long steel rod which is then “struck” by a U-formed piece, the origin of this device is unclear, as it may have been brought by the Indian indentured-laborers. The origin of the dhantal was formed from the use of a long steel rod with an almost-enclosed circle tip at the end used in the yoke of bull-driven carts that were used to transport sugar cane to guide the bulls. The U-shaped handle piece was derived from the use of a horse shoe.

Banda music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Traditional ensembles#

Brass instruments in the state of Oaxaca of European origin that date back to the 1850s have been found. The repertoire of the bands of Morelos, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Michoacán covered gustos, sones, vinuetes, funeral pieces, marches, danzones, valses, corridos, paso dobles, polkas, rancheras, alabanzas, and foxes. Traditional bands that play Yucatecan Jarana are instrumented with clarinet, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, trumpet, trombone, timbales, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, and güiro. Traditional Oaxacan bands use a mix of tuba, saxophones and clarinets, fewer trumpets and more tenor trombones, and the bass drum and cymbals are played separately. One of the oldest bands recorded in history is the Banda de Tlayacapan of the state of Morelos, founded approximately in 1870 and being one of the first to play la danza del Chinelo. Traditional Zacatecan tamborazo bands do not use tuba, the tambora taking the bass voice instead.

Bolero

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

In Cuba, the bolero was perhaps the first great Cuban musical and vocal synthesis to win universal recognition. In time, this dance music spread to other countries, leaving behind what Ed Morales has called the “most popular lyric tradition in Latin America.” The Cuban bolero tradition originated in Santiago de Cuba in the last quarter of the 19th century; it does not owe its origin to the Spanish music and song of the same name. In the 19th century there grew up in Santiago de Cuba a group of itinerant musicians who moved around earning their living by singing and playing the guitar. Pepe Sanchez is known as the father of the trova style and the creator of the Cuban bolero. Untrained, but with remarkable natural talent, he composed numbers in his head and never wrote them down. As a result, most of these numbers are now lost, but two dozen or so survive because friends and students wrote them down. He was the model and teacher for the great trovadores who followed.

Bomba (Ecuador)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

List of most popular bomba bands#

Edgar Gonzalon “Negrito de la Salsa”
La Banda Mocha
Marabu
Mario Polo
Mario Congo
Nery Padilla
Oro Negro
Poder Negro
Eddy More

External links#

Articles about bomba del chota as well as afro-ecuadorian music
video of “Bomba bomba” by Grupo Marabu
Short documentary about the Banda Mocha, a local variant of bomba music
Choreography of children dancing to Bomba music
Music video performer Cundi Cundi by Eddy More
Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural (INPC) y el Ministerio de Cultura y Patrimonio (MCyP) in Spanish

Bossa nova

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology#

In Brazil, the word is old-fashioned slang for something done with particular charm, natural flair or innate ability. As early as 1932, Noel Rosa used the word in a samba: (Samba, readiness and other are our things, are things from us.) The phrase , translated literally, means “new trend” or “new wave” in Portuguese. The exact origin of the term remained unclear for many decades, according to some authors. Within the artistic beach culture of the late 1950s in Rio de Janeiro, the term was used to refer to any new “trend” or “fashionable wave”. In his book Bossa Nova, Brazilian author Ruy Castro asserts that was already in use in the 1950s by musicians as a word to characterize someone’s knack for playing or singing idiosyncratically. That group consisted of Sylvia Telles, Carlos Lyra, Nara Leão, Luiz Eça, Roberto Menescal, and others. Mr Fuks’s description, fully supported by most of the bossa nova members, simply read (“Today. Sylvia Telles and a ‘Bossa Nova’ group”), since Sylvia Telles was the most famous musician in the group at that time. In 1959, Nara Leão also participated in more than one embryonic display of bossa nova. These include the 1st Festival de Samba Session, conducted by the student union of . This session was chaired by Carlos Diegues (later a prominent Cinema Novo film director), a law student whom Leão ultimately married.

Brazilian gaucho music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

In the 19th century, in the north of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, the tropeiros, men who led the cattle troops, often created music for fun, to sing while they stumbled, they were songs with simple lyrics, but with time, and the arrival of the accordion in Brazil, these songs gained their own dances. Today, they are gaúcho folkloric songs and dances, as there is no record of the composers of the songs and the creators of the dances. With the emergence of the Farroupilha Revolution, also known as the Farrapos War, these dances ended up being forgotten for years, receiving only a brief revival in late nineteenth century’s parties. In 1940, the folklorist João Carlos D’avila Paixão Cõrtes, better known as Paixão Côrtes, Gathered a group of friends to rescue these songs and dances, and through a lot of work, they got many answers from elderly people. In 1943, the first song from Rio Grande do Sul was recorded: it is called “Adeus Mariana”, performed by singer and composer Pedro Raymundo, and was inspired by country music. In 1948, after further research, Paixão Côrtes and his friends created the first Centro de Tradições Gaúchas (known throughout Brazil through the acronym “CTG”), where people gather for traditional events, involving music and dance. At this point many folk songs were rescued, and in 1950, the first folk music from Rio Grande do Sul was recorded, “Rancheira de Carreirinha”, recorded by Ivan Lessa. Each folk song has its dance, as they were forgotten for years, when they were rescued by Paixão Cõrtes and his friends, many dances needed to receive small modifications to help people memorize the steps. In 1958 with the foundation of CTG Rincão Serrano in Carazinho RS, these customs were already very popular in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and it was already arriving in the state of Santa Catarina, not only music and dance, but also clothing, as well. like the gaucho of Uruguay, the clothing of the gaucho of Brazil is similar, Bombacha (Pants), boots, scarf around the neck, hat and on cold days, the use of the poncho or the visor are two similar garments that are suitable for winter . The songs of the gaucho music present themes from the gaucho folk traditions, such as: countryside, farm, horse, moral values and regional cuisine. Some songs are built in a slow way, others in a more agitated way, always following the familiar rhythms, Xote, Valsa and Milonga are slow rhythms, Chamamé, Vaneira and Bugio are more agitated. Having the influence of folk music, by singer Pedro Raymundo, and the duo Irmãos Bertussi, several gaúcho artists emerged singing their own songs in the same style. Gaucho music follows various rhythms, Waltz, Tango, Rancheira, Vaneira, Chamamé, Xote, and the only rhythm created in Rio Grande do Sul, the Bugio. The folk songs also follow these rhythms, the “Xote Carreirinho” as the title says, is in the rhythm of Xote, the “Pezinho” is in the Ritmo de Valsa and the “Rancheira de Carreirinha” is a Rancheira as the title itself it says. Gaucho music became popular worldwide in 1960 as singer and composer Teixeirinha, born in Rolante, Rio Grande do Sul, Teixeirinha released the song “Coração de Luto” in 1959, the song talks about his childhood, in 1960 it sold 1 million of copies in South America and Portugal, until 1965 it had sold 3 million copies throughout America, Europe and some countries in Africa and Asia. Today Teixeirinha is considered the greatest singer from Rio Grande do Sul and regionalist, with more than 130 million albums sold worldwide. Gaucho music stands out a lot in ballads, where two or more singers get together and sing rhymed verses in the improvisation, attacking each other, a musical fight made to amuse the people, two singers stand out in the gaucho trova, Gildo de Freitas and José Portella Delavy, Gildo de Freitas is considered the King of the Troubadours, and Delavy is considered the Master of the Troubadours. Currently, a great grandson of Delavy named Samuel Delavy is pursuing a career in Rock. In addition to Teixeirinha, Gildo de Freitas and José Portella Delavy, other great artists and bands stand out such as Baitaca, Porca Véia, Os Bertussi (band created by the Bertussi Brothers after their success as a duo), Mano Lima, Mary Terezinha, Berenice Azambuja, Shana Muller and others. Some of the musical instruments used in the genre are accordion, guitar, violin and bombo legüero.

Brazilian hip-hop

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Precursors#

Many believe that even before the consolidation of the American hip hop scene, similar forms of rhythm and poetry were already manifesting in Brazil. The first form of poetic improvisation appeared in the northeast of the country (in the region of Teixeira, Paraíba) in the 19th century. Known as “repente” or “cantoria”, it is a genre of Brazilian folk music practiced by a pair of singers known as repentistas who alternate themselves in the composition of improvised strophes following very strict patterns of metric, rhyme and thematic coherence. Also in 1964, the singer Jair Rodrigues released the samba song “Deixa Isso Pra Lá” (“Never Mind”) which many consider to be the first rap song ever made in the country.

Brazilian rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

1950s#

In 1957, the first original Brazilian rock and roll song, Rock and roll em Copacabana, was penned by Miguel Gustavo. This pioneering track was recorded by the singer Cauby Peixoto and rose to #52 on the charts that year. During this period, several bands performed songs that were rough translations of English lyrics, though several groups chose to focus on instrumental rock instead. This was in part inspired by instrumental bands such as Duane Eddy and The Champs. In 1958, this inspiration led to the release of the first Brazilian instrumental rock song, “Here’s the Blue Jean Rockers” by The Blue Jean Rockers pt . Later the same year, Bolão & His Rockettes went on to record the country’s first purely instrumental LP. These developments were crucial in establishing rock as a popular genre among Brazilian youth. Following these pioneering efforts, a wave of new bands emerged, including The Avalons, The Clevers pt , The Rebels, The Jordans pt , The Jet Blacks, The Pops, Os Populares, The Bells, The Lions, and The Youngs, further solidifying rock’s place in Brazilian music culture. 1958 marked a watershed moment for Brazilian rock, witnessing the meteoric rise of several artists and bands. Notable figures such as Nora Ney, Nick Savoia, Celly Campelo, Tony Campelo (Celly Campelo’s brother), , , Cinderella, Regiane, Ronnie Cord, and Hamilton di Giorgio achieved rapid success, establishing themselves as prominent names in the music scene virtually overnight. Additionally, instrumental groups such as the aforementioned Avalons, Tte Rebels, the Jordans, and Os Incríveis also gained widespread popularity, contributing to the vibrant and diverse landscape of Brazilian rock during this pivotal year.

Brazilian thrash metal

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

1980s#

During the early 80s, bands from the United States, Germany and Canada, such as Metallica and Slayer (U.S.), Destruction and Kreator (Germany), and Voivod and Exciter (Canada) appeared. During this time, Brazil experienced a shift from dictatorship to democracy, while also facing economic instability. At the same time, Brazil had a growing metal and rock scene and was influenced by the same music subgenres as their European and North American counterparts: New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) and hardcore punk. Brazilian rock has its roots in the 1960s, developing from the movement called Jovem Guarda, which evolved into progressive rock and heavy metal. In 1982, the first Brazilian heavy metal LP was released by the band Stress, who is from the northern city Belém. The European and North American heavy metal and hardcore scenes influenced a majority of Brazilian bands, The first thrash metal (or speed metal) album released officially in Brazil in 1984 was a split album between two bands called Ultimatum, by Dorsal Atlântica and Metalmorphose. The album came out around the same time as Kill ‘Em All by Metallica, War and Pain by Voivod, and Sentence of Death by Destruction. In the late 1980s, Sepultura achieved success outside of Brazil. The last thrash metal albums to represent the “old-school” style of thrash in Brazil were Mass Illusion by Korzus (1991), Arise by Sepultura (1991), Rotten Authorities by Executer (1991), and The Laws of Scourge by Sarcófago (1991).

Brega (music)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology#

There are several hypotheses regarding the origin of the word brega as a synonym for brothel and, later, for a musical style. According to Houaiss Dictionary of the Portuguese Language, the term means “bad taste,” “tacky,” or “inferior,” possibly derived from esbregue, an expression used in Rio de Janeiro between the 1920s and 1950s to refer to something poorly made, mediocre, or ordinary. Another theory, defended by etymologists such as Sérgio Nogueira and Amaro Quintas, links brega to xumbrega. This word is believed to have originated in Pernambuco in 1666, stemming from the nickname “Xumbergas” given to the Portuguese colonial administrator Jerônimo de Mendonça Furtado, in reference to the German general Schomberg. As he was fond of alcoholic beverages, the term came to mean “drunkenness,” giving rise to the verbs xumbregar (to get drunk or to bother) and the adjective xumbrega (of bad quality). From this meaning, the term is thought to have evolved in the 20th century to designate brothels, as recorded in dictionaries such as those by Aurélio Ferreira, The term “brega” was historically used pejoratively by the middle and upper classes, associating it with low-income individuals and the brothels of the Northeast, where romantic and dramatic music was common. In the North and Northeast regions, the style remained alive and consolidated as a significant musical force, even though it was ignored by major radio stations and record labels. Local artists continued to produce, often with limited resources, maintaining a loyal audience in urban peripheries. According to UN Tourism, Belém do Pará became the main hub for the consolidation of brega as a style. Initially restricted to dances (called bregões) in peripheral nightclubs, the genre gained regional dimension with aparelhagem parties, which emerged in the outskirts of Belém in the 1940s, using powerful sound systems to animate large dance gatherings.

Brega pop

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Brega was a term used pejoratively to designate popular romantic music of low quality and with dramatic exaggerations (love disappointments) or naivety; with samba-canção, bolero and jovem-guarda linked to it. The musical origin of “brega” is not known for sure, but singer Vicente Celestino (1894-1968) in the 1930s is considered to be one of the precursors of brega as a dramatic musical genre, followed by: Orlando Dias, Carlos Alberto and Cauby Peixoto. During the 1960s, the romantic music of artists was basically from the lower classes and came to be considered tacky and inelegant. movement - inspired by avant-garde artistic currents and national and foreign pop culture and by traditional manifestations of Brazilian culture and radical aesthetic innovations - and the Iê-iê-iê movement - which led the way for foreign rock’n’roll, giving it a national dressing, and became a major behavioral and fashion phenomenon. And it was the Jovem Guarda that paved the way for new artists who challenged the standards of good taste of the Brazilian middle class in the following decade, who led the band The Silver Jets. Belém do Pará became the main reference in the consolidation of “brega” as a musical style in the country. Initially restricted to circuits of dances and concerts - called “bregões” - in nightclubs on the outskirts of Belém, the scene acquired great regional proportions with the “aparelhagens” (large, powerful professional sound systems) of the big popular parties, attended by thousands of people, usually characterized by music typical of the northern region.

Cachaca (musical genre)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology#

Although it is a genre derived from cumbia, it receives the of cachaca, as a version of the song Por el amor de Claudia by the Colombian composer Guillermo Buitrago became popular in the 1970s when it was recorded by La Sonora Dinamita. The chorus of the song went: La cachaca tiene un Buey, La cachaca tiene un Buey, La cachaca tiene un Buey, Que lo llaman la Esperanza. The variant spellings “kachaka” and “kchaka” may originate from the 1990s programme “Kchak” presented by Hugo Javier González.

Cachi Cachi music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology#

Cachi cachi music is what the people in Hawaii, who heard the Puerto Ricans playing their own music, called it. It needed a name and the people of Hawaii, specifically the Japanese plantation workers called it cachi cachi according to oral tradition- video recordings by Onetake2012 and research done by Ted Solis, an ethnomusicologist. The Puerto Ricans, who only spoke Spanish and no English, worked alongside immigrants from the Philippines, China, but in one location their “camp” was next to the Japanese camp. and when the Japanese heard their music, they said it sounded “scratchy”. The relationships between the Japanese and Puerto Ricans working on the plantations, didn’t used to be good. They lived near one another and the Puerto Ricans felt disrespected when the Japanese walked around naked or almost naked for their baths. Sometimes fights would break out.

Caipira music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology#

The name is a reference to the Caipiras, a people. The term “Caipira” comes from the Paulista language, originating from Tupi language. There are several theories about the true origin of the term. * Kai (burnt) + pira (skin) = originally describing sun-darkened skin, a reference to Caipiras Caboclos. * Kaa (jungle) + pora (inhabitant) = inhabitant of the jungle.

History#

At the end of the 1920s, caipira music was recorded for the first time, based on recordings made by the journalist and writer Cornélio Pires of “tales” and fragments of traditional songs from the interior of the state of São Paulo. At the time of these pioneering recordings, whose lyrics evoke the lifestyle of the country man (often in opposition to man’s life in the city) and the bucolic beauty of the landscape and romantic countryside, with emphasized words in daily life and manner of singing). Beyond Cornelio Pires and his “Caipira Gang” stood out in this trend, recording at a later time, the duo Mandi & Sorocabinha, Alvarenga & Ranchinho, and Florencio Torres, Tonico & Tinoco, Vieira & Vieirinha, among others, and popular songs like “Sergio Forero”, by Cornelio Pires, “Bonde Camarão” by Cornelio Pires and Mariano, “Sertão do Laranjinha” by Pires and Ariovaldo and “Cabocla Teresa”, by João Pires and Ariovaldo Pacifico. The introduction of the electric guitar and pop music influences by duo Leo Canhoto e Robertinho in the late 1960s marked the start of Sertanejo music, giving rise to a new subgenre, separating itself from Caipira music and graduating as one of the most popular musical styles in Brazil. During the 1980s, there was a mass commercial exploitation of sertanejo, coupled in some cases, to a rereading of international hits and even the Jovem Guarda’s. Against this trend, names like the duo Pena Branca e Xavantinho reappeared, adapting to the language of MPB success of guitars, and new artists emerged like Almir Sater, a sophisticated guitar player, who moved among the styles of guitar and the blues. In the following decade, a new generation of Caipira artists, including Roberto Correa, Ivan Vilela, Pereira da Viola, and Chico Lobo e Miltinho Edilberto, emerged who were willing to reunite the Caipira traditions.

Canción melódica

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Canción melódica appeared in the first half of the 20th century. Unlike the cuplé, its 19th century predecessor that was primarily strophic, canción melódica was defined through the emphasis it placed on the chorus. The orchestras with vocalists had a fundamental protagonism in the dance parties, which evolved from the popular verbena to “more refined circles” such as salons and cafés. The melodic compositions were accompanied by popular vocalists that appeared in magazines, films and live performances; “Musicologists describe canción melódica as the explanation for the birth of the singer stars in the 1920s.” Argentine singer Sandro was a popular canción melódica singer during that decade. Canción melódica became frowned upon as “light music” from the 1980s on, with the rise in popularity of other genres such as rock.

Candombe

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Common origins#

According to George Reid Andrews, a historian of black communities in Latin America, after the middle of the 19th century younger black people began to abandon the candombe in favor of practicing European dances such as the waltz, schottische, and mazurka. Following this new twist, other Uruguayans began to imitate the steps and movements. Calling themselves Los Negros, upper class porteños in the 1860s and 1870s performed blackface and formed one of the carnival processions each year. African-Uruguayans organized candombe dances every Sunday and on special holidays such as New Year’s Eve, Christmas, Saint Baltasar, Rosary Virgin and Saint Benito. They would set a fire to heat the drums and play candombe music, especially during the night in certain neighborhoods such as Barrio Sur and Palermo in Montevideo. The typical characters on the parade represent the old white masters during slavery in old Montevideo city. It was a mockery to their lifestyle with a rebel spirit for freedom and a way to remember the African origins. In 1913, an anonymous dance historian identified only as “Viejo Tanguero” (“Old Tangoer”) wrote about the 1877 creation of a dance referred to as a tango but featuring ideas from the candombe. This dance, which later became known as “soft tango,” was created by African Argentines. Writing in 1883, dance scholar and folklorist Ventura Lynch described the influence of Afro-Argentine dancers on the compadritos (“tough guys”) who apparently frequented Afro-Argentine dance venues. Lynch wrote, “the milonga is danced only by the compadritos of the city, who have created it as a mockery of the dances the blacks hold in their own places”. Lynch’s report was interpreted by Robert Farris Thompson in Tango: The Art of Love as meaning that city compadritos danced milonga, not rural gauchos. Thompson notes that the population of city toughs dancing milonga would have included blacks and mulattoes, and that it would not have been danced as a mockery by all the dancers.

Capoeira music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

In early days, capoeira was accompanied only by the big drum (known as ngoma, conga or atabaque), hand-clapping and singing. Until the mid-nineteenth century, drums were a prominent musical instrument in capoeira. In the early to mid-nineteenth century Rio, capoeira was described by travelers as a war dance with drumbeats or hand clapping. In 1818, João Angola was arrested for possessing a small drum at a capoeira gathering. Playing a drum could lead to severe punishment, like on 5 December 1820, when Mathias Benguela, a slave, received 200 lashes for it. Despite punishment, drumming continued. An illustration from 1824 by Rugendas shows a participant in roda playing a drum. In 1833, the playing of African drums in Rio de Janeiro was prohibited by law. Due to the drum’s size, it couldn’t be concealed, leading to clandestine drumming in remote locations at night. To evade arrest, slaves used makeshift percussion instruments like clay or metal pieces, shells, and stones. In 1859, French journalist Charles Ribeyrolls described the Afro-Brazilian dances on plantations in Rio de Janeiro province, linking the conga drum to capoeira, and the berimbau to batuque: Gerhard Kubik, a 20th century music ethnologist, saw capoeira as a discipline where the drum not only accompanies but also guides and controls the players’ actions. The berimbau belongs to the candomblé tradition. It was not used in capoeira until the 20th century, and first appeared as an instrument accompanying capoeira in the early 20th century in Bahia. The transition may have been influenced not only by musical preferences but also by the berimbau’s dual role as a weapon. Mestre Pastinha formalized the inclusion of instruments into the capoeira Angola orchestra. He experimented with various instruments, occasionally incorporating guitars (viola de corda) and even introducing Spanish castanets into the roda at one point. The current standardized configuration of three berimbaus, two pandeiros, one agogô, one reco-reco, and one atabaque likely did not become established until the 1960s.

Chacarera

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Chacarera music#

While much of the Chacarera repertoire can be traced to the 1920s sheet music of Andrés Chazarreta (Chazarreta 1947 1916 ), the contemporary Chacarera style described in this article was standardized by the recordings of the 1950s folk group Los Hermanos Ábalos (Ábalos 1952). Today, this style is ubiquitous throughout Argentina, with important variants appearing in the provinces of Santiago del Estero and Salta.

Melody and harmony#

Contemporary Chacareras generally utilize descending, minor-mode melodies within an octave range. They are not harmonically distinctive, relying predominantly on tonic and dominant accompaniment, and the occasional shift to the relative major. Some modern Chacarera musicians use major-seventh and other altered chords in their arrangements.

Chamamé

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

External links#

Fundacionmemoriadelchamame.com (La Pagina Oficial de La Fundación Memoria del Chamamé)
Chamame.tv (La Pagina Oficial de La Fiesta Nacional del Chamamé, Argentina)
Chamigos.com (Chamame Social Network)
SiempreChamame.com.ar (Chamamé site and online radio)
Corrientes Chamamé

Chamarrita

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Azorean Chamarrita#

The chamarrita from the Azores is a dance to a rhythm traditionally played on the fiddle with or without accompaniment. Instruments often include the guitar, harmonica and accordion. Dancers, usually in pairs, wear authentic gaucho clothes reflecting Azorean culture. The dance itself is a lively dance done in a circle. There is a caller who sings out directions to all the dancers. The pairs of dancers gather in opposite rows, approaching and moving away as the music progresses. The following is an example of a Chamaritta verse with the English translation. A moda da Chamarrita Nã tem nada que aprender, E andar comum pé no ar E outro no chão a bater Quero cantar e bailar Com a moça mais bonita Bater o pé no terreiro Dar voltas a Chamarrita The old Chamarrita dance Is really easy to learn Just lift a foot in the air And stamp the other on the floor I want to sing and dance With the prettiest gal Stamp my foot on the ground In a Chamarrita round

Champeta

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Musical characteristics#

In champeta music, the rhythmic base dominates over the melodic and harmonic lines, producing a music easy to dance to and marked by its strength and plasticity. The instruments used include the voice, percussion, electric guitar, bass, conga drums, and the synthesiser, which contributes rhythmic effects. This musical form is characterised by a division into three sequential parts: the introductory music, the chorus, and , marked by powerful repetitive rhythms and usually accompanied by , interruptions counter to the rhythm. Song lyrics often display the rebellious attitude of Cartagena people of African descent, challenging social and economic exclusion or relating their dreams of change and progress.

Chicano rap

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

Chicano Rap originated during the late 1980s and early 1990s within Mexican-American communities in Los Angeles and later expanded on to other Chicano communities across the United States. As a result, artists began to create lyrics that shared the stories of the many realities and experiences Chicanos faced throughout the United States. Many Chicano rap songs focused on themes such as discrimination, poverty, gang violence, immigration, police surveillance, barrio life, and cultural pride. Chicano rappers used bilingual lyricism to share stories of the Chicano communities and experiences. (Mcfarland, 2006; Mausfeld, 2019).

Chicano rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

In places such as San Antonio, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay area, and Dallas and Houston, Texas, the African-American audience was very important to aspiring Latino musicians, and this kept their music wedded to authentic R&B. DJ Dick Hugg (aka Huggie Boy) and radio station KRLA 1110 played a big role in promoting this music. Chicano rock music was also influenced by the Doo-wop genre, an example being the song “Angel Baby” by the Chicana fronted group Rosie and the Originals. Don Tosti’s Pachuco Boogie, recorded in 1948, was the first Chicano million-selling record, a swing tune featuring Spanish lyrics, using hipster slang called Calo. Lalo Guerrero arrived in Los Angeles in the late 1930s and found that L.A. was “bursting with ambition”. Lalo and his friend captured their spirit in music by mixing swing and boogie-woogie in a cross-cultural, dialogue between African American, Anglo, and Mexican American influences. The 1950s brought rhythm and blues and the roots of rock ’n’ roll. The Mexican Americans were among the first to catch the beat and introduced a Latin flair to early rock music. The 1958 hit song “Tequila!” was written and sung by the saxophone player Danny Flores (not to be confused with Danny David Flores, a former member of Renegade) and performed by The Champs. Flores, who died in September 2006, was known as the “Godfather of Latino Rock.” In the early to mid-1960s, Latin music was most welcoming to the American audience in the United States because of the popularity in genres like bossa nova, bugalú, mambo. At the same time, artists did not fit neatly into the narrow confines of early rock. Trini Lopez, an artist who found success in the folk scene blended folk and pop influences. He scored a major hit with “If I Had a Hammer” in 1963. He later recorded the traditional Mexican song “Corazón de Melón”. In the mid-1960s, the British Invasion took over with bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones dominated charts and shifted public taste, and this is when Lopez’s upbeat music began to seem outdated. In the 60s, there was an explosion of Chicano rock bands in East Los Angeles and Texas. Sunny & the Sunglows produced several regional hits during the 1960s but is best remembered for its 1963 Number 11 Billboard hit “Talk to Me, Talk to Me”. They hold the distinction of being the first all-Mexican American group featured on American Bandstand. Their versions of “Rags to Riches” (Tony Bennett) and “Out of Sight-Out of Mind” (The Five Keys) also reached the Billboard Hot 100. Another group to appear on American Bandstand as well as open for The Rolling Stones, was The Premiers with their hit rendition of a Don and Dewey song called “Farmer John”. It featured the beat from the popular hit, Louie, Louie, which was in turn based on a Latino song, El Loco Cha Cha. Richard Berry, credited with writing Louie, Louie, drew inspiration to record the song after listening to an R&B rendition of El Loco Cha Cha performed by the Latin R&B group ‘Rhythm Rockers’ led by Mexican-Filipino American brothers, Rick and Barry Rillera. The Rillera brothers would go on to record and perform with The Righteous Brothers. The British Invasion challenged all American musicians, not just Chicanos. East Los Angeles witnessed a surge of creativity, and a renaissance of art, music and politics. Leading the way in music was the band Cannibal & the Headhunters, composed of five young men from the projects who recorded a national hit, “Land of a Thousand Dances”, and almost overnight found themselves opening for the Beatles on the British superstars’ 1965 tour. That same year, Thee Midniters hit the charts with “Whittier Blvd.”, an anthem to East L.A.’s most famous street, the home of a late-night cruising scene that expressed the California car culture that Mexican Americans were making their own. Also in 1965, the Chicano led Sam the Sham and The Pharaohs released the international hit “Wooly Bully” which would go on to sell three million copies. Penned by frontman Domingo “Sam” Samudio, it holds the distinction of being the first American record to sell a million copies during the British Invasion era. In 1966, the Mexican American garage band ? and the Mysterians scored a number one hit with the song “96 Tears”. The Sir Douglas Quintet is said to have made the most ‘English’ sounding American music of the Beatlemania period (actually since the English were playing music that was more rooted in R&B than many white Americans of that time, the Quintet were actually sounding ‘English’ by keeping to an all-American R&B/Country sound). Indeed, producer Huey P. Meaux put the Sir in the group’s name to emphasize the connection, but that was more a marketing change than a musical one. The Sir Douglas Quintet was from central Texas, and some of its members were Latinos. However, the group’s lead singer, Doug Sahm, was not of Mexican descent. Sahm was so thoroughly immersed in Tejano culture, that he later recorded an album under the name Doug Saldaña. Despite the musician’s efforts to make the group appear to have emerged from the British Invasion, scholars have noted that the group’s clear Tejano influences and accordion based slowed down polka rhythms give the band a Chicano rock title. In the late 1960s and 1970s, when civil rights and the Vietnam War were compelling issues, young Mexican American proudly called themselves Chicanos—which was once considered as a derogatory term—and many took to the streets to stand up for their rights. Chicano duo Cheech and Chong released novelty single “Basketball Jones” (1973) and hit “Earache My Eye” (1974). Bands like El Chicano, Malo, Azteca, Tierra, and Sapo (1974) created new music that “said something” about Chicano heritage and their struggles for equality and justice. The trend of Chicano rock mirrored what was happening on college campuses as well. The rise of Chicano Studies departments, which offered courses in Chicano literature, politics and culture, affected college students and musicians tremendously. Musicians rebelled against the “old world” and adopt the Mexican and Latin American styles in their own music. Linda Ronstadt is a versatile singer who traversed multiple genres. She gained national hits such as “You’re No Good” (1975), “It’s So Easy”, “Blue Bayou” (1977), “Back in the USA” (1978), and “Hurt So Bad” (1980) in the 1970s and ’80s. Ronstadt was nurtured by her Mexican American family whose musical roots run deep in the Mexican border region of Tucson, Arizona. Ronstadt holds dear the memory of childhood serenades by “The Father of Chicano Rock,” Lalo Guerrero, a close family friend. Ronstadt’s great-aunt Luisa Espinel gained international popularity interpreting Spanish and Mexican song and dance in the 1930s. Among the most popular female pop singers, Ronstadt has been described as an influential Chicana musician, with scholars noting her extensive discography and career spanning over forty years.

Chilean electronic music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The origins of electronic music in Chile can be found as far back as 1958, when physicist Werner Meyer-Eppler visited Chile. As a result of his visit, experimentation with electronic music gained support from the scientific community and an electronic music laboratory was established. In 1959, Jose Vicente Asuar published a thesis entitled “Generación mecánica y electrónica del sonido musical” (Mechanical and Electronic Generation of Musical Sound), and to demonstrate his thesis he composed “Variaciones espectrales” (Spectral Variations), the first piece of electronic music in Chile. In 1966, at the Universidad Católica, Samuel Claro released his second electronic music album, Estudio N°1. Asuar released Estudio Aletorio in 1962 and Ambientes Sonoros in 1967. Both records were released in Germany (Karlsruhe) and Venezuela (Caracas). In 1968, Tomás Lefever composed 19 electronic tracks and released Klesis, a compilation album containing works by Amenábar and Asuar. It is not clear when exactly the electronic music movement as it is known today reached Chile. At the beginning of the 1990s a small underground movement had emerged, with DJs such as Cristian Vogel, Ricardo Villalobos, Matias Aguayo and Sergio Orrego, the opening of the specialist store Background, and small scale events like “Barracudas” in 1992, “Corriente Alterna” (1993), “Distrito Distinto” (1993), “Background” (1994), “Avanzada multimedia” (1994), “Frontera Final” (1995) and “Spandex Parties” taking place through the 1990s. However, most commentators see the true birth of electronica in Chile at the Alacran Peninsula in the city of Arica, in an event that took place during the solar eclipse of November 1994. The solar eclipse took place on November 3, 1994, with excellent views available in northern Chilean cities such as Arica, drawing astronomers from around the world to observe the rare phenomenon in the area’s uniquely clear skies. A group of electronica fans and DJs decided to use the eerie eclipse landscape as a backdrop to host Chile’s first rave. The event was sponsored by the German clothing manufacturer Pash and took place outdoors in the Scorpion Peninsula, opposite to the historic Morro de Arica. Ravers could observe the eclipse and wait for its shadow to pass, with electronic music as a soundtrack. DJs who took part in the rave included John Acquaviva, Richie Hawtin, Ricardo Villalobos, Derrick May, Pascal, Siddhartha and Adrian. Though it was a small event, the Alacran rave has gained near legendary status in Chile and has become a landmark in the country’s electronic scene. Since then, the scene has grown fast and massive events have taken place in many of Chile’s major cities, including “C C2 reamfields”, “Sensation White” (a spin-off from Amsterdam’s “Sensation”), and Ultra Music, an event that first appeared in Miami. In the last decade, techno and house music, mostly inspired by the movement in Berlin, has grown in Santiago. These underground scene has been recorded by labels like Comeme and Pirotecnia with stars from the scene like Alejandro Paz and Mamacita. The International Society for Chilean Music (SIMUC) has a podcast called MEC dedicated exclusively to Chilean electronic music. The first episode was aired on September 30, 2016.

Chilean rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Early rock and roll and Nueva Ola (1955–1965)#

Rock and roll originated in the United States in the late 1940s and 1950s and expanded rapidly around the world. In the late 1950s, the first Chilean rock and roll bands emerged, largely imitating popular North American bands and performing rock and roll songs they were already hits in the U.S. Chile’s first solo rock and roll artists were Peter Rock, with his Elvis Presley cover Baby, I Don’t Care/Something Happened (1959), and Nadia Milton, with her single Scobidou/Un poco (1960). The twist was also very popular in the 1950s, imported to Chile by the band Los Twisters with the singles Penas juveniles, Caprichitos, Me recordarás, Sueña and Mi secreto. In 1963, Los Twisters were voted the most popular band in Chile. What began in the 1950s with imitations of American rock and roll soon developed into original music. La Orquesta Huambaly, with its roots in tropical music and jazz, were the first Chilean rock and roll band to compose original songs, including Huambaly rock (1957) and Rock del mono (Monkey Rock, 1958). However, the first real commercial success story of the Nueva Ola scene was Los Ramblers, with their El Rock del Mundial (World Cup Rock) album released in May 1962 for the 1962 FIFA World Cup in Chile. Los Ramblers opened the door to many other successful Nueva Ola artists. Some of the most well-known were: Peter Rock, Alan y sus Bates, Los Rockets, Buddy Richard, José Alfredo Fuentes, Antonio Prieto, Antonio Zabaleta, Cecilia Pantoja, Germán Casas, Ginette Acevedo, Gloria Benavides, Jorge Pedreros, Luis Dimas, Maitén Montenegro, Marcelo Hernández, Mirella Gilbert, Osvaldo Díaz, Germaín de la Fuente, Paolo Salvatore, Pat Henry, and Roberto Vicking Valdés. The Nueva Ola movement spread out of Santiago and throughout Chile, with bands like The New Demons forming in the northern city of Iquique, and The Blue Splendor, who formed – and still perform today – in Valparaíso. The success of the Chilean Nueva Ola lasted until the mid-1960s, led by a second generation of musicians characterized by their original compositions, such as Buddy Richard, Patricio Renán, Los Ángeles Negros, José Alfredo Fuentes and Cecilia, considered by some critics as the greatest teen star of the mid-1960s. The Nueva Ola has been criticized for foreignizing Chilean music because the style, lyrics and even names were heavily lifted from American and British culture. For some, the Nueva Ola movement is not considered the true origin of Chilean rock. They point instead to groups like Los Mac’s, Los Jockers and Los Vidrios Quebrados, who modelled themselves more on bands like The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, and “were the first groupings who can really be identified as ‘rock made in Chile’, going further than the pop figures of the Nueva Ola.” Bands that followed them were Los Picapiedras, Los Beat 4, Los Lark’s and Los Sonny’s one of the bands of future Florcita Motuda.

Choro

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Choro instruments#

Originally choro was played by a trio of flute, guitar and cavaquinho (a small chordophone with four strings). Other instruments commonly played in choro are the mandolin, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet and trombone. These melody instruments are backed by a rhythm section composed of 6-string guitar, seven-string guitar (playing bass lines) and light percussion, such as a pandeiro. The cavaquinho appears sometimes as a melody instrument, other times as part of the rhythm.

Chutney music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The term chutney is derived from the Hindi word chatni, referring to South Asian condiments made of spices. The contemporary fusion of genres that led to chutney music was created around the 1940s by Indo-Caribbean people of the West Indies, whose ancestors originally were brought to the region from the Hindi Belt as indentured labourers by the British, intended to replace slaves working on sugar plantations after slavery was abolished in the region. There were no recordings of chutney until 1968, when Ramdew Chaitoe, of Suriname, recorded an early rendition of the music. The album was called King of Suriname and all of the songs were religious in nature. However, Chaitoe soon became a household name with East Indians, not just in his native Suriname but throughout the Caribbean. Although the songs were religious in nature, all had a distinctly danceable sound. For the first time, Indo-Caribbeans had music that spoke to them personally, and was not specifically Indian, African, or European or American in style/roots. This was a breakthrough for East Indian Caribbean music, but the fame was shortlived. Chutney music exploded, again, after 1968, with the singer Dropati releasing her album Let’s Sing & Dance, made-up of traditional wedding songs. The record became a huge hit within the Indo-Caribbean community, gaining exposure for chutney music as a legitimate form of music, and uniting Indians, regardless of their birthplace. 1969 was a turning point for chutney music, when record producer Moean Mohammed recorded Sundar Popo with Harry Mahabir’s BWIA Orchestra. Sundar Popo modernised the music by including western guitars and early electronics into his music. Although Popo became known as the “King of Chutney”, the art of singing songs in “chutney” style was introduced by a singer named Lakhan Kariya, from the town of Felicity, Chaguanas who preceded Sundar Popo. Other artists, such as Indo-Trini artist Sam Boodram, followed in his footsteps, adding newer and modern instrumentation into songs. Chutney music, until then, remained a localised genre in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname.

Colombian rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

In the 1960s a boom in rock music happened in Colombia, as a result of globalization, the influence of the foreign music of that decade, and opposition to the Vietnam War. From that moment in time came the first rock bands in the country. The most famous band in those years where Los Speakers from Bogotá. Their last and most famous album was The Speakers en el maravilloso mundo de Ingeson edited in 1968. Some bands of the sixties: Los Speakers (1963–1968), Los Flippers (1965–1973), Los Yetis (1965–1969), Los Ampex (1965–1967), Los Young Beats (1966), Los Streaks (1967), Time Machine (1967), The New Movement (founded by Colombo- N.Americans 1966–1968), The Walflower Complextion (founded by North-Americans 1966–1967). After founding Los Speakers, Humberto Monroy also founded Siglo Cero (1969–1970) and the legendary band Géne-sis (1972–1992) that produced works through the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1980s, Kraken became the first known heavy metal band in Colombia, as well as the oldest still active band of the country, becoming the progenitors of many rising bands until today. Those included Ekhymosis, from which Juanes split for a solo career. Bogotá, Medellín and Cali were the cities where this movement started to grow, and they remain today as the main cradles for new groups and styles. Colombian rock is grouped with all Rock en español, a movement led by Argentine rock and Mexican rock.

Conjunto

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Mexican#

Mexican conjunto music, also known as conjunto tejano, was born in south Texas at the end of the 19th century, after German settlers introduced the button accordion. The bajo sexto has come to accompany the button accordion and is integral to the conjunto sound. Many conjuntos are concentrated in the Southwestern portion of the United States, primarily in Texas and California. In Mexico, the term conjunto is associated with norteño and tejano music. Since tejano was bred out of norteño music originally, this association is not entirely false. However, due to various cultural and socioeconomic developments in the 1900s, norteño musicians began trailblazing the tejano genre as a tangent to conjunto. In the United States and Mexico, a conjunto band is composed of four main instruments: the button accordion, the bajo sexto, an electric bass, and a drum set. The place of the electric bass was first filled by the tololoche, or contrabass, until it was replaced in the 1950s. They are popular in northern Mexico and southern Texas. German and East European settlers brought their accordions, waltzes and polkas to the region, which were adapted by the local population. Texas accordion player Flaco Jiménez is probably the best-known conjunto musician in the United States, with a career spanning sixty years and earning him six Grammy awards.

Corrido

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Form#

Corridos, like rancheras, have introductory instrumental music and adornos (ornamentations), accommodating the stanzas of the lyrics. Like rancheras, corridos can be played in virtually all regional Mexican styles. Also, like rancheras, corridos are usually played in march, waltz, or mazurka mode.

History#

The word corrido comes from the Spanish word correr (“to run”). A typical corrido’s formula is eight quatrains with four to six lines containing eight syllables. The earliest living specimens of corrido are adapted versions of Spanish romances or European tales, mainly about disgraced or idealized love or religious topics. These, which include (among others) “La Martina” (an adaptation of the romance “La Esposa Infiel”) and “La Delgadina”, show the same basic stylistic features of the later mainstream corridos (1/2 or 3/4 tempo and verso menor lyric composing, meaning verses of eight or less phonetic syllables, grouped in strophes of six or fewer verses). Beginning with the Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821) and culminating during the Mexican Revolution (1910–1921), the genre flourished and acquired its “epic” tones, along with the three-step narrative structure. The academic study of corridos written during the Revolution shows that they were used to communicate news throughout Mexico as a response to the propaganda being spread in the newspapers, which the corrupt government of Porfirio Díaz owned. Sheet music of popular corridos was sold or included in publications. Other corrido sheets were passed out free as a form of propaganda to eulogize leaders, armies, and political movements or, in some cases, to mock the opposition. The best-known Revolutionary corrido is “La Cucaracha”, an old song rephrased to celebrate the exploits of Pancho Villa’s army and poke fun at his nemesis Victoriano Huerta. File:Cantos populares maderistas Aquiles serdan.jpg Song about the battle of Ciudad Juarez titled Toma de Ciudad Juárez Image:Valentina-corrido.jpg Corrido sheet music from 1915, at the height of the Mexican Revolution File:Corrido de la Cucaracha (Antonio Venegas).jpg A contemporary corrido song sheet of “La cucaracha” issued during the Mexican Revolution. Note the original lyrics and the reference to cartoncitos, a scrip issued as pay. Before the widespread use of radio, popular corridos were passed around as an oral tradition, often to spread news of events (for example, “La cárcel de Cananea”) and famous heroes and humour to the population, many of whom were illiterate before the post-Revolution improvements to the educational system. Until the arrival and success of electronic mass media in the mid-20th century, the corrido served in Mexico as the leading informational and educational outlet, even with subversive purposes, due to an apparent linguistic and musical simplicity that lent itself to oral transmission. After the spread of radio and television, the genre evolved into a new stage and is still in maturation. However, some scholars have disputed this notion and consider the corrido to be a dead or moribund art form. With the consolidation of “Presidencialismo” (the political era following the Mexican Revolution) and the success of electronic mass media, corridos lost their primacy as a form of mass communication, becoming part of a folklorist cult in one branch and, in another, the voice of the new subversives: oppressed workers, drug growers or traffickers, leftist activists and emigrated farm workers (mainly to the United States). Scholars designate this as the “decaying” stage of the genre, which tends to erase the stylistic or structural characteristics of “revolutionary” or traditional corrido without a clear and unified understanding of its evolution. This is mainly signified by the “narcocorrido”, many of which are egocentric ballads paid for by drug smugglers to anonymous and almost illiterate composers, but with others coming from the most popular norteño and banda artists and written by some of the most successful and influential ranchera composers. In more rural areas, where Spanish and Mexican cultures have been preserved because of isolation, romantic works have also taken on other forms related to the corrido. In New Mexico, for example, a story-song emerged during the colonial period known as an Indita, which loosely follows the format of a corrido, but is chanted rather than sung, similar to a Native American chant, hence they are called Inditas. Some corridos are love stories. These are not exclusively male; there are also corridos about women, such as “La Venganza de Maria”, “Laurita Garza”, “El Corrido de Rosita Alvirez” and “La Adelita”, or couples, such as “La Fama de la Pareja” sung by Los Tigres del Norte. Some even employ fictional stories invented by their composers. In the Mestizo-Mexican cultural area, the three variants of corrido (romance, revolutionary and modern) are both alive and sung, along with popular sister narrative genres, such as the “valona” of Michoacán state, the “son arribeño” of the Sierra Gorda (Guanajuato, Hidalgo and Querétaro states) and others. Its vitality and flexibility allow original corrido lyrics to be built on non-Mexican musical genres, such as blues and ska, or with non-Spanish lyrics, like the famous song “El Paso” by Marty Robbins, and corridos composed or translated by Mexican indigenous communities or by the “Chicano” people in the United States, in English or “Spanglish”. The corrido was, for example, a favourite device employed by the Teatro Campesino led by Luis Valdez in mobilizing predominantly Mexican and Mexican-American farmworkers in California during the 1960s. Corridos have seen a renaissance in the 21st century. Contemporary corridos feature contemporary themes such as drug trafficking (narcocorridos), immigration, migrant labour, and the chupacabra.

Corridos tumbados

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

Corridos tumbados emerged in northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United States, particularly in Sinaloa, Sonora, and Jalisco, as well as among Mexican-American communities in the United States. While drawing from the narrative tradition of classic corridos—songs that once glorified revolutionaries and rural outlaws—this new wave modernized the sound by integrating urban beats, trap flows, auto-tuned vocals, and streetwise lyricism. The genre name was first popularized by Natanael Cano, who released his 2019 breakout album titled Corridos Tumbados, effectively branding the hybrid style and giving the genre its namesake. The term “tumbado” can roughly translate to “laid-back”. However, in a broader musical sense, “tumbado” operates similarly to the term alternative in genres like rock or R&B, signaling a departure from traditional styles in favor of experimental or unconventional driven variations.

Cuarteto

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Famous Names#

Cuarteto Leo was the leading cuarteto band for almost 30 years, back in the 1970s. It established the sonic texture that prevails in cuarteto to this day. In the 1980s, Carlos Mona Jiménez became the foremost exponent of cuarteto after the break-up of his two-member Cuarteto de Oro (“Golden Quartet”). He established a pattern of nonsense humour and extravagant behavior that many tried to ape without much success. One of his most popular songs was Quién se ha tomado todo el vino (“Who drank all the wine?”), which was danced with a characteristic hand move. Others, such as producer-bandleader Negro Videla, travelled to the Dominican Republic and Colombia to expand the range of their repertoire. Videla is the unofficial ambassador of Dominican music in cuarteto, with successful covers of merengue hits. Since the late 1980s, the Tru-la-lá band has had great support from dancers. At one point they were endorsed by the Catholic church for avoiding racy themes in their lyrics. All in all, they have sold over a million records. Rodrigo became the leading cuarteto singer in the mid-1990s, and made inroads into Buenos Aires middle-class audiences. He died in a car crash on June 24, 2000. Many people believe the crash was not an accident, as Rodrigo was (allegedly) a pawn in a feud between rival mobsters. His song La mano de Dios (The Hand of God), which celebrates Diego Maradona through his most famous goal, has become a classic dance song in Argentina, and was covered by Maradona himself in his successful 2005 talk show. Gary was another Cuarteto singer with the Tru-la-lá band, who died of natural causes in 2001.

Cueca

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Origins#

While cueca’s origins are not clearly defined, it is considered to have mostly European Spanish and arguably indigenous influences. The most widespread version of its origins relates it with the zamacueca which arose in Peru as a variation of Spanish Fandango dancing with criollo. The dance is then thought to have passed to Chile and Bolivia, where its name was shortened and where it continued to evolve. Due to the dance’s popularity in the region, the Peruvian evolution of the zamacueca was nicknamed “la chilena”, “the Chilean”, due to similarities between the dances. Later, after the Pacific War, the term marinera, in honor of Peru’s naval combatants and because of hostile attitude towards Chile, was used in place of “la chilena”. In March 1879 the writer and musician Abelardo Gamarra renamed the “chilena” as the “marinera”. The Marinera, Zamba and the Cueca styles are distinct from each other and from their root dance, the zamacueca. Another theory is that Cueca originated in the early nineteenth century bordellos of South America, as a pas de deux facilitating partner finding. The usual interpretation of this courting dance is zoomorphic: it tries to reenact the courting ritual of a rooster and a hen. The male displays a quite enthusiastic and at times even aggressive attitude while attempting to court the female, who is elusive, defensive and demure. The dance often finishes with the man kneeling on one knee, with the woman placing her foot triumphantly on his raised knee. In Bolivia, there are many variations throughout the different regions. Cueca styles of La Paz, Potosí and Sucre are the elegant and static versions, whereas in Cochabamba and Tarija the style is much livelier and free. The same could be said with the music where in different regions rhythm and speed slightly differ amongst the regions. While dancing, handkerchiefs are used by both male and female dancers by twirling over the head. It is said the twirling of the handkerchief is a way to lure the woman.

Cumbia (Colombia)

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Etymology#

Most folklorists and musicologists, such as Narciso Garay, Delia Zapata Olivella, and Guillermo Abadia Morales, assume that cumbia is derived from the Bantu root kumbe “to dance”, or any other of the many Bantu words with “comb” or “kumb”. Cf. samba, macumba. Another possibility is the Tupi-Guarani word cumbi “murmuring, noise”. Cumbia was also a kind of fine woolen garment produced for the Inca. In 2006, Colombian musician and musicologist Guillermo Carbo Ronderos said that the etymology of the word cumbia is “still controversial” and that “seems to derive from the Bantu word cumbé”.

Cumbia (Panama)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology#

Panamanian musician Narciso Garay, in his book “Tradiciones y Cantares de Panamá”, published in 1930, assumed that the word cumbia shares the same linguistic root of the word cumbé, dance of African origin registered in the dictionary of the Spanish language as dance of black people Colombian folklorist Delia Zapata Olivella in her publication of 1962, (‘Cumbia: Musical Synthesis of the Colombian Nation, Historical and Choreographic Review’) notes that the only word similar to cumbia present in the dictionary of the Real Academia de la Lengua Española, is “a dance of African origin and the musical interpretation of this dance.” And that (without acute accent) is used for black people living in Bata, in Spanish continental Guinea (now Equatorial Guinea). The Colombian cultural researcher Jorge Villarreal Diazgranados in his article “La cumbia, el jolgorio y sobre todo el placer” (La cumbia, fun and above all pleasure), published in 1977 states: An English translation of the quote above would be: Musicologist and folk-researcher Guillermo Abadía Morales, in his 1977 “Compendio general de folclore colombiano” (General Compendium of Colombian folklore), says that cumbia is a shortened form of cumbancha, a word whose root is Kumba, Mandinka demonym, and adds that the Republic of the Congo was called Cumba. Cuban ethnologist Graciano states that the words Kumba, Kumbe and Koumbi, replacing the letter “k” for “c” (when turned into Spanish) means “drums” or “dances”. He adds that cumbé, cumbia and cumba were drums of African origin in the Antilles. On the other hand, he states that cumba - kumba, African word for Bantu or Congo tribes, means “roar”, “shock”, “shouting”, “scandal”, “joy”. The Panamanian folklorist Manuel Zarate adds to this theory in his “Tambor y Socavón” (Drum and Tunnel), as the root of the word cumbia. Also, for Ortiz, among congos, nkumbi is a drum. In 2006, Colombian musician and musicologist Guillermo Carbo Ronderos said that the etymology of the word cumbia is “still controversial” and that it “seems to derive from the Bantu word cumbé

Cumbia pop

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Influences and development#

The cumbia pop genre emerged in the mid-2000s when some musical groups from Uruguay and Argentina made covers of popular songs, mixing them with cumbia and pop elements, and published them on YouTube. One of the pioneers was the Uruguayan group VI-EM, followed by the Argentine group Agapornis. However, it did not gain as much notoriety, but at that time other subgenres such as cumbia villera were more popular. Beginning in 2013–2014, cumbia pop went mainstream with the formation in Montevideo of the Uruguayan bands Rombai and Márama, which became extremely popular in Uruguay, Argentina, and other Latin American countries. They adopted danceable rhythms and lyrics related to love and youth life, as both groups were composed of people in their 20s, and included elements of pop and electropop, giving the musical genre its definitive shape. These bands toured several seaside towns and released summer hits, which increased their notoriety among young people. Since the members of the most popular bands were youngsters from the upper-middle class or upper class, and since the lyrics and music videos showcased luxury, exclusive parties, and aspirational lifestyles, this subgenre also became known as Cumbia Cheta. “Cheta”—the feminine form of the word “cheto”—is a slang from Rioplatense Spanish used to describe someone or something associated with the upper class. Cumbia pop broke away from the traditional association of cumbia with working-class and middle-class people and aligned itself with the internationally popular pop and Latin pop music. Given the rise of the genre, other bands emerged that also achieved wide popularity, such as the Uruguayan Toco Para Vos, Canto Para Bailar and Dame 5, and the Argentine .

Cumbia rebajada

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History#

Due to Colombian immigration to Monterrey in the second half of the 20th century and the importation of records from Mexico City, various musical genres from the South American country became popular, such as cumbia, vallenato, and porro. This popularization through parties would give rise to the phenomenon known as “Kolombia” in places like the Independencia neighborhood. According to Gabriel Duéñez, a sound engineer for four decades and a collector of Colombian music from Monterrey, the rebajada originated accidentally when the beats-per-minute control on his Sonido Duéñez music player broke down and began to play Colombian music at a slower speed, resulting in a “more rebajado (slowed-down), more watery” rhythm. Those attending his dances began to request that Duéñez play the rebajada music than at its normal tempo. Gabriel and other vendors in Monterrey began selling cassettes and later CDs of reduced versions of popular cumbias. Given the popularity of the music, Colombian music groups in the city began to compose and perform at that tempo. Cumbia rebajada would remain in Monterrey, becoming part of the cultural phenomenon known as cholombiano. The reduced aesthetic would also influence the sonidero, where groups such as Sonido La Changa and Sonido Siboney continued the style by manipulating the tempo of old Colombian songs, turning them into hits in Mexico and Central America. According to DJ and music producer Toy Selectah, cumbia rebajada is “the dubstep of cumbia.” DJs, producers, and musicians of different nationalities have mixed cumbia rebajada with other rhythms such as dubstep and reggae.

Cumbia villera

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History#

Cumbia villera was born in the late 1990s, amid an economic and social decline in Argentina. The introduction of neoliberal economics in Argentina in the early ’90s gave a quick boost to the nation’s economy but progressively marginalized large areas of society, and by the late ’90s, Argentina was in a great depression. Some of the most affected by this crisis were workers and the lower classes, and among them were the inhabitant and dwellers of the villas miseria (slums or shantytowns) in Buenos Aires and its metropolitan area, which favoured cumbia and other tropical music genres. It was in this situation that in 1999, the first cumbia villera band was born in the depths of Villa La Esperanza, a slum in San Fernando, Buenos Aires (in the north of the Buenos Aires metropolitan area). Pablo Lescano, then keytarist from one of these cumbia bands, Amar Azul, started to pen new songs with more aggressive lyrics. His band rejected them, so he began saving money from the royalties he earned from Amar Azul songs in order to buy instruments and equipment for producing an independent record. He created a new group with a different aesthetic, different lyrics, and a different sound, Flor de Piedra. By 2000, dozens of cumbia villera bands were playing and recording, It was at this point that some of the most popular albums in the history of cumbia villera were released, including Ritmo sustancia by Mala Fama (2000), 100% Villero by Yerba Brava (2001), and Sólo Le Pido A Dios by Pibes Chorros (2002). The genre and its repercussions were widely discussed in the mainstream media, with debates in major newspapers, magazines, TV shows, and radio shows, and the phenomenon even reached television, with Tumberos (2002), and film, with El bonaerense (2002) and El polaquito (2003). Cumbia villera bands began touring neighbouring countries, North America, and Europe, spreading the genre beyond its original boundaries. This “Argentine invasion” influenced artists in other countries, including Uruguay (La Clave), Paraguay (Los Rebeldes), Bolivia (Diego Soria), Chile (Buena Huacho), and Mexico (Cumbia Zero), which contributed musically to the genre by incorporating different regional styles and influences as well as local vocabulary and slang. Trends in Argentine cumbia started to change by 2003, owing to the election of president Néstor Kirchner and the subsequent improvement in the nation’s economy. Additionally, the Argentine music industry began to pressure bands to stop using controversial lyrics, and censorship from broadcasters and the COMFER reduced cumbia villera’s prevalence. Christian advocacy in the villas also contributed to these changes. Newer cumbia villera bands, such as La Base and El Original, mostly avoided controversial themes and instead sang about love, naming their style cumbia base to avoid some of the stigma that cumbia villera had acquired. Through the first decade of the 2000s, cumbia villera continued to have a stronghold among workers and poor communities all over Latin America, with new bands forming each year. The biggest names in the genre continued to tour, including Damas Gratis and Pibes Chorros. As late as 2007, 30% of total sales in the Argentine music industry were from cumbia villera records. In the 2010s, promotion of cumbia villera bands by mainstream music publications like Rolling Stone, the organization of concerts at popular venues, and the close collaboration and financial production of cumbia villera bands by mainstream musicians such as Andrés Calamaro, Vicentico, and Fidel Nadal suggested that the genre was alive and well. To this day, cumbia villera remains known as the most aggressive, defiant, and socially conscious style of cumbia ever made.

Danzón

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History#

The danzón developed from the habanera, a creolized Cuban dance form. By 1879, the year Las alturas de Simpson composed by Miguel Failde (leader of the Orquesta Faílde) was first performed in Matanzas, Creation of the new danzón form is generally attributed to Faílde. The classical composer Manuel Saumell has also been cited as a key figure in its delineation.

Precursors: figure dances#

The English contradanza was the predecessor of the “habanera”, also known as danza criolla. Out of this Creole genre, the Habanera, was born in 1879 another Cuban genre, called danzon, a sequence dance, in which all danced together a set of figures. The first use of the term danzón, which dates from the 1850s, is for just such a dance. Havana’s daily paper, El Triunfo, gave a description of this earlier danzón. It was a co-ordinated dance of figures performed by groups of Matanzas blacks. The dancers held the ends of colored ribbons, and carried flower-covered arches. The group twisted and entwined the ribbons to make pleasing patterns. This account can be corroborated by other references, for example, a traveler in Cuba noted in 1854 that black Cubans “do a kind of wreath dance, in which the whole company took part, amid innumerable artistic entanglements and disentanglements”. This style of danzón was performed at carnival comparsas by black groups: it is described that way before the late 1870s. Faílde’s first danzóns were created for just such sequence dances. Faílde himself said “In Matanzas at this time there was a kind of square dance for twenty couples who carried arches and flowers. It was really a dance of figures (sequence dance), and its moves were adapted to the tempo of the habanera, which we took over for the danzón.”

Duranguense

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The term duranguense refers to the people from the Mexican state of Durango. Paraíso Tropical de Durango are believed to be the first to begin the movement in the early 1990s. The genre’s popularity peaked in the mid to late 2000s among the Mexican and Mexican American community in the United States, as well as in many parts of Mexico. It also popularized the dance style, Pasito Duranguense.

Artists#

Other famous Duranguense acts include Montéz de Durango, K-Paz de la Sierra, Alacranes Musical, Los Horóscopos de Durango, Patrulla 81, Conjunto Atardecer, and El Trono de México.

Ecuadorian rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Recognition and acceptance of the genre#

Rock music is widely listened to and enjoyed in Ecuador, however, some forms of the genres are not broadly accepted in certain more conservative sectors of Ecuadorian society where there can be a great deal of prejudice toward the genre. Until the midst of the 1990s rockeros of all kinds have been discriminated against. Consequently, a powerful alliance of segments of the Catholic Church, the police and other government institutions has been formed against rock music. Even in the new millennium the official media discourse is highly discriminative against the rockeros. Nevertheless, rock continues to be a popular genre in the country. Unlike Argentina or Mexico, which have dedicated rock record labels, Ecuador lacks a music industry that supports Ecuadorian rock bands. This is an issue of the Ecuadorian music industry that as a whole has had relatively limited support and investment. Although, in recent years, a small rock music industry has developed in Ecuador, many Ecuadorian bands believe the lack of a strong local music industry is the primary reason that Ecuadorian rock music has not found international commercial success.

Festejo

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

There are theories that describe the Festejo as a dance that began in Lima in the mid-17th century, but they do not provide evidence to support these hypotheses. No musical example has yet been established to show that this musical form existed before 1800. However, some Festejos dating from the 19th century have been identified. Since the middle of the 20th century, old Festejos have been collected from the areas of Lima, Aucallama, Cañete and Chincha. The development of Afro-Peruvian musical traditions occurred during the period of slavery and colonial governance in Peru. Raúl R. Romero says that Peru was as a major center of Black slavery throughout the colonial era in Latin America because of the significant Black population in costal urban areas such as Lima. Omar H. Ali explains that Afro-Peruvian cultural practices kept surviving through community resistance and cultural resilience which allowed traditions of music and dance to stay. Afro-Peruvian communities kept their cultural traditions alive through dance and music which brought people together to celebrate, even though they were going through difficult times. These practices became powerful expressions of identity and historical memory for the Afro-Peruvian communities. According to musicologist William Tompkins, by the early 1900s the original choreography was almost completely lost. It is from 1949, that a standard choreography for the “Festejo” begins to be generated in the “Peruvian Folk Music and Dance School” (today the José María Arguedas National Higher School of Folklore).

Forró

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origin of the music#

The forrós were popular dances that took place in certain locations, using various rhythms. Forró as a festivity and musical genre has its joint origin in several states of the Brazilian Northeast, emerging in the outskirts of the capitals and in the countryside of the states of Bahia, Pernambuco, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, and Alagoas. Forró encompasses various rural rhythms from several northeastern states, such as baião, xote, arrasta pé, xaxado, coco, rural samba, among many other rhythms. The popular dances, according to the Pernambucan press, were known as “forrobodó” or “forrobodança” or even “forrobodão” already by the end of the 19th century.

Frevo

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins of Frevo#

The frevo music came first. By the end of the 19th century, bands from the Brazilian Army regiments based in the city of Recife started a tradition of parading during the Carnival. Since the Carnival is originally linked to Catholicism, they played religious procession marches and martial music, as well. A couple of infantry and cavalry regiments had famous bands which attracted many followers amongst the populace of the state and it was just a matter of time to people start to compare one to another and cheer for their favorite bands. The two most famous bands were the Espanha (meaning Spain), whose conductor was of Spanish origin, and the 14, from the 14th Infantry Regiment. The bands started to compete with each other and also started playing faster and faster, louder and louder. In order to end the violence, the police started to pursue the capoeiras and arrested many during their exhibitions. The latter reacted in a clever way by carrying umbrellas instead of knives and also disguising the capoeira movements as dance movements. Thus the dances evolved into what would be a unique form of dance - the frevo dance.

Fulía

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History and Etymology#

The name and origins of the fulía can both be traced back to the Canarian folía, which in turn is a folkloric derivation of a harmonic formula common in Renaissance and Baroque style by the same name. Though this initial classical folía bears little resemblance to its Venezuelan descendant, there are some elements that have been preserved throughout the centuries, such as the tonicization to both the relative minor and major (as in a Romanesca progression). The folía of the Canary Islands, however, begins to show more commonalities with some Venezuelan variants. In the Canarian tradition, for example, the singer begins each verse on the major section and ends on the minor, as opposed to the classical form, which begins on the minor. The start of the verses on the major mode is the common way of beginning fulía central. Further evidence to the link between the Renaissance folia and the fulía is that “fulia” was a common Italian spelling of folia. Though the fulía oriental is primarily influenced by these Spanish and Canarian roots, as evidenced by similarities in instrumentation, harmony, and melody, the fulía central has been greatly influenced by Afro-Venezuelan music and traditions in conjunction with the European elements, lending to the vast aesthetic differences between both genres.

Funk carioca

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Subgenres#

There are several subgenres derived from funk carioca.

Brega funk#

Brega funk is a subgenre of Funk Carioca that originated in Recife, influenced by brega and arrocha in the early 2010s in the northeast region of Brazil. Unlike classic funk carioca, brega funk has a polished sound that features syncopated and shimmering MIDI pianos, synthesizers, often filtered guitars and the distinct pitched metallic snare drums called caixas, vocal chops are a common companion to the wobbly kick rhythm and up-down bass inherited from brega and, although the genre commonly ranges from 160 to 180 BPM, the half-time tempo makes it seem slower than other funk subgenres. An example of the Brega funk genre is the song “Parabéns” by Pabllo Vittar.

Funk ostentação

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Funk ousadia

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Description#

The genre has been called by several media outlets the successor of funk ostentação, which, following its initial boom in the late 2000s, was beginning to decline in popularity by 2013–14. The presence of humor in the songs differentiate this genre from songs by Mr. Catra and MC Magrinho, which have a clearer and more evident sex appeal. Some of the genre’s principal exponents are MC Pikachu, MC 2K, MC Bin Laden, MC Pedrinho and MC Brinquedo.

Gaita zuliana

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Grupera

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History#

The original wave of Mexican rock bands got their start mostly with Spanish covers of popular English rock songs. After this initial stage, they moved on to include in their repertoire traditional ranchera songs, in addition to cumbias and ballads. Thus, the 1970s saw the rise of a number of grupera bands that specialized in romantic ballads and songs that up to that point had only been sung with mariachi. The name comes from the fact that many of the bands had names starting with (Group). Most of these groups had a rural origin and many previously played rock music. According to Madrid, cited by Rivera Godina, In the 1990s, the term grupero and its variations started to be part of Mexico’s music industry and began to receive media attention, and, as the first American artist popular on both sides of the border, Selena. The media industry popularized this term to generate products based on grupera, such as the radio station XEQR-FM, whose slogan was (savagely grupero), specialized magazines like Furia Musical and cable channels like Bandamax. Enterprises like Televisa included bands from the grupera wave like Bronco in telenovelas such as Dos mujeres, un camino. In the early 2000s, in Mexico the term Regional Mexican began to be used. Regional Mexican music had already been used for several years in the United States to refer homogeneously to the regional variations of rural Mexican music and avoid including tropical music artists under the label. Meanwhile, grupera came to refer specifically to the bands and solo artists that use electric guitars and basses, electronic keyboards and drums, but that played ballads, cumbias, rancheras, corridos, boleros and huapangos, with said genre being one of many styles under the Regional Mexican umbrella.

Guabina

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Most famous Guabina songs#

In this genre the most important national composition is “Guabina Chiquinquirena” by Alberto Urdaneta and Daniel Bayona. in its traditional version performed by a traditional band like, Guabina @Zikha Hall Open House. There are other samples of music from Tolima Grande as “Guabina Huilense” by Carlos E. Cortes, or “La Suite Colombiana No. 1 – III Guabina” by Gentil Montana, and the Guabina Santandereana (#2) by Lelio Olarte Pardo. Among the new singer-songwriters of Guabina is John Jairo Torres de la Pava from Antioquia.

Guatemalan rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Guatemalan Rock Music#

Spanish language rock music originated in mid-1960s Guatemala. One of the biggest acts of this early period was Luis Galich and his band Santa Fé. Santa Fé played gigs and concerts in Guatemala City and across greater Guatemala. Bands such as Plástico Pesado (later renamed Quetzalumán), which was composed of Manu Ramirez, Tacuche, Rollin y Paco Lam, expanded Guatemalan rock, experimenting with psychedelic influences and original material. Other psychedelic bands of the time included: S.O.S. (Rony de Leon, Chepito Hope, David de Gandarias, Armando Fong), Caballo Loco, Apple Pie (Tito Henkle, Luis Zetina, Rico Molina & Gentry), Cuerpo y Alma, Banda Clásica, Cerebro, La Compañía, Siglo XX, Eclipse, and Pastel de Fresa. One remarkable milestone was the unprecedented creation in 1973–74 of the rock opera Corazón del sol naciente (Heart of the Sunrise) by Sol Naciente, a large youth group of dancers, vocalists, an extended chorus, as well as a band which included Guatemalan percussion instruments and unplugged acoustic guitars, piano, and solo violin. Some of the band members later formed the group Alción. A very important and popular band during the late 1990s and early 2000s was Alux Nahual. They are one of the Spanish lyric writing/singing rock bands that have released a number of recordings in Guatemala. In the beginning, they were heavily influenced by progressive rock’ bands such as Kansas (band) and Jethro Tull (band). Though they added a very important native theme to their lyrics, it never really evolved into their sound. Their members are active musicians playing reunion concerts but mostly keep working as individuals producing and performing. Another popular band was Extincion, which opened for bands such as Control Machete and Enrique Bunbury. They were characterized by their hard lyrics and speed metal sounds. Guatemalan rock bands such as Radio Viejo, Ricardo Andrade y los Últimos Adictos (which disbanded after their leader, Ricardo Andrade, was murdered in Sanarate, El Progreso), Bohemia Suburbana, Viernes verde and Viento en Contra enjoyed popularity among high-school and college students during the 1990s and 2000s. Also popular were Fabulas and La Tona, and Bohemia Suburbana, the most influential band to emerge from the scene around that decade. Fusing influences like U2 and Soda Stereo, Bohemia Suburbana created something rooted in well-crafted melodies and arrangements. Their most noted influences came from underground American and European sounds and some from South America and the Caribbean. The band has been active again after their reunion in 2012 called BS20; they released a new album entitled Imaginaria Sonora which put them back in the Guatemalan rock scene. Their recent single/video Pero Nadie received 20,000 views in one day. Additionally, Viernes Verde, who formed in 1993 (around the same time as Bohemia Suburbana) has continued to perform despite numerous lineup changes. Viernes Verde are also the founders of the rock festival La Garra Chapina, which was created by them to help newcomers get into the Guatemalan rock industry. According to their official band web page, the idea of this concert was to transmit their message through audiovisual aids to represent historical Guatemalan moments. This concert event was one of the first to be broadcast in its entirety by national radio stations in Guatemala. It had a full house and has been continued annually since 1999. Viernes Verde started as a grunge band, but has evolved to play different music styles which gives the band one of its distinctive characteristics. The sounds of Viernes Verde, based on the majority of their songs, would be described as alternative rock. One of the main factors that allowed the group to gain such a strong popularity is their ability to appeal to a broad audience. On their first album titled, Cenizas Bajo Tus Pies, they have six tracks in Spanish and four in English. Having songs in both languages allows them the opportunity to connect with a larger audience. Some Guatemalan rock bands active in the present are: Razones de Cambio, El Tambor de la Tribu, Malacates Trebol Shop, Viernes verde, Redhka, La Gran Calabaza, El Clubo, Viento en Contra, Anarkia, Sinattra, Legión, Vitriolo, Bohemia Suburbana, and Especies, among many others. Newer bands, like 4 Tiempos, have emerged in the early 2000s. Hedras Ramos is a young rock guitar player, perhaps the most prolific guitarist representing Guatemala in countries like England and Romania at rock world guitar competitions like Guitar Idol and Ziua Chitarelor 3 respectively. Guatemalan Rock and Roll came to be an influence in the broader Guatemalan society and was synonymous with rebellion, yet it never provided a medium in which a broad base of youth from the 60s and 70s could make something influential enough to affect change in all sectors of society. There were some major factors that prohibited it from being popularly accepted among the country of Guatemalans. During this period, there was a lot of corruption and social unrest in Guatemala. The police would often search and arrest audience members at rock gigs, as well as many other types of gatherings. On occasion, musicians would go missing and never be found or would be found dead. Another factor was that rock music was mainly produced in English. It took some time for the transition of rock music from English to Spanish to be accepted as rock by the people. Today, the sound of the bands has so much to do with what North America produces, and the only efforts to make something original have been attempts to fuse native elements with a rock sound. A unique case on the scene is the rock band Sobrevivencia from Huehuetenango, whose lyrics are sung in Mam, a Mayan language spoken in the Guatemalan northwest. In 2011, a new movement was born called El Ritmo de La Paz created by the company Impulsos Creativos. Its main approach was for new or amateur rock bands to compete for the prize of recording their first album with the company and promotion in the media. 13 amateur bands joined the movement and only seven made it to the finals; they played along with professional bands at Parque de la Industria such as Silent Poetry, Conciencia Sublime, Arena Rock, Nova Epica, Bhios (Huehuetenango), Artifice and Metal Requiem. The winner of the contest was a band called Iridium Mas Alla de Mi Tierra who have been promoted by Impulsos Creativos. They have appeared on national television, and they have been interviewed and their songs played on national radio stations. They are recording their first album as they play numerous concerts. El Ritmo de La Paz is an annual Rock Festival with a message for the utopian peace that every Guatemalan desires.

Guitarrada

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The popularization of the electric guitar in Brazil in the 1950s and 1960s bringing elements of surf music, instrumental rock and guitarists such as The Ventures and Dick Dale, together with the creation of Jovem Guarda in the 1960s, influenced musicians from Pará in the adoption of the electric guitar and the development of the style. The beginning of the guitarrada was the release of the album Lambadas das Quebradas, in 1978, by Mestre Vieira. In 1996, the group Cravo Carbono was formed in Belém and in 1998 released the album Mundo Açu. In the same year, guitarist Ximbinha (at the time known as Chimbinha) released the album Guitarras Que Cantam. In 2003, Cravo Carbono guitarist Pio Lobato created the musical project Mestres da Guitarrada, together with Mestre Vieira, Mestre Curica and Aldo Sena, which released the album Mestres da Guitarrada in 2004.

Huapango

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

()#

The classical brings together a violin, a and a . The classical is characterized by a complex rhythmic structure mixing duple and triple metres which reflect the intricate steps of the dance. When the players sing (in a duet, in a falsetto tone), the violin stops, and the (the rhythm provided by heels hitting the floor) softens. The is danced by men and women as couples. A very popular is , in which two singers alternate pert and funny repartées.

Huayno

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Subgenres#

Carnaval Ayacuchano, a holiday genre from the Ayacucho Region, Peru
Hiyawa or hiyaway (, ), a dry-season ritual song and dance from north of Potosí Department, Bolivia

Dance#

The dance begins with the man offering his right arm to the woman as an invitation for her to dance (there is even a special word for this action, “to invite woman to dance a wayñu”). Alternatively, he puts his handkerchief on the shoulder of the woman. Next, the partners walk along an enclosure, and finally they dance. The dance consists of an agile and vigorous stamping of the feet during which the man follows the woman, opposite to front, touching her with his shoulders after having turned around, and only occasionally he touches his right arm to the left hand of his partner while both swing to the rhythm of the music. His movements are happy and roguish.

Icaro

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology#

The word icaro is believed to derive from the Quechua verb ikaray, which means “to blow smoke in order to heal”.

Medicine songs#

Icaro is most commonly used to describe the medicine songs used by shamans in healing ceremonies, such as with the psychedelic brew ayahuasca. Traditionally, these songs can be performed by whistling, singing with the voice or vocables, or playing an instrument such as the didgeridoo or flute. Traditionally, icaros may come to a shaman during a ceremony, be passed down from previous lineages of healers, or come to a shaman during a ‘dieta’ where plant spirits are believed to teach icaros to the shaman directly. The singing or whistling of icaros is sometimes accompanied by a chakapa, a rattle of bundled leaves. Due to the complexity of certain performance techniques, it may take many years to learn certain icaros, and experienced shamans may be able to recite hundreds of them.

Indigenous metal music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Themes and lyrics#

The term “indigenous metal” is sometimes conflated with “tribal metal,” which is more broadly influenced by pan-indigenous stories and follows Viking metal bands’ approach to capturing their culture. Indigenous metal is often explicitly defined as exploring themes of “experienced dispossession, liberation, and death” in addition to preserving linguistic and cultural heritage. Native American metal bands in the Southwest United States sometimes refer to their musical style as “Rez metal,” as it concerns political issues that make it popular among youth on reservations. Many bands focus on linguistic preservation by singing either partially or exclusively in their indigenous languages. Notably, New Zealand band Alien Weaponry have performed several songs in the Māori language on international stages. Bands Aborigene and Araña, who write about Maya civilization and Pipil stories, are among the most popular metal acts from El Salvador.

Jarana yucateca

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Jarana Dance is Performed in Mérida, Valladolid and Elsewhere Throughout the State of Yucatán#

Jarana performers can be seen performing in Parque Francisco Cantón Rosado in Valladolid, Yucatán, Mexico quite often. Jarana is the name of the dance originally performed during " https://latamliving.com/best-cities-mexico/#vaqueria-jarana " celebration but is seen performed throughout the year in various central parks or zócalos throughout the Yucatán including Mérida, Yucatán’s capital.

A Fusion of Spanish and Maya Culture and Music#

The vaquería occurred when the Spanish conquistador cattle farmers called upon the local Maya to count and brand the cattle on the hacienda. The Spanish allowed the Yucatecas to celebrate for all the hard work that was required and joined in on the vaquería celebration.

Jongo

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Sources#

Carneiro, Edison. “Samba de umbigada.” In: Folguedos Tradicionais. Rio de Janeiro: Funarte/INF, 1982 1961 .
Dias, Paulo. “A outra festa negra.” In: Festa: cultura e sociabilidade na América Portuguesa, edited by I. Jancsó and I. Kantor. São Paulo: Hucitec/Edusp/Fapesp/Imprensa Oficial, 2001.
Lara, Silvia Hunold & Pacheco, Gustavo (orgs.) Memória do jongo: as gravações históricas de Stanley J. Stein. Rio de Janeiro: Folha Seca, 2007.
Meira Monteiro, Pedro & Stone, Michael (orgs.) Cangoma calling: Spirits and Rhythms of Freedom in Brazilian Jongo Slavery Songs. Dartmouth: University of Massachusetts, Luso-Asio-Afro-Brazilian Studies & Theory, vol. 3, 2013. http://www.laabst.net/laabst3/#sthash.yWulDIw0.dpuf
Pacheco, Gustavo. “Jongos.” In: Colin Palmer (ed.) Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History: The Black Experience in the Americas. New York: Macmillan, 2005.
Ribeiro, Maria de Lourdes Borges. O Jongo. Rio de Janeiro: Funarte/Instituto Nacional do Folclore, 1984.
Stein, Stanley J. Vassouras: A Brazilian Coffee County, 2nd ed. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985.

External links#

“Pontão de Cultura do Jongo”, web site and cultural program develop by the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) and the National Heritage Institute of Brazil (IPHAN) together with 16 communities that practice jongo in Southeast Brazil: http://www.pontaojongo.uff.br
“Jongo no Sudeste”, dossier produced by the National Heritage Institute of Brazil (IPHAN): http://portal.iphan.gov.br/uploads/publicacao/PatImDos_jongo_m.pdf
“Jongo da Serrinha”, first video shot in Serrinha in the late 70’s, YouTube

Joropo

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Tuyero#

Central joropo () is also known as (“Tuyan”), (“Tuyan joropo”) or (“Tuyan beat”). Characteristic of the central states of Venezuela, like Aragua and Miranda, eastern Carabobo and northern Guárico, central joropo, or tuyero (as practiced in the Valles del Tuy along the Tuy River) is sung accompanied by harp (, sometimes replaced by guitar) and maracas. Unlike the nylon strings of the llanera harp, the central joropo harp also uses metal strings, which gave its unique sound. The central joropo singer also plays the maracas and dances, requiring just two performers: the harpist, and the singer-maraquero. Joropo harpists prefer the name “arpisto” rather than , the usual Spanish word for “harpist”. The central joropo him the same considerations are applied around the passage and hit burrowing joropo, except speed, which is slightly lower. Another important distinction is that the central joropo revuelta consists of a chain of musical sections of fixed forms, in the same tone as a Baroque suite, without interruption, but with surprising twists. The movements of the revuelta are called passage; input or call Yaguazo, Yaguazo, and Marisela Guabina input. Sometimes they can call Marisela added to them, and even a small coda. The revuelta is thus equivalent to the batch or shift dance, and its length is probably the reason for its gradual decline in use, being replaced by the execution of the parts in isolation. The arrangement of these sections is of sequential nature, unlike golpes of Llanero joropo, having a cyclic condition. The most characteristic part of tuyero joropo, the Tuyera Revuelta consists of four sections: the exhibition (passage), development (yaguazo and guabina), the instrumental coda named Marisela, and an end known as “monkey call.” They are central joropo own beats flowers and quitapesares. The most famous passages tuyeros are The Hermit Mario Diaz, Dawn tuyero of Cipriano Moreno and Pablo Hidalgo, and El gato enmochilado (Cat in a bag) by Fulgencio Aquino. Caraqueños and central musicians adopted central joropo as inspiration for their works, as in the case of Marisela (Sebastián Díaz Peña), the Alma Llanera (Pedro Elias Gutierrez), the waltz Quitapesares (Carlos Bonet) and even Creole Sonatina of Juan Bautista Plaza. Central joropo lyrics are of a sly, sardonic nature, in contrast to the forceful and violent own burrowing joropo, whose contrapunteos (counterpoints) end up not infrequently in sets and fights. The most characteristic of tuyero folklore piece, “The Tuyero Revolt” (“Revuelta tuyera”), consists of four sections: the exhibition (passage), development (yaguaso and guabina), the instrumental coda (“Marisela”) and an end known as “the call monkey”. The most famous tuyero passages are “El ermitaño” of Mario Diaz, “Amanecer tuyero” of Cipriano Moreno and Pablo Hidalgo, and “El gato enmochilado” of Fulgencio Aquino.

Jovem Guarda

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History#

Brazilian rock began in 1955, with Bill Haley, with the arrival of artists such as Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry to success, several young people in Brazil began to admire this new style. In 1956 the first Brazilian rock band, The Jordans, appeared. In 1957, the singer Celly Campello, who is now considered the mother of Brazilian rock, appeared. At the beginning of the 1960s, several Brazilian rock artists and bands began to appear, having a lot of influence from Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and others. In 1963 the song “She Loves You” by the Beatles was very successful in Brazil; the chorus “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” became so popular among young people that the chorus became the name of the first Brazilian youth movement, the rock and roll movement. “Iê, ie, iê” became very popular throughout Brazil. In 1965 TV Record in São Paulo decided to show a program named Jovem Guarda every Sunday. The program would present Brazilian rock artists and bands featuring “Iê, iê, iê”. The Jovem Guarda program was presented by three artists who stood out in Iê, iê, iê, the singers Roberto Carlos and Erasmo Carlos, two of the pioneers of Brazilian rock, and the singer Wanderléa. The program was successful from the first episode, for this reason, the name of the movement was replaced by the youth from Iê, iê, iê to Jovem Guarda, after which, the singer Roberto Carlos was responsible for creating several slangs that were used by millions of young people in Brazil until today, including “Barra Limpa Mora!,” “Que Broto Lindo,” “Minha Caranga,” “Eai Bicho” and the most famous “É Uma Brasa Mora!” The Young Guard had mainly the Beatles as an influence, with rock and roll, pop rock and psychedelic rock. The band The Brazilian Bitles was the first to apply psychedelia in Brazilian rock. The name The Brazilian Bitles is a parody of the Beatles, but they are one of the most important bands in the Jovem Guarda. With the end of the program in 1968, the movement began to become weak with the emergence of tropicália, another very famous movement in Brazil. The Jovem Guarda were responsible for revolutionizing music in Brazil. As the country was going through a military dictatorship, many albums by international bands and artists were not sold in Brazil, so it was with the Beatles, that their songs were often released in compilations of greatest international hits. For this reason, several artists and bands from Jovem Guarda made versions of international songs with lyrics totally different from the original, following the same rhythm. It was very popular at the time, and before recording, the artists got in contact with the original composers to be able to record the version. The Jovem Guarda was similar to Beatlemania, with fans screaming and even invading the stage just to see their idols. Jovem Guarda changed the way of thinking of the youth of the time, being a movement that revolutionized Brazilian music with the use of rhythms. more agitated, with the voice screamed in some songs and also by the use of the organ in many songs. One of the most important bands in Jovem Guarda is the band Renato e Seus Blue Caps, who stood out with versions of Beatles songs such as “Menian Linda” version of “I Should Have Known Better” and “Meu Primeiro Amor” version of “You’re Gonna Lose That Girl.” The name Jovem Guarda was born from the phrase of the Russian leader Lenin: “The future belongs to the young guard because the old one is outdated.”

Kaseko

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Etymology#

The term Kaseko may be derived from Kasékò, a Guianan creole dance.

History#

Kaseko emerged from the traditional Afro-Surinamese kawina music, which was played since the beginning of 1900 by street musicians in Paramaribo. It evolved in the 1930s during festivities that used large bands, especially brass bands, and was called Bigi Poku (“big drum music”). In the late 1940s, jazz, calypso, and other importations became popular, while rock and roll soon left its own influence in the form of electrified instruments. Eddy Snijders incorporated kaseko to symphonic music. In the 1970s, Surinamese diaspora living in the Netherlands, such as Lieve Hugo and Ewald Krolis, popularised kaseko.

Kawina (music)

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Origin#

The genre shares its name with the river Commewijne and the district with the same name: both are called kauna in Sranan Tongo. There are several theories about the origin of this name. According to one theory, kawina was created on the Upper Commewijne by Maroons influenced by indigenous Surinamese. According to a second, it was called mabu poku, and later renamed after a talented singer in the Commewijne District. According to a third theory, kawina originated among gold miners and rubber tappers in the rainforest.

Lambada

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Maxixe#

The association of Lambada and the idea of ‘dirty dancing’ became quite extensive. The appellative “forbidden dance” was and is often ascribed to the Lambada. This was largely due to its links to Maxixe, a dance of the early 1920s, because of its spicy lyrics and close contact with the dance partner. This idea was further perpetuated by the 1990 movies Lambada and The Forbidden Dance, and the short skirts, typical for the Lambada dance, that were in fashion around 1988. Lambada has many links with Maxixe and also with Forro. They have many figures in common. For example: *Balão apagado, a figure in which the lady rotates her head while it hangs loose. *Peão (also called boneca or toy doll), a figure in which the lady swings her head from side to side.

Latin ballad

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Origin and evolution#

Music fans can find roots of “Ballads” in pre-war years. Blues and jazz in the United States underwent transformations that were brewing since the 1930s and 1940s and that led to the origin of new rhythms. Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas”, Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich’s “Lili Marleen” and Dooley Wilson’s “As Time Goes By” were examples of early Ballad singers. Rock and roll in the mid-1950s transforms contemporary types of music in terms of how to sing them and instrumentation, which includes electric instruments in addition to the traditional balladism. Ballads spread in the acetates records and in American cinema to the world also influencing. One of the main diffusers was Elvis Presley, when he diversified his music, in addition to rock and roll, cultivating the new ballad, influencing the romantic Sentimental ballad of the late decade (led by Paul Anka “You are my Destiny”,1958, “Put your Head on my Shoulder”,1959, and Neil Sedaka ). Postwar years 1950s, Latin America, Europe and the other continents received American musical influence and produced reissues of American ballads with new lyrics in native languages for more than a decade. Trio Los Panchos gained latin ballad hits such as “Besame Mucho”, “Sabor a Mí”, “Solamente Una Vez”, and “Quizas, Quizas, Quizas”. The Latin or romantic ballad has its origin in the Latin American bolero in the 1950s (Lucho Gatica, Leo Marini), but also in the romantic song in Italian (Domenico Modugno) and French (Charles Aznavour, George Mustaki) in the 1960s and 1970s. In Mexico, the ballad recorded as such is “Sonata de Amor” (Sonata of Love) of Mario Álvarez in 1961. In 1965 the famous bolero singer-songwriter Armando Manzanero, sang his ballad, “Pobres besos míos” (My Poor Kisses). Latin ballad was popular during the 1970s in Latin America, where artists such as Mocedades, Emmanuel, Julio Iglesias, José José, José Luis Rodriguez, Camilo Sesto, Raphael, Roberto Carlos, Rocío Dúrcal and others released hits. The main hits of Mocedades “Eres Tú”, José José were “El triste” (The Sad One), “La nave del olvido” (The Ship of Forgetfullness), “Te extraño” (I Miss You, also written by Manzanero), “Amar y querer” (To love and To want). By Roberto Carlos(singer) the songs “Amigos” (Friends) or “Detalles” (Details). By Camilo Sesto the hits “Algo de Mí” (Something from Me), “Perdóname” (Forgive Me), “Si Tú Te Vas” (If you leave), “Melina”, “Jamás” (Never), “Todo por Nada” (All for Nothing), “Fresa Salvaje” (Wild Strawberry) . Rocío Dúrcal enjoyed Latin America success and was known as “La Dama de la canción” (The Lady of Song). These songs gained hit in Latin America. The heyday of the ballad was romantic in the 1980s, where artists such as Julio Iglesias, Amanda Miguel, Ricardo Montaner, Diego Verdaguer and others released a big number of hits. The main hits of Julio Iglesias “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before”, Amanda Miguel were “Así no te amará jamás” (This Way He Will Never Love You), by 1984 among many others that were released in Los Angeles. These songs are widely known today in Southern California. In the course of their existence the genre merged with diverse rhythms to form several variants, such as romantic salsa and cumbia aside others. From the 1990s, globalization and media internationalization processes that integrated contributed to the ballad’s spread international spread and further homogenize around a common Latin identity. As part of the Latin Americanization of the United States and the dominant presence in the genre of multinational record labels, Miami has become the main producer of ballads which in turn has fed back trends of migration of Latino and Hispanic performers, producers and musicians to that city. By the turn of the 2010s however, Latin ballads have begun to lose popularity as uptempo Latin genres such as bachata, reggaeton, and Spanish-language electropop music have gained popularity with the Hispanic audience in the radio.

Latin Christian music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Latin American artists#

Notable artists include Brazilian singers Ana Paula Valadão and Aline Barros http://www.billboard.com/artist/278612/aline-barros/chart , Panamanian musician Santiago Stevenson (d. 2007), Jaime Murrell, Luis “Funky” Marrero, Puerto Rican rapper in the genre of hip-hop, reggaeton, and Christian contemporary music, Willy Redimi2 González Dominican rapper in Latin hip-hop, trap, and Christian contemporary music, Venezuelan pop singer José Luis Rodríguez, Daniel Calveti and Christian Sebastia, Mexican singers/pastors Jesús Adrián Romero, Marcos Witt, and Armando Flores, and singers Alejandro Alonso (musician), Marco Barrientos, Ecuador’s Paulina Aguirre, Salvadorian Álvaro Torres, Colombia’s Alex Campos and Ericson Molano, and Mexican band Rojo. Other artists include Samuel Hernández, Roberto Orellana, Annette Moreno, and Christian singers like Daniela G Mangrum.

Latin hip-hop

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West Coast#

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, most Latin rap came from New York and the West Coast of the United States. Due to the heaviest Puerto Rican migration to New York City in the ’50s, during the ’70s, the birth of Latin Hip-Hop involved Hispanic from the Caribbean island. Early hip-hop from the United States had a significant influence on early Puerto Rican hip-hop pioneers such as Ruben DJ, DJ Negro, and Vico-C. Mellow Man Ace, from Cuba, was the first Hispanic artist to have a major bilingual single, the 1989 track “Mentirosa”. This song went platinum, leading Mellow Man Ace to be described as the “Godfather of Latin rap” and inducted into the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame inductee. In 1990, fellow West Coast artist Kid Frost further brought Hispanics to the rap forefront with his hit song “La Raza”. In 1991, Kid Frost, Mellow Man, A.L.T. and several other Latin rappers formed the rap super group Latin Alliance and released a self-titled album which featured the hit “Lowrider (On the Boulevard)”. The remake of the song Tequila was an A.L.T. hit later that year. Cypress Hill, of which Mellow Man Ace was a member before going solo, would become the first Hispanic rap group to reach platinum status in 1991. The group was also the first major hip-hop music group to include Spanish and Latin slang in their lyrics. Cypress Hill gained hit “Insane in the Brain”(1993) and Platinum record. Ecuadorian-born American rapper Gerardo received heavy rotation on video and radio for his single Rico Suave. While commercially watered-down, his album enjoyed a status of being one of the first mainstream Spanglish CDs on the market. Johnny J was a multi-platinum songwriter, music producer, and rapper who was perhaps best known for his production on Tupac Shakur’s albums All Eyez on Me and Me Against the World. He also produced the 1990 single Knockin’ Boots for his classmate Candyman’s album Ain’t No Shame in My Game, which eventually went platinum thanks to the single. N2Deep, A Lighter Shade of Brown, Proper Dos, and Slow Pain were popular in Latin rap scene. In the mid-1990s, the success of LA’s Cypress Hill led to additional Latin hip-hop artists finding label support. Delinquent Habits were a horn-sampling trio that found MTV support for their breakout bilingual single “Tres Delinquentes” in 1996. By the early 2000s, two Mexico-born, United States-raised Latin hip-hop acts found success on major labels. LA’s Akwid fused banda with hip-hop on hits like “No Hay Manera” while Milwaukee’s Kinto Sol told tales of Mexican immigrant life over more minimalist beats. Mr.Criminal, Mr.Capone-E, Mr.Knightowl, Ms.Krazie, Charlie Row Campo and Mr.Sancho released Latin and Chicano rap CDs.

Latin jazz

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“Spanish tinge”—The Cuban influence in early jazz and proto-Latin jazz#

African American music began incorporating Afro-Cuban musical motifs in the 19th century, when the habanera (Cuban contradanza) gained international popularity. The habanera was the first written music to be rhythmically based on an African motif. The habanera rhythm (also known as congo, tango-congo, or tango ) can be thought of as a combination of tresillo and the backbeat. Wynton Marsalis considers tresillo to be the New Orleans “clave,” although technically, the pattern is only half a clave. “St. Louis Blues” (1914) by W. C. Handy has a habanera-tresillo bass line. Handy noted a reaction to the habanera rhythm included in Will H. Tyler’s “Maori”: “I observed that there was a sudden, proud and graceful reaction to the rhythm…White dancers, as I had observed them, took the number in stride. I began to suspect that there was something Negroid in that beat.” After noting a similar reaction to the same rhythm in “La Paloma”, Handy included this rhythm in his “St. Louis Blues”, the instrumental copy of “Memphis Blues”, the chorus of “Beale Street Blues”, and other compositions. Jelly Roll Morton considered the tresillo-habanera (which he called the Spanish tinge) to be an essential ingredient of jazz. The habanera rhythm can be heard in his left hand on songs like “The Crave” (1910, recorded 1938). Now in one of my earliest tunes, “New Orleans Blues,” you can notice the Spanish tinge. In fact, if you can’t manage to put tinges of Spanish in your tunes, you will never be able to get the right seasoning, I call it, for jazz—Morton (1938: Library of Congress Recording). Although the exact origins of jazz syncopation may never be known, there is evidence that the habanera-tresillo was there at its conception. Buddy Bolden, the first known jazz musician, is credited with creating the big four, a habanera-based pattern. The big four (below) was the first syncopated bass drum pattern to deviate from the standard on-the-beat march. As the example below shows, the second half of the big four pattern is the habanera rhythm. It is probably safe to say that by and large the simpler African rhythmic patterns survived in jazz … because they could be adapted more readily to European rhythmic conceptions. Some survived, others were discarded as the Europeanization progressed. It may also account for the fact that patterns such as tresillo have . . . remained one of the most useful and common syncopated patterns in jazz—Schuller (1968). The Cuban influence is evident in many pre-1940s jazz tunes, but rhythmically, they are all based on single-celled motifs such as tresillo, and not do not contain an overt two-celled, clave-based structure. “Caravan”, written by Juan Tizol and first performed in 1936, is an early proto-Latin jazz composition. Mongo Santamaría recorded ever green “Watermelon Man” in 1962. Hank Mobley, Kenny Dorham, and Willie Bobo released latin jazz albums. Willie Bobo fused jazz, latin, and R&B music.

Latin music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Terminology and categorization#

Because the majority of Latino immigrants living in New York City in the 1950s were of Puerto Rican or Cuban descent, “Latin music” had been stereotyped as music simply originating from the Spanish Caribbean. The popularization of bossa nova and Herb Alpert’s Mexican-influenced sounds in the 1960s did little to change the perceived image of Latin music. In 1969, the first international organization which attempted to define Latin music was the Festival Mundial de la Canción Latina which included Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian-speaking countries across Latin America and Europe. However, the event only lasted for two years. Since then, the music industry classifies all music sung in Spanish or Portuguese as Latin music, including musics from Spain and Portugal. Enrique Fernandez wrote in Billboard that the lone category for Latin music meant that all Latin music genres had to compete with each other despite the distinct sounds of the genre. He also noted that the accolade was usually given to performers of tropical music. Eight years later, the organization debuted three new categories for Latin music: Best Latin Pop Performance, Best Mexican/Mexican-American Performance, and Best Tropical Latin Performance. Latin pop is a catch-all for any pop music sung in Spanish, while Mexican/Mexican-American (also to referred to as Regional Mexican) is defined as any musical style originating from Mexico or influences by its immigrants in the United States including Tejano, and tropical music is any music from the Spanish Caribbean. In 1997, NARAS established the Latin Recording Academy (LARAS) in an effort to expand its operations in both Latin America and Spain. In September 2000, LARAS launched the Latin Grammy Awards, a separate award ceremony from the Grammy Awards. Its organizers stated that the Latin music universe was too large to fit within the Grammys. Michael Greene, former head of NARAS, said that the process of creating the Latin Grammy Awards was complicated due to the diverse Latin musical styles, noting that the only thing they had in common was language. As a result, the Latin Grammy Awards are presented to records performed in Spanish or Portuguese, while the organization focuses on music from Latin America, Spain, and Portugal. Since the late 1990s, the United States has seen increasing growth in its population of “Latinos”, a term popularized since the 1960s due to confusing the wrong term “Spanish” with the more proper but less popular term “Hispanic”. The music industry in the United States began to refer to any kind of music featuring Spanish vocals as “Latin music”. Under this definition, Spanish sung in any genre is categorized as “Latin”. In turn, this has led to artists from Spain being labelled as “Latin” because they sing in the same language. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Billboard magazine use this definition of Latin music to track sales of Spanish-language records in the United States. Billboard however considers an artist to be “Latin” if they perform in Spanish or Portuguese. The RIAA initiated the “Los Premios de Oro y Platino” (“The Gold and Platinum Awards” in Spanish) in 2000 to certify sales of Latin music albums and singles under a different threshold than its standard certifications. Billboard divides its Latin music charts into three subcategories: Latin pop, Regional Mexican, and tropical. A fourth subcategory was added in the mid 2000s to address the rise of Latin urban music genres such as Latin hip hop and reggaeton.

Latin pop

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History#

Latin pop first reached a global audience through the work of bandleader Sergio Mendes in the mid-1960s, although artists like Carmen Miranda popularized Latin samba music in Hollywood decades before this. In later decades, it was defined by the romantic ballads that legendary artists such as Julio Iglesias or Roberto Carlos produced in the 1970s. Latin pop is one of the most popular Latin music genres today. Popular artists include Los del Río, Jennifer Lopez, Alejandro Sanz, Thalía, Luis Miguel, Selena, Paulina Rubio, Shakira, Carlos Vives, Ricky Martin, Gloria Trevi and Enrique Iglesias. Ricky Martin is considered to be the King of Latin Pop.

Latin R&B

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Characteristics#

Vocals include a majority of singing and occasionally rapping, in Spanish. The lyrics in Latin R&B are often about sadness, heartbreak, and sex.

History#

Latin R&B can trace its roots to Latin pop songs with an American R&B and new jack swing influence, such as the Selena and Barrio Boyzz song “Donde Quiera Que Estés” released in 1994. According to Rolling Stone, Spanish-language singles by Álex Rose, Rauw Alejandro and Paloma Mami, which borrow from R&B, reached a global audience. and most notably Sech’s “Otro Trago”, which peaked in number one in Spain, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico. In the United States, “Otro Trago” reached the top of the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart and peaked at No. 34 in the Hot 100.

Latin rock

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Origins (1950s–1960s)#

Rock and roll music of the 1950s originated from a variety of sources including rhythm and blues, blues, gospel, country, bluegrass, western swing, and Tin Pan Alley pop music. Also, there was some influence of the traditional Latin music. Caribbean rhythms like calypso were used in surf music; and there were some rock and roll songs based on cha-cha-chá or mambo. Latin rock was born in the United States during the late 1950s, though the term was not yet created. In 1958 an adaptation of a Mexican folk song called “La Bamba” was recorded by the Chicano rock artist Ritchie Valens. That same year, instrumental rock band the Champs released “Tequila”, a song that incorporates clear Latin sounds and was composed by the band’s chicano saxophonist Danny Flores). During the 1960s, there were more examples of rock artists like Thee Midniters, Question Mark & the Mysterians, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs or Sir Douglas Quintet that included Latin rhythms on their compositions. Also Chicano rock became popular in California; although not all of these can be considered early Latin rock artists since many of them lacked the Latin folk influences. In some Latin American countries, Latin rock started to develop as well. In Peru, Colombia, Argentina, but specially Brazil where Tropicália appeared in the mid-1960s with the first releases of Os Mutantes, Gal Costa and Caetano Veloso from 1967 to 1970, a music movement that merged rock music with bossa nova, psychedelia and other Latin elements, and this can be regarded as the main root of the genre.

Lundu (dance)

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History#

The interconnectedness of Lusophone countries dates back to the Atlantic Slave Trade, between Portugal, Brazil and regions of Africa. In the 15th century, the Portuguese were the primary exporters of African slaves to the Americas, and with slaves came their musical traditions. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, there was a massive Brazilian presence in Angola, enabling a cultural exchange between the two Portuguese colonies. This exchange enabled subtle amalgamations of musical styles between Angola, Brazil and other African slave trade countries. The establishment of a creole population in Brazil led to further cultural developments in language, religion and art. In 1859, French journalist Charles Ribeyrolles described Afro-Brazilian free practices on a fazenda in Rio de Janeiro province:

Malagueña (genre)

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History and Etymology#

The malagueña traces its origins back to Andalusia, evidenced clearly in the name, as “malagueña” pertains to the city of Málaga in southern Andalusia. This link is further evidenced by the malagueñas palo of flamenco, which has a similar harmonic progression to the Venezuelan genre. There is a further possibility that the malagueña entered Venezuela not directly from Andalusia but instead through settlers from the Canary Islands. Isleño folk music also includes a style of malagueña which derives from the flamenco palo. Like the Venezuelan malagueña, the isleño malagueña’s timple accompaniment marks the beats of the 3/4 time, where in flamenco it is more common to perform the malagueñas in “cante libre”. Furthermore, multiple verses are typically performed in the isleño and Venezuelan malagueñas, whilst in flamenco it is not uncommon to perform only one verse. Given these commonalities with the Canary Islands malagueña, coupled with Venezuela’s long history of Canarian settlement and immigration, there is support to the origin of the Venezuelan malagueña in the Canary Islands as opposed to the Spanish mainland. Margariteño musician and composer José Elías “Chelías” Villaroel proposes an alternate etymology for the malagueña, suggesting that the genre was originally entitled halagüeña (from halagar “to flatter”) due to the flattering nature of the lyrics, and only later was the “m” added via conflation with the existing musical styles from Spain and Andalusia. He also attests that it originated in the Venezuelan state of Sucre.

Mangue bit

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Origin#

The basis for Mangue started towards the end of Brazil’s military dictatorship at the beginning of the 1980s. The relaxation of censorship increased the availability of imported music, especially from the United States and the United Kingdom, leading to an increase of Brazilian-made rock music. In Recife, university students, including some of the founding characters of the movement, DJ Renato L. and Fred 04, started a radio show called Décadas, further facilitating the influence of rock music, especially underground music from England, leading to a large increase in Recife-based rock bands. Fred 04 notes that when Mundo Livre S/A began in 1984, poor economic circumstances and the lack of a music circuit in Recife, made it especially difficult for them, and similar music groups to find places to play. In the early 90s, Paulo Andre Pires, who would become Nação Zumbi’s impresario, began producing shows in Recife and invited both local and international bands to perform. Despite being both being cited as founders for the Mangue movement, Chico Science and Nação Zumbi (CSNZ), and Mundo Livre S/A have different influences and backgrounds. Chico Science was born to a lower-middle-class family in the neighborhood of Rio Doce in the city of Olinda. Having grown up being surrounded by regional folk music he also was heavily influenced by music of Recife such as maracatu, ciranda, embolada, and côco. Chico with his friend, Jorge du Peixe, joined several groups; Legião Hip Hop, Orla Orbe, and Loustal, before finding and meeting members of Lamento Negro, a bloco afro specializing in samba-reggae, in 1990 and forming what would be CSNZ. Lead singer Fred 04, described the idea for the band as “a fusion, a bridge between Johnny Rotten of the punk band. the Sex Pistols and Jorge Ben a pioneering Brazilian pop musician who fuses funk. soul. and samba and Moreira da Silva a samba musician from the 1930s and ’40s , understand? …. It would be a type of new wave but very Brazilian, really very Brazilian, that would be identified neither as rock nor as MPB an acronym for Música Popular Brasileira, “Brazilian Popular Music” “. When first hearing Chico Science in a mashup performance of Loustal and Lamento Negro, he thought the combination of the local/global juxtaposition, as well as the difference in geographical location, could launch what would become the Mangue movement into something that would highlight Recife’s diversity.

Maracatu

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Maracatu Nação#

Maracatu nação (also known as maracatu de baque virado: “maracatu of the turned-around beat”), the most well-known of the maracatu genres, is an Afro-Brazilian performance genre practiced in the state of Pernambuco, mainly in the cities of Recife and Olinda. The term, often shortened simply to nação (“nation”, pl. nações), refers not only to the performance but to the performing groups themselves. Maracatu nação’s origins lie in the investiture ceremonies of the Reis do Congo (Kings of Congo), who were enslaved people who were granted leadership roles within the enslaved community by the Portuguese administration. When slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888, the institution of the Kings of Congo ceased to exist. Nonetheless, nações continued to choose symbolic leaders and evoke coronation ceremonies for those leaders. Although a maracatu performance is secular, traditional nações are grouped around Candomblé or Jurema (Afro-Brazilian religions) terreiros (bases), and the principles of Candomblé infuse their activities. Traditional nações perform by parading with a drumming group of 80–100, a singer and chorus, and a coterie of dancers and stock characters including a king and a queen. Dancers and stock characters dress and behave to imitate the Portuguese royal court of the Baroque period. The performance also enacts pre-colonial African traditions, like parading the calunga, a doll representing tribal deities that is kept throughout the year in a special place in the nação’s headquarters. The calungas, usually female, are traditionally made of either wax and wood or of cloth. They may have clothing made for them in a similar Baroque style to the costumes worn by the other members of the royal court. The calunga is sacred, and carrying this spiritual figurehead of the group is a great responsibility for the female Dama de Paço (Lady-in-Waiting) of the cortège. The musical ensemble consists of alfaia (a large wooden rope-tuned drum), gonguê (a metal cowbell), tarol (a shallow snare drum), caixa-de-guerra (or “war-snare”), abê (a gourd shaker enveloped in a net of beads), and mineiro (a metal cylindrical shaker filled with metal shot or small dried seeds). The song form is call and response between a solo singer and (usually) a female chorus. Today there are around 20 nações operating in the cities of Recife and Olinda. Although several have an unbroken line of activity going back to the 19th century, most have been set up in recent decades. Well-known nações include Estrela Brilhante, Leão Coroado, and Porto Rico. Each year they perform during the Carnival period in Recife and Olinda. Maracatu Nação Pernambuco, while not a traditional maracatu, was primarily responsible for introducing the genre to overseas audiences in the 1990s. The genre has inspired the establishment of performing groups in a number of cities outside Brazil, including Lisbon, Toronto, Quebec City, New York City, Austin, Washington, D.C., Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, Lyon, Stockholm, London, Edinburgh, Brighton, Madison, Oakland, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, Manchester, Bristol, Oxford, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Madrid.

Maracatu Nação

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History#

The oldest record of Maracatu Nação dates back to 1711, but the year of its origin is uncertain. However, it is clear that it originated in Pernambuco and has transformed ever since. There are Maracatu Nação groups all over Brazil, as well as abroad, especially in Europe and North America.

Parade#

The maracatu parades are an example of the ancient African courts, since the blacks, when kidnapped and sold into slavery, carried their titles of nobility back to Brazil. The parade is formed by a flag or banner opening the wings. At the back is the dama do paço, who carries the mystical calunga, representing all the group’s spiritual entities. Respectively, the iabás (popularly called baianas) follow and, shortly afterwards, the court, the king and queen of the maracatu, titles handed down hereditarily. This wing represents the nobility of the Nação. On each side are the slaves or catirinas, usually young women wearing chiton dresses. Keeping the rhythm of the parade, the batuqueiros follow. The instruments are diverse: alfaias, boxes or taróis, ganzás and abês, these led by women who are at the head of the group and who make their playing a spectacle in itself.

Mariachi

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Name#

The origin of the word is disputed, but prominent theories attribute it to deep roots. One states that it comes from the name of the wood used to make the dance platform. Another states that mariachi comes from the indigenous name of a tree called pilla or cirimo; yet another states that it came from an image locally called María H (pronounced Mari-Ache). It is possible to use the terms mariachi and ranchera interchangeably. Although they have different meanings, one can describe mariachi music as ranchera music and vice versa. Mariachi refers to a Mexican folk music tradition within a larger genre called ranchera music (music from the ranch). Mariachi refers to many things: a certain body of repertoire, a musical style, a robust singing style, a solo singer or performer in a charro suit, and/ or an ensemble. The oldest references to mariachi documented are more than 100 certificates of baptisms, burials and marriages in which the Mariachi ranch appears, between 1832 and 1850. It was located near the river Santiago, in Nayarit. The word mariachi was once thought to have derived from the French word (‘marriage’), dating from the French intervention in Mexico in the 1860s, related to the music’s appearance at weddings. This was a common explanation on record jackets and travel brochures but was disproven with the appearance of documents that showed that the word existed before this invasion: In 1981, a letter written by Catholic priest Cosme Santa Ana to the archbishop in 1852 was discovered in the archives of a church, where he complains about the noise as well as the drinking and gambling antics of the “mariachis,” long before the French occupation.

Maroon music

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Maxixe (dance)

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External links#

Example of dance in YouTube
The Maxixe

Merengue music

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History#

The origins of the music are traced to the land of El Cibao, where merengue cibaeño and merengue típico are the terms most musicians use to refer to classical merengue. The word Cibao was a native name for the island, although the Spanish used it in their conquest to refer to a specific part of the island, the highest mountainous range. The term merengue cibaeño is therefore partially native and so merengue might also be a derivation of a native word related to song, music, dance, or festival. Merengue was first mentioned in the mid-19th century with the earliest documented evidence being newspaper articles. Some of the articles inform about a “lascivious” dance, and also highlight merengue displacing the Tumba. The genre had originated within the rural, northern valley region around the city of Santiago called the Cibao. It later spread throughout the country and became popular among the urban population. The oldest form of merengue was typically played on string instruments. When the accordion came to the island in the 1880s, introduced by German traders, it quickly became the primary instrument, and to this day is still the instrument of choice in merengue típico. Later, the piano and brass instruments were introduced to the genre.

Merengue típico

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Early origins#

Merengue first appears in the Caribbean in the 1850s. The earliest documented evidence of merengue in the Dominican Republic are newspaper articles complaining about this “lascivious” dance displacement of the earlier tumba. Early merengue was played on stringed instruments, but the accordion came to the island in the 1880s, introduced by German traders, and quickly became the primary instrument in merengue. Up until the 1930s, the music was considered immoral. Its more descriptive and colorful name, perico ripia’o (literally “ripped parrot” in Spanish) is said to have been the name of a bordello in Santiago where the music was played. Moralists tried to ban the music and the provocative dance that accompanied it, but with little success. Dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo brought accordionists with him on the campaign trail, and once he took power, he ensured that merengue was embraced as a national music by all classes of Dominicans.

Mexican cumbia

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Origins#

The cumbia has its origins in Colombia going back at least as far as the early 1800s, with elements from indigenous and black music traditions. In the 1940s, Colombian singer Luis Carlos Meyer emigrated to Mexico, where he worked with Mexican orchestra director Rafael de Paz. In the 1950s, he recorded what many believe to be the first cumbia recorded outside of Colombia, “El gallo Tuerto y La Cumbia Cienaguera”. He recorded other hits like “La historia”. Thus Cumbia gained popularity in Mexico. In the 1970s Aniceto Molina also emigrated to Mexico, where he joined the group from Guerrero, La Luz Roja de San Marcos, and recorded many popular tropical cumbia songs like “El Gallo Mojado”, “El Peluquero”, and “La Mariscada”. In the 1970s, Rigo Tovar enjoyed success with his fusion of cumbia music with ballads and rock.

Mexican hip-hop

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History#

The first Mexican rap record started since 1979 by the comedian Guillermo Ríos aka Memo Ríos under his stage name MC Aplausos rapping Sugarhill Gang “Rappers Delight” instrumental on his adaptations “El Cotorreo”. Memo Ríos was not expect that many years later Mexicans started to rap and had success, it was a coincidence and a mistake he stated himself on a video in 2023 talking about his story on how it become the first Mexican rap song in history. The background of the first Mexican rap song started by what he does in his comedian shows by having topics like the daily life in México, Mexican’s attitude, Mexican pop culture and celebrities with their slangs and sense of humor, there was no inspiration on the hip-hop culture or any other kind. Memo’s friend Elias Cervantes was a director of the radio station Radio Variedades along with Cervantes friends had great relationships with the radio stations, borrows the Rappers Delight record to Memo. Memo was thinking too much to make his Spanish Rappers Delight version, he took three days to write his lyrics, he went to record his song on the studio Orbimex which was a small record studio that made it possible to record the first Mexican rap song ever made. After he recorded his first rap song, Memo continued to record more rap parody songs such as “Pedro Infante Murió”, “Muy Delgada” (Vanilla Ice: Ice, Ice Baby parody), “Memotronic” (Technotronic: This Beat is Technotronic parody), “Cosa Loca” (The Troggs: Wild Thing parody) and “Mi Bella Genio” (Dimples D: Sucker DJ (A Witch For Love) parody) in the early 1990s. After 33 years of Mexican Hip-Hop, in 2023 Spotify started to make a mural based on their playlist “50 Años de Hip-Hop Mexicano” in Mexico City that locates on Avenida Chapultepec 68 street on the Doctores neighborhood for celebrating 50 Years of Hip-Hop, curated by Toy Selectah by selecting the best hits from old school rap thru the new school rap. Memo Ríos appears on the mural that is the only one that doesn’t have his music catalog on Spotify along with Control Machete, Cartel de Santa, Akwid, Alemán, Gera MX, Santa Fe Klan, MC Davo, Snow Tha Product, , Lefty SM & among others. The hip-hop movement started since 1991 by groups as Sindicato del Terror (SDT) & 4to Del Tren both from State of Mexico, in 1996 is the beginning of reached with the emergence of the group from Monterrey, Nuevo León, Control Machete were the first hip-hop group to make rap genre mainstream successful by promoting their music videos on MTV. Control Machete were the first hip-hop group to earn money with music, to sign massive record deal contract such as Universal Music Group & Polygram, having tours on Latin America, United States, Spain & Germany & having the exact rap production formula as the American hip-hop industry standards. It has evolved to spanning more artists like Cartel de Santa, Dharius, Akwid, Kinto Sol, Alemán, Gera MX, Dyablo, Aczino, and many more.

Mexican pop music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

1970s and 1980s#

On September 13, 1969, Televisa, a Mexican company and the world’s largest Spanish-language television network launched the variety show Siempre en Domingo (Always on Sundays) hosted by Raúl Velasco. Siempre en Domingo became one of the most popular TV shows in Latin America with about 420 million television viewers around the world (according to Televisa and their partners). Siempre en Domingo was a TV show where many artists performed and debuted. At the time, an appearance was a hallmark of success and performers considered an appearance on the program as a guarantee of stardom similar to The Ed Sullivan Show in the United States. Velasco encouraged many Mexican singers such as Lucía Méndez, Lucero, Emmanuel, Mijares, Gloria Trevi, Timbiriche, and Lorenzo Antonio, and helped many of these to become full-fledged stars within the county. Moreover, Velasco presented foreign artists such as Julio Iglesias, Raphael, Miguel Bosé, Chayanne and Ricky Martin. Artists that would bring pop music to Latin America, were, in part by Siempre en Domingo, helped in that effort thanks for their appearances in the program. In 1970 Jose Jose jumped to fame when he sang “El Triste” at the Festival de la Canción Latina. He didn’t win the prestigious singing contest but his performance was so memorable that fans across Latin America considered him the actual winner. The romantic balada, which gained popularity in the 1970s, continued to dominate the Latin music charts in the 1980s. Veteran balladeers who continued to be popular in this decade include Julio Iglesias, José José, Roberto Carlos, and Juan Gabriel. The Latin balada is characterized by its bolero origin by fusing music from the United States with pop, R&B, and rock. Female balada singers that became topped the Latin music charts includes Ana Gabriel, Daniela Romo, Rocío Dúrcal, Gloria Estefan, and Marisela. Notably, several baladas were Spanish-language covers of songs originally performed in Italian. Notable Spanish-language covers of Italian songs include “Maldita primavera” by Yuri, “Toda la Vida” by Emmanuel, “Yo No Te Pido la Luna” by Daniela Romo, and “Tan Enamorados” by Ricardo Montaner. The 1980s gave rise to the teenage groups Menudo, Timbiriche, and Los Chicos, as well as emerging teenage stars such as Luis Miguel and Alejandra Ávalos. By 1988, however, the aforementioned Luis Miguel would transform into an adult superstar at age 18 with the hit La Incondicional (1989). Not too far behind was former Los Chicos’ member Chayanne as he became a leading pop star by the end of the decade, with his 1987 hit Fiesta en America. As young stars begin to rise in Latin music, veterans such as Julio Iglesias, José José, Juan Gabriel, and José Luis Rodríguez El Puma continue their dominance in Latin music. Tejano Music starts to give little rise after Mazz crosses over to Mexico after their albums Una Noche Juntos and No Te Olvidare win Grammys. Aside from the baladas, several Latin pop artists and bands performed variety of Spanish-language pop and dance music targeted to the younger audience. These include Yuri, Marisela, Mecano, Miguel Bosé, Timbiriche, Menudo, and Flans. “Que Te Pasa” became the longest-running chart of the 1980s, spending 16 weeks on top of the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart. Juan Gabriel and Rocío Dúrcal collaborated with Chuck Anderson to incorporate mariachi arrangements on their ballads. Child pop singers such as Luis Miguel, Pedrito Fernández, and Lucerito had a prepubescent following. During the 1980s songwriters like Guillermo Méndez Guiú, Rafael Pérez Botija or Aureo Baqueiro wrote songs for singers like Yuri, Lucía Méndez and musical groups like Timbiriche, Flans and Fandango. These groups headed the radio charts in Mexico and launched international career by promoting their music in Latin America. Other pop music icons in Mexico during the 1980s include José María Napoleón, Magneto, Dulce, Franco de Vita, Juan Luis Guerra, Isabel Pantoja, Ana Torroja and Rocío Dúrcal. Although not all of these singers are from Mexico. The most well-known Mexican singer of the 1970s and 1980s was José José. Known as “El Principe de La Cancion” (The Prince of the Song), he is recognizable for his romantic ballads and gifted vocals. José José has sold over 100 million albums in his career and became a huge influence to very popular singers like: Cristian Castro, Vicente Fernández, Alejandro Fernández, Pepe Aguilar, Manuel Mijares, Lupita D’Alessio, Reyli, and Nelson Ned. When Thalía became part of Timbiriche in the 1980s, tension with Paulina a group member became instantaneous and the rivalry to monopolize the lead role was warming the atmosphere and culminated at a point in which they ended up graving each other’s hairs on stage. Thalia and Paulina have frequently garnered comparisons ever since, even after the two directed their solo career. In which the media sets them up, competing for the title of Latin pop queen. Similar to the comparison between Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears in the American market who also both started as group membership at The Mickey Mouse Club. In the 1980s, the regional music scene in both Mexico and the Mexican American community in the United States was dominated by grupera. This style of Mexican music combines cumbia, norteño, and rock music. Norteño band Los Tigres del Norte continued their success from the 1970s with their corridos involving social commentary such as “Jaula de oro” (“The Golden Cage”) which tells of a Mexican man who crosses the Mexico-United States border illegally and raises a family in the United States who denies their Mexican heritage while the man longs to return to his country. Its parent album reached number one on the Regional Mexican charts in the United States. Similarly, Mexican singer-songwriter Joan Sebastian incorporated sounds of rancheras and ballads on his songs and was dubbed “El Rey del Jaripeo” (“The King of Mexican Rodeo”). Vicente Fernández and Ranchera music still remain relevant in the 1980s. His album, Por Tu Maldito Amor (1989), became the longest running number one Regional Mexican album of the decade in the United States with 21 weeks consecutive weeks at this position. American singer Linda Ronstadt, who is of Mexican descent, released Canciones de Mi Padre, a collection of songs that her father would sing. The album was certified double platinum by the RIAA for shipping over two million copies in the United States. In 1985 Sheena Easton and Luis Miguel wins the Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Performance for “Me Gustas Tal Como Eres”. Eugenia León, representing Mexico, wins the with her song “El Fandango Aquí” in 1986 Vikki Carr wins the Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Performance for Simplemente Mujer.

Milonga (music)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Notable artists#

Artists known for their milonga compositions and interpretations include Roberto Firpo, Angel D’Agostino, Pedro Maffia, Pedro Laurenz, Ángel Villoldo, Francisco Canaro, Rodolfo Biagi, Jorge Drexler, Juan d’Arienzo, Edgardo Donato, Gabino Ezeiza, Aníbal Troilo, Lucio Demare, Domingo Federico, Angel Vargas, Mariano Mores, Alfredo Zitarrosa, Francisco Lomuto, Astor Piazzolla and Carlos Di Sarli. These artists are from the early years and the Golden era of tango. Los Moonlights released a song entitled “Milonga de pelo largo” (Milonga of long hair) on their debut LP, Moonlights. In Rio Grande do Sul, milonga is an important regional genre and it is part of the repertoire of many gaucho musical groups and interpreters, not to be confused with the Argentinean gauchos. It also continues to influence other genres of the modern gaucho music. José Cláudio Machado’s “Milonga Abaixo de Mau Tempo”, Renato Borghetti’s “Milonga para as Missões” and Jayme Caetano Braun’s “Bochincho” are examples of the traditional rio-grandense form of milonga, Argentine composer and pianist Fernando Otero has based many of his orchestral and chamber works on this rhythm, creating compositions for Symphonic Orchestra, String Quartet and Jazz Combos. Kevin Johansen is a modern Argentine rock artist who has a number of songs that combine folkloric and pop music with a milonga rhythm.

Muliza

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

It was born in the 18th century during the Viceroyalty of Peru. The Spanish crown made use of the mines in Pasco, making mining one of the pillars of the colonial economy, determining economical, social and political change. It seems that their origin can be found in the mining business and the transport of minerals from Cerro de Pasco to the Argentinian ports. This function was carried out by muleteers, who transported the minerals by mule. The name of the dance was derived from this line of work. Says Rolando Casquero Alcántara: Similarly, Dionicio Rodolfo Bernal affirms that Currently, muliza is linked to Carnival.

Murga

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Argentine murga#

Argentine murga is part of the cultural heritage of Buenos Aires, where it is almost exclusively performed. It has considerable influence from candombe and other African dances and music. Murga porteña places a considerable emphasis on dance and instrumentals, more so than lyrics (in contrast to Uruguayan murga). Performances take place in the form of parades (known as corsos) across the various neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires; some groups feature not only dancers and musicians but also jugglers, stilts, flagbearers, and other types of visually stimulating elements. Corsos take place throughout the year, but are recurrent during carnival season in February. A very famous song involving a Murga is the song “El Matador” by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. It also incorporates the use of a whistle, a very common element in the Argentine Murga.

Music of Argentina

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Folk music#

Folk music—known as música folklórica or folklore in Spanish, from the English “folklore”—is a music genre that includes both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music, which emerged from the genre’s 20th-century revival. Argentine folk music comes in many forms and has Indigenous, European, and African influences. In the late 50s, Argentina experienced a “folklore boom.” Among the most influential groups of the time were Los Chalchaleros, from Salta; Los Fronterizos, also from Salta; and Los Hermanos Ábalos from Santiago del Estero. Composer Ariel Ramírez and guitarist Eduardo Falú were also notable figures during this period. Between 1960 and 1974, Leda Valladares created a documentary series, known as the Mapa musical argentino (“Musical Map of Argentina”), taping traditional folk music throughout the country. The recordings she made were funded by the National Endowment of the Arts and directed by Litto Nebbia for Melopea Records. The Nuevo Cancionero movement was officially codified in Argentina in February 1963 with the Manifiesto Fundacional de Nuevo Cancionero (“Foundational manifesto of the New Songbook”). It was written by Armando Tejada Gómez, with the collaboration of artists like Mercedes Sosa, Oscar Matus, Tito Francia, and Eduardo Aragón. Atahualpa Yupanqui was another important figure in the movement. The 1976 dictatorship created a difficult environment for folk music. The military censored, blacklisted, and prosecuted artists, and many received anonymous phone calls warning them: “o te callas o sos tierra de cementerio” (“either you shut up, or you’re cemetery land”). Many artists left the country, and their music was not distributed in Argentina at the time. The repressive actions and black lists against artists and intellectuals to be kidnapped or censored were known as Operativo Claridad (“Operation Clarity”). The 1980s saw a resurgence of folk music after the Falklands War, which led to the fall of the dictatorship. Popular artists included Sixto Palavecino and Facundo Cabral. Folk music continues to enjoy success in Argentina. Soledad “La Sole” Pastorutti brought folk music to a new audience at the end of the 20th century, and, in the early 21st century, Juana Molina has earned a cult following for her fusion of electronic music, folk music and ambient sounds. In 2004, the album Cantor de Cantores, by Horacio Guarany, was nominated for the Latin Grammy Award for Best Folk Album.

Music of Colombia

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Caribbean region#

Colombia is known as “the land of a thousand rhythms” but actually holds over 1,025 folk rhythms. Some of the best known genres are cumbia and vallenato. The most recognized interpreters of traditional Caribbean and Afro-Colombian music are Totó la Momposina and Francisco Zumaqué.

Cumbia#

Cumbia began as a courtship dance practiced among the African population on the Caribbean coasts of Colombia. It is a mixture of Spanish, Native Colombian and African music. The style of dance is designed to recall the shackles worn around the ankles of the slaves. In the 19th century, slavery was abolished and Africans, Indians and other ethnic groups got a more complete integration in the Colombian culture. Cumbia is a complex, rhythmic music which arose on Colombia’s Atlantic coast. In its original form, cumbia bands included only percussion and vocals; modern groups include saxophones, trumpets, keyboards and trombones as well. It evolved out of native influences, combining both traditions. Some observers have claimed that the dance originally associated with iron chains around the ankle. Others still believe that it is a direct import from Guinea, which has a popular dance form called cumbe. Cumbia’s form was solidified in the 1940s when it spread from the rural countryside to urban and middle-class audiences. Mambo, big band and porro brass band influences were combined by artists like Lucho Bermúdez to form a refined form of cumbia that soon entered the Golden Age of Cumbia during the 1950s. Discos Fuentes, the largest and most influential record label in the country, was founded during this time. Fruko, known as the Godfather of Salsa, introduced Cuban salsa to Colombia and helped bring Discos Fuentes to national prominence by finding artists like La Sonora Dinamita, who brought cumbia to Mexico, where it remains popular. It is worth pointing out that the “classic” cumbia known throughout Colombia is the “Cumbia Cienaguera”. This song reflects a uniquely Colombian feel known as “sabor” (flavour) and “ambiente” (atmosphere). Arguably, this song has remained a Colombian staple through the years and is widely known as Colombia’s unofficial national anthem. Some artists are Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, Los Graduados, Los Black Stars, Los Golden Boys, Los Teen Agers, and Los Corraleros de Majagual. In the United States, an Afro- Colombian band based in New York called Grupo Rebolu, performs a variety of Afro-Colombian rhythms with authentic instruments such as Tambora and Tambor Alegre. Their repertoire includes Cumbia and many more genres from the Northern coast of Colombia as part of their original compositions.

Music of Latin America

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Argentina#

While the exact origins of tango remain uncertain, Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges believed the genre to have originated in the brothels of 19th century Buenos Aires or Montevideo. Editors of World Music: The Rough Guide (2000) called Borges’ statement “a little presumptive” and pinpoint the early developments of tango to the bars frequented by porteños. Emerging from a melting pot of European immigrants, criollos, blacks, and indigenous peoples, the genre is believed to have been influenced by Andalusian flamenco, Spanish contradanse, Italian folk music, Cuban habanera, African candombe and percussion, German polkas, Polish mazurkas, and Argentine milonga. In its early history, tango music was associated with brawls at brothels and knife-wielding womanizing men, known locally as malevos or compadritos. By 1914, men outnumbered women in Argentina by 100,000, leading to an increased rate of prostitution and the brothel lifestyle that came with it. Men would often dance at cafes and bars and try to outdo one another with improvised dance steps in an attempt to attract a woman. Their dances were characterized by “showy yet threatening, predatory quality, often revolving around a possessive relationship between two men and one woman”. In its original form, tango music included the violin, guitar, and flute. By the late 19th century, the bandoneon had been introduced into the genre. The instrument, first developed in Germany for playing folk and religious music in churches that lacked organs, is believed to have been brought to the region by immigrants and sailors. One of its early pioneers, Eduardo Arolas, was nicknamed the “Tiger of the Bandoneón”. Arolas believed the instrument was made to play in tango. Vicente Greco is credited with standardizing tango with his group, Orquesta Típica Criolla, by using two violins and two bandoneons. The instrumentation of tango remained largely unchanged until the 1940s. Tango music began playing in populated areas such as fairgrounds and streets in Buenos Aires. It contained lyrics that were “sometimes obscene and deeply fatalistic”. Similar to families in the United States during the rise of rock and roll, families in the area tried to shield their children from tango. Upper-classmen began taking an interest in tango: writer Ricardo Güiraldes performed tango during a tour of Europe in 1910 and has been credited with introducing tango in Europe. Güiraldes’ introduction made tango the first Latin dance to gain popularity in Europe. Actor Rudolph Valentino performed the tango in his film The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (1926), with Hollywood taking advantage of " Valentino’s charisma, the magnetism of tango, and the attraction they both had on a huge public". Other styles of music in Argentina include the chacarera, milonga, zamba and chamamé. Modern rhythms include cuarteto (music from the Cordoba Province) and electrotango. Argentine rock (known locally as rock nacional) was most popular during the 1980s, and remains one of Argentina’s most popular music genres. Rock en español was first popular in Argentina, then swept through other Hispanic American countries and Spain. The movement was known as the “Argentine Wave”.

Music of Peru

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Peruvian music reflects the country’s rich cultural heritage, blending Indigenous, Spanish, and African influences. Pre-Columbian traditions, characterized by instruments like pan flutes and drums, were later infused with Spanish stringed instruments such as the guitar and harp. During the colonial period, African rhythms introduced vibrant percussive styles. Iconic genres like huayno and marinera emerged, highlighting regional diversity. In the 20th century, Peruvian music evolved further with criollo music gaining prominence and the rise of Andean fusion bands, like Los Kjarkas and international stars, such as Susana Baca, promoting Peru’s musical identity globally. The earliest printed polyphonic music in Peru, indeed anywhere in the Americas, was “Hanacpachap cussicuinin,” composed or collected by Juan Pérez Bocanegra and printed in 1631.

Music of Uruguay

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Folk music#

Charrúa people used wooden drums, hornpipes, flutes, seashells to play music. Other folk musical instruments are marimba and musical bow. Since colonial times, Uruguay has had its own folk music. Among the most notable countryside musicians are Bartolomé Hidalgo, Santiago Chalar, Osiris Rodríguez Castillos, Tabaré Etcheverry, Juan José de Mello, Cacho Labandera, Anselmo Grau, Amalia de la Vega, Marcos Velásquez, Los Cantaclaro, Abel Soria, Julio Gallego, Teresita Minetti, Oscar Ramírez, Luis Arrúa, Carlos Malo, among others.

Música cebolla

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Música criolla

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Vals criollo#

The vals criollo is a unique musical form characterized by time, originating in the coast of Peru. The vals criollo is a variation of the European Waltz brought by Spaniards to Peru, played with Spanish instruments by criollos and mestizos of all races since the Peruvian Colonial Period. It was around the 1930s when city neighborhoods or barrios started developing their own styles. It was not heavily promoted by the media until the 50s when several Peruvian groups and singers started touring heavily. Other singers, songwriters and ethnomusicologists were compiling old interpretations and began recording songs that were never recorded before. This type of music includes elaborate Spanish guitar work accompanied in recent years by cajón and castanets with lyrics that talk about love, social dilemmas and nostalgia. This form is known outside of Peru as vals peruano (Peruvian waltz). Popular vals artists include singers like Arturo “Zambo” Cavero, Jesús Vásquez, groups like Los Morochucos, Los Troveros Criollos, Los Embajadores Criollos, Fiesta Criolla and composers like Felipe Pinglo Alva, Chabuca Granda and Augusto Polo Campos.

Música popular (Colombia)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The genre started to develop between the 1930s and 1940s in the Paisa Region (comprising the modern-day departments of Antioquia, Caldas, Quindío and Risaralda), based on Mexican folk music genres such as corrido, huapango and ranchera, as well as on bolero, tango, pasillo and others, which were very popular among campesinos around that time. The genre started to gain popularity between the late 1940s and the 1950s, when artists such as Óscar Agudelo or Luis Ángel Ramírez started to take off. During that time, the genre was regarded as proper to Colombia’s lower class. During the late 20th century, the most well known genre’s artists such as Darío Gómez, El Charrito Negro, Luis Alberto Posada, etc. were being listened all throughout the country’s bars. However, the genre started to stall in the early 2000s, given the low number of well-known artists and the aging of the existing ones. The genre saw a comeback between the late 2000s and the early 2010s, when new artists such as Pipe Bueno, Jhon Álex Castaño or Yeison Jiménez started to appear. It is not exactly known why this increase in popularity occurred. When interviewed by El Colombiano, senior manager of record label Codiscos Álvaro Picón said that Pipe Bueno played a huge roll in the process of the genre’s repopularization. He also said that the popularity momentum created by Bueno was then kept by the introduction other new artists who brought the genre to listeners outside of its traditional bar niche. The softening of the lyrics of the genre’s songs was also cited as a factor by Picón. He lastly said that additionally, a decline in the popularity of romantic vallenato coinciding with the revival of música popular boosted even more the rise in popularity of the last one.

Música popular brasileira

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

MPB, loosely understood as a “style”, debuted in the mid-1960s, with the acronym being applied to types of non-electric music that emerged following the beginning, rise and evolution of bossa nova. MPB artists and audiences were largely connected to the intellectual and student population, causing later MPB to be known as “university music.” Over time, the definition of MPB expanded to include a wider variety of music that was popular in Brazil, including rock music, which was not initially under the umbrella due to its foreign origins.

Narcocorrido

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

This genre of music is the evolution of traditional corrido ballads of the Mexican-US border region, which stemmed from the 16th-century Spanish genre of romance. In the late 1980s and early 90s, Chalino Sánchez contributed to narcocorridos. Known throughout Mexico as “El Pelavacas” (Cow Skin Peeler) and “Mi Compa” (My Friend), Chalino was a Mexican immigrant living in Los Angeles. He began distributing his music for a sale price. His lyrics dealt with love, betrayal and the reality of life in Mexico. Soon he was selling mass copies. Chalino Sánchez was murdered in 1992 after a concert in Culiacán. In death, he became a legend and one of the most influential Mexican musicians to emerge from California, he is known throughout the United States and Mexico as El Rey del Corrido (The King of the Corrido). Various companies, governmental agencies, and individuals have sought to ban narcocorridos. These attempts include a voluntary radio station black-out in Baja California. Representative Casio Carlos Narváez explained that radio executives did not want to make “people who break the laws of our country into heroes and examples”. Former President of Mexico Vicente Fox also proposed banning narcocorridos. On the other hand, former Mexican foreign secretary Jorge Castaneda has argued that “corridos are attempts by Mexican society to come to terms with the world around them…You cannot blame narcocorridos for drug violence. Drug violence is to blame for narcocorridos”.

New Mexico music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

The musical history of New Mexico goes back to pre-colonial times, but the sounds that define New Mexico music begin particularly with the ancestral Puebloans. Their music survived in the traditional songs of the Pueblo people with wind instruments such as the Anasazi flute, as well as the chants and drum beats of the Navajo and Apache. In Santa Fe de Nuevo México, the Hispanos of New Mexico brought Christian liturgical music, the violin, and the Spanish guitar, and Mexico brought with it the traditions of mariachi and ranchera. After New Mexico became a territory, the people of the American frontier brought the traditions of country and Cajun music. This was when the first forms of New Mexico music began to be played. Western was an adaption of country and Cajun, accompanied by traditionally Mexican and Native American instruments. New Mexico music is distinguished by its bouncy and steady rhythm, while accompanied by instruments common in Pueblo music, Western, Norteño, Apache music, country, mariachi, and Navajo music. Country and western music lend their drum and/or guitar style sections, while the steadiness of the rhythm owes its origins to the music of the Apache, Navajo, and Pueblo. And the differing rates of that tempo comes from the three common ranchera rhythm speeds, the polka at 2/4 (ranchera polkeada), the waltz at 3/4 (ranchera valseada), and/or the bolero at 4/4 (bolero ranchero). After statehood, the music was sung at parties and in homes as traditional folk music, and New Mexico music grew in popularity with native New Mexicans, mostly with the Pueblo, Navajo, Apache, Neomexicanos, and the descendants of the American frontier. Musicians in the genre received prominent airtime on KANW, and international recognition on the syndicated Val De La O Show.

Nortec

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Nortec originated in 1999 when Pepe Mogt started by experimenting with samples of old banda sinaloense and norteño albums and altering them on his computer or filtering them with analog synthesizers. He had picked up on the idea by listening to the percussive and angular grooves of the tambora and norteña music played at a family social event. Through some contacts in recording studios located in Tijuana’s notorious Zona Norte red light district, Pepe compiled tracks of isolated instruments from multitrack recording of tambora and norteño demo recordings that had been abandoned at the studios by the bands that recorded them. He began to burn these tracks onto CD-Rs, which he would later distribute to friends under the condition that they make a new track using the material. Those first raw tracks were compiled onto the “Nor-tec Sampler”, the first release from Mil Records followed by the release “The Tijuana Sessions Vol. 1” and then “The Tijuana Sessions Vol. 3”.

Norteño (music)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Repertoire#

The norteño repertoire covers canción ranchera, corrido, ballad, bolero, chotís, cumbia, huapango norteño, mazurka, polka, redowa and waltz. Image:Ramón Ayala.jpg Ramon Ayala, a norteño musician known as the “King of the Accordion” Image:Los Tigres Del Norte 1.jpg Los Tigres del Norte performing at a Californian casino in 2006

Origins#

Emperor Maximilian I brought Central European music to México during his reign (beginning 1863) in the Second Mexican Empire. By 1864, he had accumulated marching bands and musicians to entertain him. In 1867, the Mexican Republic executed Maximilian, thereby ending the Austrian empire in Mexico. Many of Maximilian’s former soldiers and fellow countrymen fled north and dispersed into what is now the southwestern United States. Norteño music developed from a blending of Mexican and Spanish oral and musical traditions, military brass band instrumentation, and European musical styles such as polka and waltz. European immigrants from Germany, Poland, and Czechia to northern Mexico and the southwestern United States also brought dance traditions such as the varsovienne. The focus on the accordion in the music of their home countries was integrated into Mexican music, and became an essential instrument. It was called norteño (“northern”) because it was most popular in the northern regions of Mexico. The late 1910s and 1920s were the golden age of the corrido, a form of ballad. Mexicans on both sides of the border came to San Antonio, Texas, to record in hotels. Their songs memorialize the Mexican political revolution of the time. Los Alegres de Terán and Los Donneños were among the first norteño bands. Later in the century, the genre became more commercial with the works of Los Relámpagos del Norte and other groups. More recent bands such as Intocable integrate elements of rock music and other popular styles.

Norteño-sax

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Norteño with sax originated in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, in the 1940s. Over the years, its popularity had spread to several other regions of Mexico; mainly in the country’s landlocked states. It would also gain popularity among the Mexican community in the United States from said Mexican region. Even though norteño-sax had its origins in Nuevo León, as did traditional accordion-led norteño, the former eventually became more culturally associated with states such as Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosí; in part due to it being more popular there than its native region. The term “norteño-sax” or “norteño with sax” did not become widely used until the 2010s. Prior to that, it was known simply as “norteño” music. The genre eventually received its own name in order for it to be distinguishable from other styles of norteño music. More recent norteño-sax artists have incorporated modern elements into their music in terms of instruments and lyrics without abandoning their traditional roots.

Nueva canción

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

"" is a type of music which is committed to social good. Its musical and lyrical vernacular is rooted in the popular classes and often uses a popularly understood style of satire to advocate for sociopolitical change. The movement reacted against the dominance of American and European music in Latin America at the time by assuming an anti-imperial stance that was markedly less focused on the visual spectacle of commercial music and more focused on social and political messages. It characteristically talks about poverty, empowerment, imperialism, democracy, human rights, religion, and the Latin American identity. draws heavily upon Andean music, música negra, Spanish music, Cuban music and other Latin American folklore. Most songs feature the guitar, and often the quena, zampoña, charango or cajón. The lyrics are typically in Spanish, with some indigenous or local words mixed in, and frequently utilize the poetic forms of copla and décima. was explicitly related to leftist politics, advancing leftist ideals and flourishing within the structure of the Communist Party in Latin America. Cuban cultural organization Casa de las Américas hosted many notable gatherings of musicians, including the 1967 Encuentro de la Canción Protesta. Songs of conflict in Spanish have a very long history, with elements to be found in the “fronterizos”, songs concerning the Reconquest of Spain from the Moors in the 15th century. More immediately, some of the roots of may be seen in the Mexican “corrido”, which took on a strongly political flavour during the War of Independence , and then the Revolution after 1910. The modern developed in the historical context of the “folklore boom” that occurred in Latin America in the 1950s. Chilean Violeta Parra and Argentine Atahualpa Yupanqui were two transitional figures as their mastery of folk music and personal involvement in leftist political organizations aided the eventual union of the two in . The movement was also aided by legislation like Juan Perón’s Decreto 3371/1949 de Protección de la Música Nacional and Law No. 14,226, which required that half of the music played on the radio or performed live be of national origin. The music quickly spread to Argentina and throughout Latin America during the 1960s and 1970s. Various national movements used their own terminology; however, the term "" was adopted at the 1967 Encuentro de la Canción Protesta and has thereafter been used as an all-encompassing term. Though is often considered a Pan-Latino phenomenon, national manifestations were varied and reacted to local political and cultural contexts.

Nueva canción chilena

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The Chilean New Song movement was spurred by a renewed interest in Chilean traditional music and folklore in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Folk singers such as Violeta Parra and Víctor Jara traversed the regions of Chile both collecting traditional melodies and songs and seeking inspiration to create songs with social themes. These songs diverged from songs known in the cities at the time, which were often stylized interpretations of central Chilean folk music that emphasized patriotism and idyllic representations of country life; in contrast, the New Song sought to give a voice to Chile’s rural peoples, its working class, and their realities. Early musicians in the movement often used folk instruments such as the quena (Andean flute) or zampoñas (pan-pipes). This phase of the Chilean New Song has been referred to as the “discovery and protest” phase. Violeta Parra in particular played a key role in this phase of the New Song as she was committed to reviving Chilean traditional songs and bringing a voice to the Chilean poor. In the 1960s, Parra founded La Peña de Los Parra in Santiago alongside her son Ángel Parra, also a key figure in the movement, and this became a meeting place for musicians of the New Song. Parra’s impact on the movement is widely acknowledged. In 1981, Cuban singer Silvio Rodríguez remarked that her influence on the Latin American New Song movement cannot be understated: “Violeta is fundamental. Nothing would have been as it is had it not been for Violeta”. Rejection of foreign influence on Chilean culture, particularly US culture, further stimulated the movement as it sought to create a sense of Chilean national identity. At the inaugural Festival de la Nueva Canción Chilena (Festival of the Chilean New Song) in 1969 in Santiago - the first time the movement was so named - Universidad Catolica rector Fernando Castillo said: “Perhaps popular song is the art that best defines a community. But lately in our country we are experiencing a reality that is not ours… Our purpose here today is to search for an expression that describes our reality… How many foreign singers come here and get us all stirred up, only to leave us emptier than ever when they leave? And isn’t it true that our radio and television programs seldom encourage the creativity of our artists… ? Let our fundamental concern be that our own art be deeply rooted in the Chilean spirit so that when we sing - be it badly or well - we express genuine happiness and pain, happiness and pain that are our own.” The Chilean New Song also developed amidst a background of social upheaval taking place throughout Latin America. The Cuban Revolution and the Vietnam War provided inspiration for a growing number of musicians who aligned themselves politically with the socialist struggle. Examples of this include Víctor Jara’s Zamba del Che in homage to Che Guevara and Rolando Alarcón’s Por Cuba y Por Vietnam. Following Violeta Parra’s death in 1967, Víctor Jara became one of the leading figures of the movement. In Chile, the New Song came to actively support the presidential campaign of Salvador Allende. Folk singers of the movement wrote songs in support of Allende’s Popular Unity coalition, playing at political rallies and becoming cultural beacons of the left. The campaign hymn for Popular Unity, “Venceremos” (“we shall succeed”), written by Claudio Iturra and Sergio Ortega and performed by the band Inti-Illimani, contained lyrics urging the Chilean people to unite behind Allende’s. Another key song in the movement, El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido (“the people united will never be defeated”), written by Quilapayún and Sergio Ortega, was also originally composed in support of Allende’s electoral campaign and went on to become an internationally recognised song of protest. The election of Salvador Allende as Chilean president in 1970 heralded a new phase for the New Song movement and themes became less tied to a particular political cause., In one of his final songs, Manifesto, Víctor Jara sung of the essence of the New Song: My guitar is not for the rich no, nothing like that. My song is of the ladder we are building to reach the stars. For a song has meaning when it beats in the veins of a man who will die singing, truthfully singing his song. The 1973 military coup led by Augusto Pinochet marked the end of the Chilean New Song movement. Many of its proponents were captured and tortured and fled Chile in exile. In the days following the coup, Víctor Jara was taken to Chile Stadium (Estadio Chile now Estadio Víctor Jara), tortured and killed at the hands of the military regime. According to testimony, he was tortured by soldiers who broke his hands and taunted him saying “sing now, if you can, bastard”; Jara reportedly responded by singing a verse of Venceremos and was subsequently taken away and killed. Jara’s final work was a poem without a title, commonly named Estadio Chile, wherein he wrote of the conditions of those captured by the military junta: How hard it is to sing when I must sing of horror. Horror which I am living, horror which I am dying. To see myself among so much and so many moments of infinity in which silence and screams are the end of my song. From foreign shores, a number of New Song musicians including Angel Parra, Patricio Manns and bands Inti-Illimani and Quilapayun continued to perform in the New Song style.

Nueva ola

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Argentina#

In 1960, RCA Victor general manager Ricardo Mejía discovered through a market research that there were almost no popular music stars among the youth. As a result, the company began the selection of new singers, initiating the phenomenon of the nueva ola in Argentina. Based on foreign music shows, each episode showed a group of friends that got together to perform various styles of music including rock ’n’ roll (and the accompanying twist), bolero and cumbia. The nueva ola was overshadowed by the popularity of British Invasion bands, while at the same time a feeling nonconformity grew among the youth, which saw the phenomenon as too carefree and compliant. Before the dissolution of the group and “as a farewell,” an El club del clan film directed by Enrique Carreras was released on March 12, 1964.

Pagode

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

External links#

Samba Pagode history
Samba & Pagode band/history
Samba & Pagode Semba/history

Pagode baiano

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The genre gained momentum around 1994, influenced by Bahia and Rio de Janeiro pagode. The genre’s first success was Dança do Tchaco, by . At that time, the group was also emerging, releasing an independently recorded CD that sold well. From 1995 onwards, with the phenomenon of É o Tchan!, the genre gained national prominence. Other groups emerged, such as , , , , and Gang do Samba. In the late 1990s, despite the name pagode “baiano” (from Bahia), groups focused on the style emerged in other parts of the country, such as from Rio de Janeiro and from São Paulo, which were also very successful. In the 2000s, other notable groups emerged, such as , Parangolé, Pagod’art, , Guig Guetho, Oz Bambaz, Saiddy Bamba, Fantasmão, Swing do P, Black Style and A Bronkka, Leo Santana.

Palenquero music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

San Basilio Palenque, not far from Colombia’s prime tourist destination of Cartagena, is the only surviving example of places that once existed throughout the country—communities founded by escaped slaves. It is also the home of what has been described as the only surviving Spanish-based creole language, which had declined in use but seems to be becoming strong again. The community has preserved many African traditions, including language, music, dance, and religious practices, making it a living testament to African heritage in the Americas. Among the most important of these traditions are the drumming practices. The drums are used in religious ceremonies and rituals, often associated with African spiritual practices. The rhythms and music are believed to have spiritual significance and are used to connect with ancestors and deities. Palenquero music originated from the maroons called, Benkos Bioho, which were a resistance in Africa at the time. The music had served as a way for slaves to unite, while also keeping a strong connection to their roots. Many of Palenquero rhythms originate from the region of Angola using languages such as Kinkogo at the time. During this era, music was a way of keeping people connected and preserving culture. During the 1900s, musical exchanges were happening all over world, for example Cuba and Africa. This allowed for the introduction and adopotion of rhythms with the marimbula, which is a type of piano. This allowed for the mixture of African beats to mix with the Cuban style beats known as “Sexteto.”

Palo de Mayo

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Palo de Mayo, or Maypole, is a celebration welcoming rain, production, and new life that includes a maypole, which is a tall wooden pole, decorated with several long, colored ribbons suspended from the top. There is no definite answer as to how it got to Nicaragua. Historians continue to debate its origins. Bluefields people pretty much all agree, “May Pole is not what it used to be.” An elegant polka in which smartly dressed women held hands and two-slapped around a fruit laden tree. It was probably brought to Nicaragua in the early 1830s by British settlers and the ribbon pole dance common to England was modified, according to speculations, incorporating elements of Shango, a West African religion, featuring spirit possession. Certainly already in 1874, Moravian missionary J.E. Lundberg wrote: “It is now generally conducted at night, by moonlight, amidst a heathenish noise and it has become connected with great impropriety of conduct.” Professor Hugo Sujo says the rituals varied. Children would adorn branches with mangoes, pineapples and breadfruit; dance in a circle and then plunder the tree. Many historians point out that there are many differences in the celebration and that it came from the Nicaraguan Creoles that inhabited Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, other historians believe it came indirectly from Jamaica. Wherever it came from it has long been a part of Nicaragua’s Afro-Caribbean culture. In Belize, plaiting of the maypole along with coconut tree climbing and greasy pole competitions. This is because most of the Creole population of the RAAS region in Nicaragua, moved to British Honduras (later to become Belize) after British secession of the region in 1787. The Sandinisitas promoted the event as a tourist attraction supporting local bands and dance groups, under Miss Lizzie’s leadership. Miss Lizzie involved 70-year-old women to dance the old style, to teach the youth the real thing. But by 1993 she’d lost ground to the new style of May Pole which was seen by older traditional dancers as “a dirty display of dirty dancing”

Pasillo

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Invented in the 19th century, pasillo became closely associated with the Colombian War of Independence, the Ecuadorian War of Independence, and Ecuadorian nationalism. Pasillo gained popularity from the recordings of the duet “Ecuador”, once performed by Enrique Ibañez Mora and Nicasio Safadi. It reached its international apex during the career of Julio Jaramillo. Younger generations of Ecuadorians still enjoy pasillos, including new styles sung by Juan Fernando Velasco and Margarita Lazo. Some Ecuadorian pasillos include “Pasional”, “Invernal”, “Ángel de Luz”, “El aguacate”, and many others. Pasillo has been a very popular style of music in Colombia since the 19th century. Famous Colombian pasillos include “Espumas”, “Pueblito viejo”, “Pescador lucero y río”, and “Oropel”. Colombian artists, such as Silva y Villalba and Garzon y Collazos, have helped popularize pasillo around the world.

Payada

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The work of Bartolomé Hidalgo (born in Montevideo in 1788) is considered a precedent of this form of art in the Río de la Plata. Hidalgo is regarded as the first gaucho poet. His birthdate, August 24, was established as the “Day of the Payador” in Uruguay. In Argentina, July 23 was established as the “Day of the Payador” in commemoration of the famous payada where Juan de Nava and Gabino Ezeiza contended. This payada was held in Paysandú in 1884, and Ezeiza was proclaimed the winner with the improvisation of his famous Saludo a Paysandú. A recording of this song is the only existing record of Ezeiza’s voice. The first registered payador was Simón Méndez (nicknamed Guasquita), a soldier who fought in the British invasions of the River Plate. Both in Argentina and Uruguay, the payada is considered part of the “gauchesca” culture. Santos Vega (to whom writer Rafael Obligado dedicated his most famous poem) is considered “the” payador par excellence, with successors such as Gabino Ezeiza, José Betinoti, Carlos Molina, Abel Soria, Julio Gallego, Gabino Sosa Benítez, Cayetano Daglio, among others. The payada has also been parodied by the comedy-musical group Les Luthiers in their Payada de la vaca. The work of Bartolomé Hidalgo, born in Montevideo in 1788, who is considered the first gaucho poet, can be found as an antecedent to the appearance of this art in the Río de la Plata. The date of his birth (August 24) was established by law as “Payador’s Day” in Uruguay. The payada can be traced back to the troubadour traditions of southern Spain, which settlers then brought the music tradition to Latin America. When it reached Argentina, its development was greatly influenced by Afro-Argentines in the late 19th century. During this time, Argentina’s government were trying to “whiten” the country by encouraging European migration and marginalizing the black community. Black payadores like Gabino Ezeiza used their music to fight against the discrimination and they sought recognitionfor Afro-Argentines’ deep historical contributions. Even though the government were able erase most of Afro-Argentine presence, there are still people in the Americas who practice the music traditions that originated from Afro-Argentines and African ancestry.

Peruvian cumbia

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins and development#

Chicha started out in the 1960s in the oil-boom cities of the Peruvian Amazon. Loosely inspired by Colombian cumbia, it incorporated the distinctive pentatonic scales of Andean melodies, Cuban percussion, and the psychedelic sounds of surf guitars, wah-wah pedals and combo organs or Moog synthesizers. Chicha absorbed elements of the music of the Amazonian regions of Peru and the use of the Farfisa electronic organ through Amazonian bands like Juaneco y Su Combo. Chicha, which is named after a corn-based liquor favored by the Incas, quickly spread to Lima. It became the music of choice of the mostly indigenous new migrant population. By the mid-1980s it had become the most widespread urban music in Peru. The first chicha hit, and the song from which the movement has taken its name, was “La Chichera” (The Chicha Seller) by Los Demonios del Mantaro (The Devils of Mantaro), who hailed from the central highlands of Junin. The band Los Destellos, formed in Lima in 1966, brought electric guitars to chicha and consolidated its characteristic features by integrating in it elements of Peruvian Andean folklore, Peruvian creole waltz, Cuban music and rock music. Other bands, such as Los Mirlos, Los Ecos, and Los Diablos Rojos were highly influenced by this style. During the 1980s the Amerindian immigrants to coastal cities that nurtured the subgenre became working and middle class individuals and a market for chicha commercial radio. The Pharaoh of Cumbia, Chacalon, became one of the most popular chicha artists through his hit “Soy provinciano” (I am from the province) and vibrant concerts. Another famous band in the 1980s were Los Shapis, a provincial group established by their 1981 hit “El Aguajal” (The Swamp), a version of a traditional huayno. The strong influence of Mexican tecnocumbia became evident on the evolution of Peruvian cumbia in the 1990s. Efforts by Argentina-based Grupo Néctar and others gave it regional recognition. Its decline during the late 1990s was followed by a revival that began in 2007, mainly thanks to the rising popularity of Tongo.

Peruvian rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

1960s#

New trends like British Merseybeat and American surf became popular, and a number of Peruvian bands built a loyal audience. Los Saicos blended psychedelic rock, garage rock and surf. Los Shains featured rock guitar hero (later in Pax). Traffic Sound, the first Peruvian supergroup, merged core players from Los Hang Ten’s with other important musicians. Also popular were Los York’s, Los Jaguars, Los Silvertons, Los Belkings and Los Doltons.

Peruvian waltz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

“La Guardia Vieja,” translated as “the old guard,” was a time period in Peru approximately from 1900 to 1920 in which as a result of the combination of European, Afro-Peruvian, and indigenous musical elements the vals criollo emerged among the public. The music is characterized by the use of triple metre, sometimes compound duple time, and the lyrics consist of verses in strophic form with intercalated choruses. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the vals criollo became the main musical expression of the urban working class, with its lyrics reflecting their cultural personality, conflicts, and value systems. Composers such as Felipe Pinglo Alva, Laureano Martinez, Carlos Saco, Filomeno Ormeño Belmonte, and Alicia Maguiña enriched and drove the music at the time.

Pirekua

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

External links#

*Media services: “Pirekua, traditional song of the P’urhépecha”, UNESCO.org.

Pisadinha

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Piseiro#

Piseiro is a variation of pisadinha that emerged in the state of Bahia, derived from forró. According to Folha de S.Paulo, piseiro can be described as “a descendant of forró with aesthetic objectives aligned with current funk”. The piseiro has traces of the pisodinha, presenting a choreography marked by shuffling steps and hands positioned close to the body. This derivation of traditional forró has faster beats, offering a solo dance. The name “piseiro” derives from the name of the place where the pisodinha is danced. Some of the names considered responsible for the piseiro’s success are Os Barões da Pisadinha and Vitor Fernandes.

Polo (flamenco palo)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Poetic and musical structure#

The stanza of the polo is the cuarteta romanceada, typical of most flamenco songs and Spanish folklore: four octosyllabic verses, the second and fourth rhyming in assonance. It is usually sung with the following typical lines: Carmona tiene una fuente con catorce o quince caños con un letrero que dice: ¡Viva el polo sevillano! Translation: Carmona has a fountain With fourteen or fifteen jets And an inscription that reads Long live the Sevillan polo! Often, the last line is replaced by another saying: “Viva el polo de Tobalo” (“Long live the polo de Tobalo”). This is curious, as the melody used is not that of the polo de Tobalo, but that of the polo natural. Some lines are partially repeated, and there are also two series of melismas sung on one vowel in the middle and at the end of the stanza, which separate the song in two sections. The stanza is therefore rendered like this: Carmona tiene una fuente con catorce con catorce o quince caños oooh oooh oooh etc. (melismas) con un letrero que dice y que y viva el polo viva el polo de Tobalo oooh ooh ooh etc. As to the metre and musical mode, they are the same as for the soleá, that is 12-beat metre (or alternating 3/4 and 6/8) and Phrygian mode (for more information, see article on soleá). The guitar accompaniment and falsetas are also inspired by the soleá, although some special arpeggios are included after the second line of each section (“con catorce” and “y viva el polo”) and during the singing of the melismas. It is always accompanied in the guitar chord position of E for the tonic. Musicologist Hipólito Rossy stated that the song was in major mode and 3-beat metre (Rossy 1966 1998), but he was not very familiar with this palo, as all recordings show the typical soleá rhythm and Phrygian mode. He might have been influenced by the recording of singer Jacinto Almadén, in which guitarist Perico el del Lunar certainly uses some chords insinuating the major mode.

Polo (music)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Lyrical form#

The Polo from Margarita is sung in octosyllabic or hendecasyllabic verses with varying rhyme schemes. Typically the stanzas are composed of four verses, and common rhyme schemes include ABAB and ABBA. Traditionally, however, the polo, like the malagueña and galerón has been sung in décima form, that is, ten verses of eight syllables each, with an “ABBAACCDDC” rhyme scheme. It is typical for each verse in the polo to be sung twice, which has lent to it being sung as a duet on occasion. The theme of the polo’s lyrics are typically centered around life in the island of Margarita and the states of Sucre, and Anzoátegui. As a result, the imagery and habits of coastal life are frequently the subject of the polo, as evidenced by the following stanza: The theme of love is also common in polos, both as isolated stanzas and as the main focus of the text. Some artists who illustrate the romantically-oriented polo include Gualberto Ibarreto and the quartet Serenata Guayanesa. An excerpt of the “Polo de la soledad” (Polo of solitude) by Serenata reads as follows:

Porro

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Types#

The two types of folkloric porro are porro palitiao and porro tapao.

Porro palitiao#

The term “palitiao” is derived from the way the bombo drum is struck along its rim to produce the sound of a cowbell. This type of porro is associated with the Sinú River, and its surrounding cities and towns. Some would agree on San Pelayo, Colombia, Córdoba as its place of birth. This is the reason why it can also take the name of porro pelayero. In orchestrated variants, porro palitiao or pelayero is known as gaita. See La Sonora Cordobesa and Pacho Galán for exemplary orro palitiao and gaita music.

Pregón

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Oral proclamations made in the street were an important form of mass communication throughout Europe and the Americas until the late 19th century, when other forms of communication emerged to replace the town criers. In Spain and Latin-America, those who read these proclamations were known as pregoneros and their speech as a pregón. Over time, the official town crier, who read public announcements sanctioned by governments, disappeared, but the street cries associated with itinerant vendors continued into the 20th century, and can still be heard in commercial marketplaces and fairs. Street vendors and their cries were known in medieval Europe. The numbers of street vendors working in urban areas increased markedly from the 17th century. These criers or street vendors filled the streets of many European cities including Paris, Bologna, Naples and Cologne. As the streets filled with hawkers, costermongers and other types of the itinerant vendor, competition between them intensified. In an effort to stand out, street vendors began to develop distinctive, melodic cries, which became a standard feature of street life. Each trade developed its own unique type of street cry; a distinctive set of words or a unique tune.

Proibidão

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Psychedelic rock in Latin America

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Brazil and the Tropicalia movement#

Latin America proved a particularly fertile ground for psychedelic rock. The Brazilian psychedelic rock group Os Mutantes formed in 1966, although little known outside Brazil at the time (due to the fact that they recorded in Portuguese), they have since accrued a substantial international cult following. Os Mutantes also played a central role in the short-lived but revolutionary Brazilian aesthetic movement Tropicália, also known as ‘Tropicalismo’ (Tropicalism), an anti-authoritarian artistic reaction to the repressive military junta that seized power in Brazil in 1964. Encompassing visual art, theatre, poetry and music, Tropicália combined the popular and the avant-garde, and fused traditional Brazilian culture with foreign influences, including contemporary developments in British and American psychedelic music, and above all the music of The Beatles. As well as recording their own material, Os Mutantes collaborated with other key figures in the burgeoning Tropicalist movement, including singer-songwriter Gilberto Gil, whom they backed on Gil’s second LP. The musical manifesto of the Tropicalist movement was the landmark 1968 collaborative LP Tropicália: ou Panis et Circencis (“Tropicalia: or Bread and Circuses”) which brought together the talents of Os Mutantes, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Tom Zé and Gal Costa, with arrangements by avant-garde composer-arranger Rogerio Duprat (who had studied with Pierre Boulez) and lyrical contributions from poet Torquato Neto. The album’s group cover photograph depicted the collective holding a variety of objects and images, in a deliberate reference to the cover of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The collective also performed a number of concert “happenings” which were intended to both involve and provoke audiences, and these reportedly had a similar effect on Brazilian audiences to that experienced by folk purists who witnessed Bob Dylan’s early “electric” concerts – the performers sported long hair, wore outlandish psychedelic costumes, used electric guitars and amplification, and played at full volume. Brazil’s military junta was becoming increasingly suspicious of the anarchic anti-establishment attitudes of the Tropicalistas, who also found themselves at odds with the nationalistic student left-wing, who favoured traditional Brazilian musical forms, and rejected what they saw as the corrupting influence of Western pop music. In September 1968 Caetano Veloso gave two tumultuous performances at the third annual International Popular Song Festival in Rio, where the audience included a large contingent of left-wing students who were vehemently opposed to the Tropicalistas. When Veloso (backed by Os Mutantes) performed in the first round of the Festival’s song competition on 12 September, he was initially greeted with enthusiastic applause, but the situation soon turned ugly. Dressed in a shiny green plastic suit, festooned with wires and necklaces strung with teeth, Veloso provoked the students with his sensual movements and startling new psychedelic music. He was bombarded by insults, jeers and boos from the students, who became even more incensed when American pop singer John Dandurand made a surprise appearance during the song. The ideological conflict climaxed three days later when Veloso returned for the second round of the competition on 15 September, at which he performed a new song entitled “Prohibido a Prohibir” (“It is Forbidden to Forbid”), which was recorded live and later released as single. The students began hissing and booing as soon as Veloso’s name was announced, and when he began his performance, his overtly sexual stage moves and the experimental music of Os Mutantes provoked an outpouring of anger – the audience began booing so loudly stood that Veloso could barely be heard, and a large number then stood and turned their backs on the performers, prompting Os Mutantes to turn their backs on the audience. As the song continued, the students pelted the stage with fruit, vegetables, eggs, paper balls and anything else that came hand. Veloso stopped playing and launched into a furious monologue, in which he excoriated the students for their conservatism. After being joined by Gilberto Gil, who came on stage to show his support, Veloso finished his diatribe by telling the students “… if you are the same in politics as you are in aesthetics, we’re done for!” and declaring he was withdrawing from the competition. He then deliberately finished the song out of tune, angrily shouted “Enough!” and walked off arm-in-arm with Gil and Os Mutantes. Tropicália had a major effect on the Brazilian music scene during its brief heyday (1967–68), and the main performers made regular appearances on Brazilian stage, television and radio, but the movement was abruptly shut down in early 1969, following a provocative December 1968 TV performance which parodied the Brazilian national anthem. Gil and Veloso were both arrested in February 1969 on the orders of the military junta – they were held in prison for three months without charge or trial, and after a further four months under house arrest, they were released on condition that they leave the country, and they spent the next few years in exile in the UK. Others in the Tropicalist movement were treated even more harshly – several were arrested and tortured, or forced to undergo psychiatric ’treatment’.

Punk in Brazil

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Late 1970s#

The origins of punk rock in Brazil date back to the late 1970s. As in most other countries, the influence of the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Ramones sparked the movement. Nonetheless, São Paulo was heavily influenced by lesser-known bands such as Speedtwins from the Netherlands, as well as by earlier protopunk artists such as The MC5, Iggy & The Stooges and The New York Dolls. Punk was initially adopted and fostered by musician Douglas Viscaino. With his band Restos de Nada which began playing in 1978, Viscaino promoted revolutionary ideas and brought young people together against the Brazilian military regime. The late 70s witnessed the fast-growing interest of punk nationwide: pioneer bands AI-5 and N.A.I. (later known as Condutores de Cadáver) sprouted in São Paulo, Carne Podre in Curitiba and Aborto Elétrico in Brasília. Before Brazil’s contemporary punk groups came along, two relatively famous glam/hard rock bands, Joelho de Porco and Made in Brazil, helped promote elements of the punk aesthetic around 1977. Both bands were important to the early days of Brazilian punk, offering a new alternative to the MPB and progressive rock artists that dominated the country’s music scene at the time. Joelho de Porco, whose lyrics bore a strong influence from São Paulo’s urban environment, became highly influential.

Punta rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

Punta rock is a subgenre of punta largely credited to Pen Cayetano, Andy Palacio, and Fuerza Garifuna. Beginning in the 1970s, these artists sought to create a modernized version of the traditional punta to appeal to younger audiences. Punta is a style of traditional music and dance that developed among the Garifuna people of Saint Vincent, Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Punta rock thus filled the gap and revitalized a waning musical style, becoming popular in several Central American countries. The two countries where punta rock is most prevalent are Belize and Honduras. Dangriga, the Belizean birthplace of the music genre, is the first Garifuna settlement in the nation. Its position as a town that sits between a traditional village life and an urban setting is reflective of the amalgamation of traditional and popular music styles in punta rock.

Punto music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Choreography#

Traditionally, one male and one female participant perform the dance. The dance begins with the male kneeling with his left knee on the floor. Once the music begins to play, he takes the hands of the female dancer, who circles around him to the beat of the music. The male and female back away from each other, often emoting longing and passion. The male then initiates the dance with the following steps, repeating in order two or three times: # El Paseo () – The male and the female walk around in a wide circle. # El Zapateo – Face to face, the dancers show off their skill and dexterity during a change of music. # El Escobillao – The couple separate widely, often with a short backward-running movement. # El Seguidilla – The couple move closer and rotate with finesse in the center of the circle until a musical change indicates a return to the paseo.

Ranchera

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Definitions#

The word ranchera was derived from the word rancho because the songs originated on the ranches and in the countryside of rural Mexico. Traditional themes in rancheras are about love, heartbreak, patriotism or nature. Rhythms can have a meter in (in slow tempo: ranchera lenta and faster tempo: ranchera marcha), (ranchera vals), or (bolero ranchero). Songs are usually in a major key, and consist of an instrumental introduction, verse and refrain, instrumental section repeating the verse, and another verse and refrain, with a tag ending. Rancheras are also noted for the grito mexicano, a yell that is done at musical interludes within a song, either by the musicians and/or the listening audience. The normal musical pattern of rancheras is a–b–a–b. Rancheras usually begin with an instrumental introduction (a). The first lyrical portion then begins (b), with instrumental adornments interrupting the lines in between. The instruments then repeat the theme again, and then the lyrics may either be repeated or begin a new set of words. One also finds the form a–b–a–b–c–b used, in which the intro (a) is played, followed by the verse (b). This form is repeated, and then a refrain (c) is added, ending with the verse. The most popular ranchera composers include Lucha Reyes, Cuco Sánchez, Antonio Aguilar, Juan Gabriel and José Alfredo Jiménez, who composed many of the best-known rancheras, with compositions totaling more than 1,000 songs, making him one of the most prolific songwriters in the history of western music. Another closely related style of music is the corrido, which is often played by the same ensembles that regularly play rancheras. The corrido, however, is apt to be an epic story about heroes and villains, or the narrator’s lifestyle.

Raptor house

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

External links#

Documentary video of Raptor house (in Spanish)
Raptor house dancers
Raptor house dancer
Raptor house girls

Reggae en Español

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Early developments#

Reggae as a musical genre has its origins in Jamaica, and it became popular throughout the 1970s in the black-immigrant communities of the other British West Indies, North America, and Great Britain. Jamaican reggae was embraced in Panama by the descendants of black workers that immigrated to the Isthmus during the construction of the Panama Railroad (mid-19th century), the railways for the banana companies (late 19th century), and the Panama Canal (early 20th century). Prior to the period of construction of the Panama Canal (1904–1915), most of the Afro-Caribbean communities in Panama were of Haiti descent, but with the construction of the canal these communities grew in diversity with immigrants from other parts of the Caribbean such as Jamaica, Barbados, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Trinidad, Dominica, Puerto Rico, French and British Guyana and other Caribbean Islands. In 1977, a Guyanese immigrant who went by the nickname “Guyana”, along with a local DJ known as “Wassabanga” introduced for first time the reggae rhythms in Panama with lyrics in Spanish. Wassabanga’s music along with later interpreters such as Rastanini and Calito Soul, were perhaps the first remarkable cases of reggae en Español, at a time when many Panamanians were already developing a musical and spiritual bond with the Mecca of reggae music (Kingston, Jamaica), a bond catalyzed mainly by the call to arms issued by the music of Bob Marley. In 1984, Hernando Brin produced the first record in Panamá of reggae in Spanish on vinyl, called “Treatment”, In the early to mid-1980s, Panamanians like Renato, El General, Nando Boom, El Maleante and Chicho Man started to take Jamaican dancehall songs and beats, singing over them with Spanish lyrics, most of the time preserving the melodies and the rhythms. They also sped up riddims. This style was called reggae en Español or “Spanish reggae”. The music continued to grow throughout the 1980s, with many stars developing in Panama. Between the 1980s and 1990s, the Panamanian artist Chicho Man emerged as one of the greater exponents of Panamanian reggae. In the 1990s, the genre had grown in Panama. In 1991, singer Apache Ness with Papa Chan, Kafu Banton, Calito Soul, Wassa Banga, and Original Dan decided to join forces and create the foundation “One Love One Blood” singing about urban street experiences under the rhythm called reggae bultrón. In 1996 came artists such as Aldo Ranks, El Renegado, and Jam & Suppose who sang the hit “Camión Lleno de Gun”. Jr. Ranks and Tony Bull already had good records with late singer Danger Man and they formed the musical group called The Killamanjaros. Later in Panama, the romanticism had been mixed with reggae and reggae romántico (“romantic reggae”), now better known as “romantic flow”. Those who keep alive the reggae with romantic lyrics are the following: Flex (aka Nigga), El Roockie, El Aspirante, Kathy Phillips, Eddy Lover, Tommy Real, Makano, Catherine, as well as groups like Raíces y Cultura and La Factoría who became famous by the Panamanian producer Irving DiBlasio. In the year 1996, considered the golden age of Panamanian reggae, appeared the productions Los Cuentos de la Cripta and La Mafia by producer El Chombo, with songs like “Las Chicas Quieren Chorizo” (“The Girls Want Chorizo”) by Wassabanga, “El Cubo de Leche” by Jam & Suppose and “Estaban Celebrando” by Aldo Ranks. The Museum of Reggae in Spanish was inaugurated on April 19, 2023. It is located on Calle 13 in the Santa Ana neighborhood of Panama City. This museum was created by Raul Isaac Alvarez who is a fan of the reggae music. The idea behind the museum was to show Panama’s contribution as the pioneers of reggae in Spanish and how this country influenced others such as Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Central America. The Museum of Reggae in Spanish has recognized the 10 pioneers of the genre including El General, Rude Girl, Renato, Nando Boom, Chicho Man, Carmensita Anderson, Gringo Man, Apache Ness, Super Nandi and Principal.

Reggaeton

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology#

There are several versions about the origin of the word reggaeton. The word reggaeton was officially invented and coined in Puerto Rico adding the Spanish suffix ton to the word reggae. One of them states that the word reggaeton emerged in 1994 when Daddy Yankee mentioned it for the first time while “freestyling” on the mixtape Playero 34. Another version suggests that it appeared the following year when DJ Erick released the album titled Reggaetón Live Vol.1, abbreviating the words reggae and maratón (marathon). The spellings reggaeton and reggaetón are common, although prescriptivist sources such as the Fundéu BBVA and the Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española recommend the spelling reguetón, as it conforms more closely with traditional Spanish spelling rules.

Regional Mexican music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

16th–20th century: Origins#

Many different subgenres of regional Mexican have their origins in the 16th to 19th centuries. Indigenous and Spanish instruments and styles mixed together to create these genres of music. For example, mariachi originated in the state of Jalisco around the 18th century. The mariachi genre is distinguished by its use of the vihuela, guitarrón, trumpet, and violin. Other genres developed later in the 20th century. An example being the ranchera. Ranchera is a traditional style of regional Mexican formed during the Mexican Revolution. Today, it can be performed in the vast majority of regional Mexican subgenres in several different time signatures.

Regional styles of Mexican music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Baja California#

: Baja California has a characteristic style derived from the huapango norteño, known as calabaceado. Calabaceado is a type of dance that was created in the 1940s, based in the fact that “norteño music” and typical cowboy cultures were being mixed, which is reflected in the dance. Other norteño forms are also popular, such as Vals Norteño, Chotis, Mazurka and mariachi.

Chiapas#

: Chiapas has produced many marimba bands and artists, such as Marimbas de Chiapas. Chiapas has its own “son” tradition (son chiapaneco), often played on the marimba. Mexican waltzes are also particularly popular here.

Rock music in Mexico

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins: Orchestra and Jazz#

Rock activity in Mexico in the 1950s took place either in Mexico City and the surrounding area or in northern cities such as Mexicali, Monterrey, Nuevo Laredo, Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana, whose proximity to the United States gave them more exposure to American sounds. Rock & roll music was introduced to Mexico in the mid 1950s, as musicians like Elvis Presley and Bill Haley were at the peak of their popularity in the US, and their music began to be broadcast in Mexico and covered by Mexican bands. Except for Tijuana and Los Tj’s. In those early years, the first acts that performed and recorded rock & roll in the country were not rock “bands”, but rather orchestras that combined jazz sounds with the new genre. Gloria Ríos, an American-born actress and lounge singer, is often credited with introducing rock & roll music in Mexico. Born in Texas in 1928, Ríos arrived in Mexico in 1944 and began recording in 1955 with many musicians (and their orchestras), such as Héctor Hallal, Jorge Ortega, Pablo Beltrán Ruiz, and most importantly, with Mario Patrón and his Estrellas del Ritmo. Many of her recordings were covers of songs by Bill Haley and Elvis Presley, but with Las Estrellas del Ritmo she also recorded “La mecedora” in 1956, a song composed by Mario Patrón, which was said to be the first original song of Mexican rock & roll. Ríos became very popular at the time due to her starring roles in films like “Las locuras del rock and roll” (1956) and “La rebelión de los adolescentes” (1957), but she later married Mario Patrón and in 1960 she went with him to Europe, where they stayed for many years. This caused Ríos to be quickly forgotten in Mexico, as the new golden age of rock & roll was starting there and new bands claimed to be the ones who had introduced the genre in Mexico. Ríos died in 2002 at the age of 74 years old. These orchestras soon started to lose popularity as new rock bands appeared, formed by young musicians who mostly covered American and British songs. Los Lunáticos, founded in 1956, are considered by many to be the first Mexican rock and roll band, and later other bands like Los Locos del Ritmo, Los Rebeldes del Rock, Los Teen Tops, etc. became popular. Las Mary Jets, formed in 1959, were the first all-female rock band in Mexico. Rock, as elsewhere, became tied with the youth revolt of the 1960s. Many songs are credited as being the first original Mexican rock & roll songs, amongst them: *“La mecedora” (1956), written by Mario Patrón and recorded by his orchestra and Gloria Ríos. This is considered to be the first original Mexican rock song in Spanish. *“Mexican rock and roll” (1956), written by Pablo Beltrán Ruiz and recorded by his orchestra, it’s an instrumental piece. *“Where Did You Get It?” (1957), written by José Luis Arcaráz and recorded in English by Los Lunáticos. Bands of the 1950s and, to a lesser degree, were often associated with the middle-class youth of Mexico. Fearing a “Moral Crisis,” the PRI-controlled government imposed restrictions on rock music and films, in an effort to protect the “Buenas Costumbres,” or proper family values, by “avoid ing noxious or disturbing influences on the harmonious development of children and youth.” These guides caused any particularly “rebellious” media, including movies and rock, to conform to the PRI’s Buenas Costumbres to get their work officially published. In addition, both to protect Mexico’s record industry, and simultaneously discourage foreign-inspired challenges to the status quo, heavy tariffs were placed upon imported records. This combination of factors created the “Refrito” movement of the 1950s and early 1960s, where Mexican rock musicians reworked foreign songs to fit in with into the restrictions on music. One of the most popular examples is the song “La Plaga” by Los Teen Tops, a refrito cover of the Little Richard song “Good Golly Miss Molly,” where lyrics featuring elements of scandal and rebellion were toned down or altered by Los Teen Tops for the Mexican market. While many musicians of the refrito era saw success, both domestically and internationally, their music was often criticized by those on the left as “imperialist in nature,” and by those on the right for still being too “rebellious,” both of which would carry on into the La Onda era of the late 1960s,

Rondalla

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The rondalla has its origins in the folk playing bands from Spain that were forerunners of the present-day rondalla and included four types: groups of young men who played and sang regularly in front of homes, bands of musicians known as murza or murga who begged for alms, a group of musicians known as comparza who played on stage, and groups of university musicians known as estudiantina, dubbed “tuna”. The usual musical instruments used by estudiantina members were mandolins, violins, guitars, flutes, cellos, basses, tambourines, castanets, and triangles. Estudiantina musicians in Spain and Mexico, before and during the age of musical romanticism, wore 16th century attire such as “short velvet breeches, ornate shirts and a short cape with multicolored ribbons”.

Samba

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology and definition#

There is no consensus among experts on the etymology of the term “samba”. A traditionalist view that defends that the etymon comes from the Bantu was in the Diário de Pernambuco in 1830. The term was documented in the publication in a note opposing the sending of soldiers to the countryside of Pernambuco State as a disciplinary measure, as there they could be idle and entertained with “fishing of corrals traps to catch fish , and climbing coconut trees, in whose hobbies viola and samba will be welcomed “. Another old appearance was recorded in the humorous Recife newspaper O Carapuceiro, dated February 1838, when Father Miguel Lopes Gama of Sacramento wrote against what he called “the samba d’almocreve” – not referring to the future musical genre, but a kind of merriment (dance drama) popular for black people of that time. According to Hiram Araújo da Costa, over the centuries, the festival of dances of enslaved people in Bahia were called samba. In Rio de Janeiro, the word only became known at the end of the 19th century, when it was linked to rural festivities, to the area of Black people and to the “north” of the country, that is, the Brazilian Northeast. For many years of the Brazilian colonial and imperial history, the terms “batuque” or “samba” were used in any manifestation of African origins that brought together dances (mainly umbigada), songs and uses of Black people instruments. At the end of the 19th century, “samba” was present in the Portuguese language, designating different types of popular dances performed by African slaves (xiba, fandango, catereté, candomblé, baião) that assumed its own characteristics in each Brazilian state, not only by the diversity of the ethnic groups of the African diaspora, but also the peculiarity of each region in which they were settlers. In the twentieth century, the term was gaining new meanings, as for a “circle dance similar to batuque” and a “genre of popular song”. The use of the word in a musical context was documented as early as 1913 in the song Em casa de baiana, registered as a “samba de partido-alto”; then in the following year, for the works A viola está magoada and Moleque vagabundo; finally, in 1916, for the famous song Pelo Telefone, released as “samba carnavalesco” (“carnival samba”) and regarded as the founding landmark of modern Carioca samba.

Samba funk

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Samba funk is a hybrid musical subgenre that combines elements of Brazilian samba with American funk, its rhythm mostly composed by keyboards, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and percussion, creating a hybrid and contagious sound. The bass, drums and guitar lines transition between the two styles. Samba funk uses instrumentation, timbres, and effects common in 1970s American funk bands, such as the Rhodes electric piano, clavinet, and Moog and Oberheim analog synthesizers. Musical effects such as the wah-wah on the guitar also contribute to the genre’s sound.

Samba reggae

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History and background#

Samba-reggae arose in the context of the black pride movement that occurred in the city of Salvador de Bahia, around 69, and it still carries connotations of ethnic identity and pride for Afro-Brazilians today. Bahia’s population has a large proportion of dark-skinned Brazilians who are descendants of African slaves who were brought to Brazil by the Portuguese in the 17th and 18th centuries. These Afro-Brazilians played a major role in the early development of samba, which first took form in a Bahian style of dance and music called “samba de roda”, probably in the late 19th century. Samba de roda was brought to Rio de Janeiro by Bahians around 1900, where it was combined with harmonic and rhythmic elements from European influences (such as chorinho and military marches). By the 1930s, samba de roda had developed into the faster, more harmonically complex Rio-style samba that is now played in Rio’s Carnival. Through the middle of the 20th century this new Rio-style samba spread throughout Brazil. Of note, the low pitch bass that was heard on beats 1 and 3, and the higher pitched surdo on beats 2 and 4 in Bahia, brought by the slaves, was changed in Samba-the low pitch was moved to beats 2 and 4. The paradoxical result was that samba was brought back to Bahia from Rio, but now in a highly altered form, and no longer associated with Afro-Brazilians. Thus, in the mid-20th century, the city of Salvador had many samba schools that were modeled on the samba schools of Rio, as well as blocos (informal street percussion groups), both of which performed Rio-style samba in Carnival parades every year. Yet, ironically, black Brazilians did not participate in these Carnival parades or in the blocos, since they were not allowed to participate. Samba-reggae represents an effort by black Brazilians to develop a Carnival parade music that they could call their own, and to form all-black or mostly-black blocos with which they could parade during Carnival. The afro bloco music was very different because they aimed to recreate and strengthen their community through their music.

Samba rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

Samba rock’s origins lie in the predominantly black favelas of São Paulo during the late 1950s, when Brazilian radio and dance halls were reached by the global spread of American rock and roll and related African-American music such as blues and jazz. Its first incarnation was as a dance phenomenon at community block parties that began to play these styles alongside traditional samba and bolero music. These parties eventually moved to larger venues hosted by disc jockeys. The first known samba-rock deejay Osvaldo Pereira—known by his stage name “Orquestra Invisível (Invisible Orchestra) Let’s Dance”—debuted in 1958 in downtown São Paulo. “The parties started to get crowded, and the rooms for the parties started to get larger”, Pereira recounted. “Then, I thought of building my own equipment, which had to be powerful, and faithful to the sound of the live orchestras.” His early equipment included a 100-watt sound system featuring a rudimentary version of a crossover, which allowed Pereira to control the frequencies of the music.

Samba-canção

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

It appeared after the World War II, at the end of the 1940s, and practically disappeared in the middle of the 1960s when majority of composers began to present their songs without category denomination. The name is somewhat arbitrary, adopted by the music industry, that is, publishers and record companies, and some composers. Like many popular songs of the world, Samba-canção (plural ‘sambas-canções’)’s principal theme is the love relationship, typically moaning for a lost love. Tempo is moderate or a little slower. The denomination suggests that the song is more sophisticated, less earthy, than ordinary samba songs.

Samba-enredo

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

“Samba-enredo” translates literally in Portuguese a samba-theme, which is thematically bonded to the selected special theme (enredo) of its samba school and narrates the story, which it told by the samba schools, in a lyrical form. Each samba school performs one song in the Carnaval parade. A new song must be written each year for each school; they must be on Brazilian topics. The Carnaval parade is among other things a samba competition, with judges, who rank the new sambas according to their perceived merit. Being by definition topical, sambas-enredo are seldom performed outside of the Carnaval environment. The samba-enredo is one of the criteria used by the Judging committee to decide who is the winner of the Carnaval parade competition. The samba-enredo must be well sung by the samba school’s puxador (or singer) or the school will lose points. While the “puxador” (the samba-enredo singer) sings, everyone marching in the Carnaval parade sings the samba-enredo along with him, and harmony is another judging criterion. For each samba school, choosing the following year’s samba-enredo is a long process. Well in advance of the Carnaval parade, each samba school holds a contest for writing the song. The song is written by samba composers from within the school itself (“Ala dos Compositores”), or sometimes from outside composers, normally in “parcerias” (partnerships). Each school receives many—sometimes hundreds—songs, sometimes hundreds of them, each hoping to be the next samba-enredo for that year. The samba-enredo is written by these numerous composers mentioned above only after the Carnival Art Director, or “Carnavalesco”, officially publishes the samba school’s parade theme synopsis for the year. After a careful explanation of the parade-theme, many times done by the Carnival Art Director himself, composers may ask questions in order to clarify the synopsis, so they can start writing the samba-enredos.

Samba-sincopado

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology#

The word syncope comes from the Greek syncopé, meaning “suppression” or “cut”. In medicine, syncope indicates a momentary stop or decrease in heart rate, accompanied by suspension of breathing and temporary loss of consciousness. In grammar, syncope means the deletion of phonemes in a word. In both medicine and grammar, the term syncope suggests a change or alteration in the rhythm of the body or tongue. In music, syncopation indicates deviations in the rhythmic pattern in which the sound—articulated in the weak part of the beat or bar—continues in the strong part of the next beat. It indicates the writing of a weak beat of a bar, prolonged by another beat of greater or equal duration. Modern urban samba, which emerged in Rio de Janeiro in the 1910s, was closely linked to the maxixe. At the end of the 1920s, samba underwent major rhythmic transformations, changing the way it was played, sung and danced compared with the first generation of samba players—such as Sinhô, Donga and João da Baiana. Doing away with the old samba amaxixado, this new form of samba had a more syncopated cadence and was supported more by percussion. Samba itself became syncopated, but in samba-sincopado, syncopation (displacement) was pushed to its ultimate consequences.

Sanjuanito

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

This type of music is associated with “Las Fiestas de San Juan”, which translates in English to the Celebration of Saint John’s Eve. It’s typically celebrated on June 24, the same day as Inti Raymi, a traditional ceremony from Incan times that coincides with the June solstice. Inti Raymi is a ritual observed in the Ecuadorian highlands where people give thanks to “Pachamama”, or “Mother Earth”, and Inti, the sun god, for a good harvest and agricultural blessings. While the name “San Juan”, in English “St. John”, relates back to Catholicism, the festivities aren’t necessarily associated with the saint. Another hypothesis behind the name “sanjuanito” is that it’s derived from Peru’s Huayno or Huaynito. Up until the 1990s, Sanjuanitos were mainly associated with the working class, particularly lower-class mestizos and indigenous people. Meanwhile, the title “musica nacional” or national music was reserved for the elite class’ preferences and definition of Ecuadorian music, as was the case for Pasillos.

Sertanejo music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

“Sertanejo” is derived from sertão, a general term for rural backlands away from coastal metropolitan regions, although sertão itself is also often used in a narrow sense referring to the interior away from the Brazilian Northeast. The Sertanejo people, from the Northeast of Brazil, are different in several aspects when compared to the Caipira people, who originate from São Paulo, being two distinct Brazilian cultures.

History#

Sertanejo music is a subgenre of Caipira music, recorded for the first time, based on recordings made by the journalist and writer Cornélio Pires, in 1929. The introduction of the electric guitar and pop music influences by duo Leo Canhoto e Robertinho in the late 1960s marked the start of Sertanejo music, separating it from Caipira music. One member of the Jovem Guarda musical movement, singer Sergio Reis switched from pop to sertanejo in the 1970, which contributed to a wider acceptance of the genre. At that time, sertanejo music was usually performed in circuses, rodeos, and AM radio stations. Early as the 1980s, this penetration extended to FM radio and also on television – either in weekly programs on Sunday morning or even making it into soap operas soundtracks or special one-off TV programs. During the 1980s, there was a mass commercial exploitation of sertanejo, coupled in some cases, to a rereading of international hits and even the Jovem Guarda’s. In this new romantic trend of country music countless artists emerged, almost always in pairs, among which, Trio Parada Dura, Chitãozinho & Xororó, Leandro e Leonardo, Zeze Di Camargo e Luciano, Chrystian & Ralf, João Paulo & Daniel, Chico Rey & Parana, João Mineiro and Marciano, Gian and Giovani, Rick & Renner, Gilberto e Gilmar, Alan e Aladim, along with some female singers, such as Roberta Miranda, Aula Miranda and Nalva Aguiar. Some of the successes of this phase are “Fio de Cabelo”, by Marciano and Darci Rossi, “Apartmento 37 “, Leo Canhoto, “Pense em Mim, " Douglas in May, “Entre Tapas e Beijos”, Nilton Lamas and Antonio Bueno and “Evidências”, by Jose Augusto and Paulo Sérgio Valle.

Sierreño

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Sierreño is believed to have originated from the highlands of northwestern states of Mexico (Sinaloa, Sonora, Chihuahua and Durango). Mexican singer-songwriter Ariel Camacho led the sierreño style with Los Plebes del Rancho in 2014. Camacho would go on to inspire many other later regional Mexican artists like Junior H and Iván Cornejo. These artists sang a style of sierreño known as sad sierreño, with lyrics that focus on heartbreak and love. Sierreño became popular among members of Generation Z, with the popularity of sad sierreño and urban sierreño. Other artists who perform sierreño music include Los Cuates de Sinaloa, Gerardo Ortíz, Regulo Caro, El Fantasma, Carín León, Luis R. Conriquez, Fuerza Regida, Herencia de Patrones, Eslabón Armado, Natanael Cano, Peso Pluma, Gabito Ballesteros, Xavi, DannyLux, Yahritza y su Esencia, Grupo Firme, Los Hijos de Barrón, Alta Consigna, Crecer Germán, Ulices Chaidez, Los Perdidos de Sinaloa, Jovanny Cadena y su Estilo Privado, Virlán García, Marca MP, Abraham Vázquez, Tercer Elemento, Los Dareyes de la Sierra, Los Alameños de la Sierra, and Los Alegres de la Sierra.

Son jalisciense

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The early origins of the son jalisciense and other early Mexican sones is not very well documented, as it was mostly an aural and local tradition until the early 20th century. It included rhythmic components that originated in Spain, pre-colonial Mexico, and different Indigenous regions. In the wake of the Spanish colonization of Mexico in the 16th century, they also brought many precursors to modern European instruments. This included winds and strings which were quickly adopted by the native population. According to legend, the genre of son jalisciense originated in the town of Cocula, Jalisco, where the traditional characteristics were solidified in the latter half of the 19th century. It is even believed that the word “mariachi” originated from a now-extinct language of this region. Following the Mexican Revolution, the prominence of mariachi (and thus the son jalisciense which is a fundamental component of mariachi) began to skyrocket. It became a symbol of national pride, and mariachis became a fixture of government events. It was during this time that the music underwent significant urbanization and standardization. Many of the most successful local groups of musicians, such as Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán began migrating to Mexico City. It was here that recording catapulted mariachi to be one of Mexico’s most popular forms of art by the 1940s. Throughout this period the typical size of the group grew, with the addition of trumpets and an increased number of violins, usually meaning three or more. They complemented a rhythm section of vihuela, guitarrón, classical guitar, and harp, which still saw occasional use. The 1950s and 1960s are today regarded as a golden age for the style, as mariachi reached its cultural zenith in Mexico, and many of the most popular and renowned sones were written or recorded during this time. Mariachi Vargas was the most popular and influential mariachi during this time, and their albums from this generation live on as some of the defining mariachi recordings. In the second half of the 20th century, mariachi began to achieve popularity and mainstay status in the United States as well, due to the increasing number of American citizens with Mexican heritage. The first mariachi group in the US was started by Nati Cano in 1961, and since mariachi has only bloomed as both a cultural and academic interest in the states. Linda Ronstadt’s 1987 album Canciones de Mi Padre, which features several sones jaliscienses became a smash hit, further elevating the prominence of the style in the US and Worldwide.

Son jarocho

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

The genre combines elements from indigenous (primarily Huastecan), Baroque music from Southern Spain (fandango) and the Western African music of slaves taken to the Caribbean; reflecting the population which evolved in the region from Spanish colonial times. It is closely related to several other genres in meter which appeared throughout Hispanic America from the 17th to the 19th century; such as the Cuban son, the Venezuelan and Colombian joropo and the Chilean cueca. Lyrics include humorous verses and subjects such as love, nature, sailors, and cattle breeding that still reflect life in colonial and 19th century Mexico. Verses are often repeated in antimetabole form. Verses are often shared with the wider Mexican and Hispanic Caribbean repertoire and some have even been borrowed from famous works by writers of the Spanish “Siglo de Oro”. It is usually performed by an ensemble of musicians and instruments which collectively are termed a “conjunto jarocho”. Son jarocho is often played only on jaranas and sung in a style in which several singers exchange improvised verses called décimas, often with humorous or risqué content. The high-pitched falsetto singing is likely of indigenous origin.

Son mexicano

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Definition#

The term “son” is given to a category of Mexican folk music covering various styles that vary by region. However, these styles share several common rhythms, lyrics and dance characteristics. The music is a mix of Spanish, African and Indigenous elements, which mingled at least as far back as the 18th century. It is most popular on the Gulf Coast and certain sections of the Pacific coast, with three main regional varieties: son jarocho in Veracruz, son huasteco (or huapango) in the La Huasteca region and son jaliscience, which has morphed into what is now known as Mariachi. Most bands generally sing but there are usually one or two lead singers. Most songs are about love, mythological figures, legends, the landscapes of Mexico as well as political and religious themes. It is strongly tied to social dance, which varies by region, but not ceremonial. Dancers are generally couples executing zapateados on raised wooden dance floors. Notable groups include Trío Los Chiles, which performs son huasteco; Son del pueblo, which performs songs from Guerrero and Oaxaca; Caña dulce caña brava, which performs son jarocho, and Chintacastla which performs son music from Tixtla in southern Veracruz.

Songo music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Timbales#

With songo, the timbales were expanded with the addition of a kick bass drum, and sometimes a snare drum and hi-hat. Songo uses a Cuban-style timbale/drum kit hybrid, which can be anything from standard timbales with kick, to a full drum kit augmented with timbales, woodblock, and various cowbells. Songo was the first Cuban popular dance rhythm to blend rumba and North American funk rhythms. The most basic songo bell pattern is an embellishment of the Matanzas-style cáscara pattern for guaguancó, traditionally played on a guagua (hollowed piece of bamboo). In both patterns the right hand (lower notes) plays the four main beats, while the left hand plays offbeats. The right hand is typically played on a closed hi-hat, woodblock, or cowbell. The left hand is typically played on the snare rim, snare, cowbell(s), or toms. The left hand portion of the pattern is expressed in a wide variety of melodic motifs, and timbres. See: “Songo Patterns on Drum Kit” (Changuito).

Space age pop

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

External links#

The Space Age pop-music page
Gallery of Space Age pop album covers

Stronda

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Suyá music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Performance context and history#

Some of the Suyá Indians’ singing occurs in the men’s house. Suyá music, like that of most Ge-speaking Indians, is vocal—sometimes accompanied by rattles, but very rarely. Throughout Suyá history, singing and vocal music has been one part of a larger oral tradition and oral expression. The Suyá people decorate their earlobes and lower lips with heavy disks; this is believed to signify the importance of vocalization and listening. Suyá music is ceremonial. Their songs were originally learned by a few special men and women, based on age, sex, and whichever group they belong to. These oral expressions are usually mostly masculine in sound. Suyá music exists in different forms: *Speech refers to all kinds of speech that are used by the Suyá people. *Instruction is used tell how to do a task, such as cooking something; the grammar in this case is that of everyday speech. Instruction has different types, for example recitative. *Song: the Suyá used songs obtained from outsiders whom they brought in to teach the village a myth or a song from their own tribe. Songs were also introduced by “men without spirits”, who claim that they can hear new songs from animals in the wild. *Invocation is a private verbal form meant to be heard by only a few people. The Suyá probably learned their invocations from the Upper Xingu Indians, most likely when the western and eastern Suyá groups began living together. These invocations were used for healing and were more important to the Suyá than herbal medicine. Each specific invocation referred to a special attribute of either an animal, a plant or another natural object. They were based on animal metaphors. For example, the invocation for an easy birth was named “small fish” because of how a fish can slip out of one’s hands very easily.

Tamborera

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History of the Tamborera#

The Tamborera was created by Ricardo Fabrega in the first half of the 20th century, to exalt nationalism and identify the Panamanians with their traditions. This is recognized by journalist Ignacio Nacho Valdes, who said: “His compositions, of a deep romantic content, have the purpose of exalt the national soul of Panamanians, and therefore, through generations, our people have sung his songs sometimes with joy and often with a deep melancholy. “His music traveled to all corners of the country and internationally and has been the enjoyment of all classes The Tamborera became known throughout Latin America with the famous song “Guararé” that is today part of the classics of Latin American music, with “Santiagueñita”, “Chiricanita”, “Agüita de canela”, “Mi negro”, “El filo”, “Chichaco por los aires” and " Tan Bella y Presumida” The genre gave life to real stars. Among these the most famous was Silvia De Grasse who brought her career to developing gender cusp outside the Panamanian border, especially in Puerto Rico, where she was recognized by the Puerto Rican television for her talent.

Tamborito

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The tamborito is a derivative of mestizo dance and folkloric music, with the melody tracing its roots as far back as the 17th century. This genre of folkloric music is a hybrid mix of the Spanish, Amerindian, and African cultures. Its rhythm is of African influence, the lyrics tend to be repetitive, and as in West African vocal music, it also incorporates popular commentary. Panama’s most famous tamborito was written in 1918 by Juan Pastor Peredes, put to music by Carmen Lagnon, entitled “El tambor de la alegria”.

Tango music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

Even though present forms of tango developed in Argentina and Uruguay from the mid-19th century, there are records of 19th and early 20th-century tango styles in Cuba and Spain, while there is a flamenco tango dance that may share a common ancestor in a minuet-style European dance. All sources stress the influence of African communities and their rhythms, while the instruments and techniques brought in by European immigrants in the 20th century played a major role in the style’s final definition, relating it to the salon music styles to which tango would contribute back at a later stage. Ángel Villoldo’s 1903 tango “El Choclo” was first recorded no later than 1906 in Philadelphia. Villoldo himself recorded it in Paris (possibly in April 1908, with the Orchestre Tzigane du Restaurant du Rat Mort), as there were no recording studios in Argentina at the time. Early tango was played by European immigrants in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. The first generation of tango players from Buenos Aires was called “Guardia Vieja” (the Old Guard). It took time to move into wider circles; in the early 20th century, it was the favorite music of thugs and gangsters who visited brothels, in a city with 100,000 more men than women (in 1914). The complex dances that arose from such rich music reflect how the men would practice the dance in groups, demonstrating male sexuality and causing a blending of emotion and aggressiveness. The music was played on portable instruments: flute, guitar, and violin trios, with bandoneón arriving at the end of the 19th century. The organito, a portable player-organ, broadened the popularity of certain songs. Eduardo Arolas was the major driver of the bandoneón’s popularization, with Vicente Greco soon standardizing the tango sextet as consisting of piano, double bass, two violins, and two bandoneóns. Like many forms of popular music, tango was associated with the underclass, and attempts were made to restrict its influence. In spite of the scorn, some, like writer Ricardo Güiraldes, were fans. Güiraldes played a part in the international popularization of tango, which had conquered the world by the end of World War I; he wrote the poem “Tango”, which describes the music as the “all-absorbing love of a tyrant, jealously guarding his dominion, over women who have surrendered submissively, like obedient beasts”. also dates from this time. The first two sections of “La Cumparsita” were composed as an instrumental march in 1916 by teenaged Gerardo Matos Rodríguez of Uruguay.

Tche music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

References#

*Breves considerações estatutárias e jurídicas acerca da introdução de novos ritmos musicais e provas nos eventos tradicionalistas - Confederação Brasileira da Tradição Gaúcha

External links#

Tche Barbaridade
Tche Garotos
Tche Guri

Tecno brega

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Production and distribution#

The music is created by producers in makeshift studios, whether in bedrooms or other unused spaces. Rather than being sold in a traditional CD format, techno brega is characterized by new distribution methods. Rather than selling a CD in a store, tecno brega CDs are sold for a minimal price (averaging US$1.50) by street vendors, who often make the actual CDs themselves. Often producing their music with little concern for copyright, the music is “born free”. The street vendor is then in charge of making more copies and using the CDs as advertisements. These advertisements are for large reggae sound systems style parties, very similar to a rave. It is at these concerts that producers will make money, whether by entrance fees or by selling CDs produced that night from live music.

Tejano music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

Central to the evolution of early Tejano music was the blend of traditional forms such as the corrido and mariachi, and Continental European styles, such as polka introduced by German, Polish, and Czech settlers in the late 19th century. In particular, the accordion was adopted by Tejano folk musicians at the turn of the 20th century, and it became a popular instrument for amateur musicians in Texas and Northern Mexico. Small bands known as orquestas, featuring amateur musicians, became a staple at community dances. Early inceptions of Tejano music demonstrated musical innovation, but also a social and cultural innovation in themes that countered narratives of dominant culture. At the turn of the century, Tejanos were mostly involved in ranching and agriculture. The only diversion was the occasional traveling musician who would come to the ranches and farms. Their basic instruments were the flute, guitar, and drum, and they sang songs that were passed down through the generations from songs originally sung in Mexico. One of these musicians was Lydia Mendoza, who became one of the first to record Spanish language music as part of RCA’s expansion of their popular race records of the 1920s. As these traveling musicians traveled into areas where the German Texans and other European settlers lived. Norteño/conjunto accordion pioneer Narciso Martínez, known as the “Father of Conjunto Music”, defined the accordion’s role in conjunto music. He learned many tunes from German, Polish and Czech brass bands and transposed them to accordion. Martínez gave accordion playing a new virtuosity in the 1930s, when he adopted the two button row accordion. At the same time, he formed a group with bajo sexto player Santiago Almeida. With the accordion, drums, and bajo sexto, Tejanos now had a sound they could begin to call their own. In the 1940s, Valerio Longoria introduced lyrics to conjunto music, further establishing the Tejano claim to this new sound. In the 1950s, Isidro Lopez further revolutionized the Tejano sound by emphasizing less on the traditional Spanish that Valerio used and using the new Tex-Mex instead. This created a newer sound and took us one step close to the sound we have today. In the 1960s and 70s Little Joe and The Latinaires (later renamed La Familia), The Latin Breed, Luis Ramirez Y su Latin Express, and others infused the orchestra sound into the Tejano sound, taking their influences from Pop, R&B, and other forms of music. In the late 70s and early 80s, there was a new sound emerging with up-and-coming groups like McAllen’s Espejismo, led by songwriter/lead singer Rudy Valdez, and Brownsville natives Joe Lopez, Jimmy Gonzalez, and Mazz introduced keyboard to Tejano, influenced by the disco sound of the era. During that period, La Mafia became the first Tejano band to put on rock-style shows for their generation.

Tierra Caliente music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Tierra Caliente music originated in the late 20th century in Mexico’s Tierra Caliente region. The genre was influenced by the technobanda sound; essentially using the same instruments such as vocals, electric keyboards, electric bass, trumpets, trombones, saxophones and drums. Some bands also utilize accordions. Tierra Caliente emphasizes the electric keyboard, giving the genre its own signature keyboard riff. The genre’s popularity was originally limited to the region in Mexico it is named after, as well as among the Mexican population from said region living in the United States, but starting in the mid-2000s, its popularity spread to other parts of Mexico; mainly in the country’s Bajío region, as well as the Mexican community from said region residing in the United States. It also gained some popularity in the Northern Triangle of Central America.

Tonada

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Baroque Peru#

The baroque tonada is distinct from the tono humano or tonado, secular song, a main genre of 17th-century Spanish and Portuguese music. Examples of the baroque tonada are found in the Codex Martínez Compañón.

Argentina#

The Argentine form of the tonada originates from Cuyo Region and is usually played by guitar group.

Chile#

The modern rural Chilean folk tonada is typically a simple “monotonous” slow-moving song with a melancholy theme.

Tribal guarachero

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The style originated from the lower and middle-class neighborhoods of Mexico City in 2000 and 2001. It then moved to Monterrey, Nuevo León, in 2007, before expanding to the United States in 2008. The genre’s popularity peaked in Mexico and in parts of the United States with large Mexican and Mexican-American populations in the early 2010s. One of the precursors and most popular of tribal guarachero producers is 3Ball MTY from Monterrey.

Tropical music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Due to its geographical roots, tropical music generally combines elements from European and African traditions. An example of this is the process of binarization of ternary rhythms brought from Africa, which took place originally in Cuba, later spreading throughout the rest of the Caribbean and Latin America. The presence of syncopated polyrhythms of African origin makes most tropical music naturally dance-oriented. Tropical music instrumentation also includes both European (tres, piano, trumpet, timbales) and African-descended (congas, bongos, marimba) instruments. During the late 20th century, contemporary instruments such as synthesizers and drum machines were incorporated.

Tropicália

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

A dominant principle of tropicália was antropofagia, a type of cultural “cannibalism” that encouraged the consumption of disparate influences, both temporal and geographic, as well as categorical, out of which could be created something uniquely Brazilian. It was a blurring of lines and preexisting conceptions of high and low art forms, as well as prestigious and marginalized artistic and political expressions. The idea was originally put forth by poet Oswald de Andrade in his Manifesto Antropófago, published in 1928, and was developed further by the tropicalistas in the 1960s. While concrete poets were not an initial influence upon the group’s works, the two groups, particularly Veloso, Gil, and Augusto de Campos, would go on to share an intellectual partnership in São Paulo. This partnership would help the tropicalistas to form connections with other artists around the city, most notably Rogério Duprat. Helio Oiticica’s 1967 work “Tropicalia” shares its name and aesthetic with the movement. The movement also utilized Carmen Miranda, a Brazilian/Portuguese international star, who in Brazil had come to be viewed as inauthentic. The use of Carmen Miranda’s image and motifs became synonymous with the movement. Veloso in particular would imitate the icons gestures and mannerisms during performances. This usage was intentionally done as a means to address the concept of “authenticity”. Miranda was seen as presenting a caricature of what true Brazilian-ness was by Brazilians while international audiences saw her as a representative of Brazil and its culture. This dichotomy provided the means by which the tropicalistas could address the concept of authenticity in such a fashion that it was striking to their audiences.

Urban champeta

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Evolution of the genre#

The origin of champeta began in the 1970s when commercial boats brought African music to the coast of Cartagena. African rhythms such as the soukous, highlife, mbguanga and other Caribbean rhythms such as the zouk and soca came to the coasts of Colombia. Champeta was created by adapting these rhythms to the urban life of Cartagena, who created an authentic sound of their own based on their life experiences and urban living. Groups have revolutionized champeta during its 30 years of evolution, such as Son Palenque and Anne Zwin, whose contributions made champeta a triumphant rhythm of the Carnaval de Barranquilla in the ’80s. At the beginning of the year 2000, champeta rhythms became widely popular in Colombia, and a new style of champeta named “urban champeta” gave birth to a new wave of artists. The adaptation of urban champeta grew in popularity with hits such as “La Voladora” by El Sayayin, “Busco alguien que me quiera” by El Afinato, “La descontinuada” by Hernan Hernandez and other songs that made a new movement throughout the Colombian Pacific, with artists such as Bomba Estereo, Monsieur Bugalú, Elio Boom, Álvaro El Bárbaro, Mister Black, Dogardisc, Melchor Torres, El Pupy, Charles King, Louis Towers, Kassiba, Oscar William and Rafael Chávez.

Urbano music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, most Latin hip-hop came from the United States West Coast. Cuban-American artist Mellow Man Ace was the first Latino artist to have a major bilingual single attached to his 1989 debut. Mellow Man, referred to as the “Godfather of Latin rap” and a Hip Hop Hall of Fame inductee, brought mainstream attention to Spanglish rhyming with his 1989 platinum single “Mentirosa”. In 1990, fellow West Coast artist Kid Frost further brought Latinos to the rap forefront with his single “La Raza”. In 1991, Kid Frost, Mellow Man, A.L.T. and several other Latin rappers formed the rap supergroup Latin Alliance and released a self-titled album which featured the hit “Lowrider (On the Boulevard)”. A.L.T. also scored a hit later that year with his remake of the song “Tequila”. Cypress Hill, of which Mellow Man Ace was a member before going solo, would become the first Latino rap group to reach platinum status in 1991. The group has since continued to release other Gold and Platinum albums. Ecuadorian-born rapper Gerardo received heavy rotation on video and radio for his single “Rico, Suave”. While commercially watered-down, his album enjoyed the status of being one of the first mainstream Spanglish CDs on the market. Johnny “J” was a multi-platinum songwriter, music producer, and rapper who was perhaps best known for his production on Tupac Shakur’s albums All Eyez on Me and Me Against the World. He also produced the 1990 single “Knockin’ Boots” for his classmate Candyman’s album Ain’t No Shame in My Game, which eventually went platinum thanks to the single. Reggae as a musical genre has its origins in Jamaica, and it became popular throughout the 1970s in the black-immigrant communities of the other British West Indies, North America, and Great Britain. Jamaican reggae was embraced in the Spanish-speaking world first in Panama by the descendants of black workers who immigrated to the Isthmus during the construction of the Panama Railroad (mid-19th century), the railways for the banana companies (late 19th century), and the Panama Canal (early 20th century). Prior to the period of construction of the Panama Canal (1904–1915), most of the Afro-Caribbean communities in Panama were of Jamaican descent, but with the construction of the canal these communities grew in diversity with immigrants from other parts of the Caribbean such as Jamaica, Barbados, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Trinidad, Dominica, French and British Guyana and other Caribbean Islands. In 1977, a Guyanese immigrant who went by the nickname “Guyana”, along with a local DJ known as “Wassabanga,” introduced for the first time the reggae rhythms in Panama with lyrics in Spanish. Wassabanga’s music, along with later interpreters such as Rastanini and Calito Soul, were perhaps the first remarkable cases of Reggae en Español, and came at a time when many Panamanians were already developing a musical and spiritual bond with the Mecca of reggae music (Kingston, Jamaica) and the music of Bob Marley.

Uruguayan rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

1960s: The Beatles and the Uruguayan Invasion#

The Beatles were wildly popular across the world, and many Uruguayan youths began to form their own rock bands. In the mid-1960s, as the British Invasion was peaking in the United States, Canada, Australia and elsewhere, a group of Uruguayan bands broke into the mainstream in Argentina. This cultural phenomenon was called the Uruguayan Invasion, and it continued for several years, as record labels began signing Uruguayan bands to promote them in Argentina. Los Shakers were a group formed in the mid-1960s, as a response to The Beatles, after a group of youngsters had seen A Hard Day’s Night. Although in essence they started as a carbon copy of the Fab Four, Los Shakers became very popular across Latin America and were a big influence on many musicians that followed them. Their second album, Shakers for You (1966) followed the same trend as the Beatles, moving towards psychedelia, but also with original touches, including nods to Bossa Nova, especially with the song Never, Never, a big hit in Brazil, and “probably an inspiration for the Tropicalia movement that arose in Brazilian music at the time.”. File: Los Shakers - Rompan todo (1965).jpg Los Shakers (Break it All)1965. File:Los Mockers by Olga Masa, 1965.jpg Los Mockers 1965 File: LosIracundos.jpg Los Iracundos 1965 File:4052800.jpg Kano y Los Bulldogs Like Los Shakers, the other bands that emerged in Uruguay at this time, did not want to just sound like their British counterparts, but to create a more original sound. Examples include Los Iracundos, Kano y Los Bulldogs, and Los Malditos. Los Mockers are not an example of this, however. Deeply influenced by The Rolling Stones, there “was no trace of any local or regional personality” in their work, although its members where considered talented performers and arrangers.

Vallenato

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

This form of music originated from farmers who, keeping a tradition of Spanish minstrels (juglares in Spanish), used to travel through the region with their cattle in search of pastures or to sell them in cattle fairs. Because they traveled from town to town and the region lacked rapid communications, these farmers served as bearers of news for families living in other towns or villages. Their only form of entertainment during these trips was singing and playing guitars or indigenous gaita flutes, known as kuisis in the Kogi language, and their form of transmitting their news was by singing their messages. The first form of vallenato was played with gaita flutes, guacharaca, and caja, and later adopted other instruments like guitars. These troubadors were later influenced by Europe’s instruments: piano and accordion. Impressed by the sound of the accordion, troubadors probably later obtained accordions from Aruba and Curaçao. Vallenato was considered music of the lower class and farmers, but gradually started penetrating through every social group during the mid-20th century. Don Clemente Quintero – a prominent member from the region’s elite – was a lover of this music, usually accompanied by liquor, was a form of entertainment for this almost isolated region. He then decided to start a parranda (party) inside the very strict Valledupar Social Club with friends. This triggered an acceptance for the music and it became a regular feature at parties, carnivals and reunions, not for dancing, but for listening to these juglares stories . Alfonso López Michelsen, a prominent Colombian politician, showed interest in the region as his ancestors and wife were born there. While a Senator, he pushed for the creation of the Department of Cesar and became, in 1966, its first governor. Once in office and together with writer and reporter Consuelo Araújo Noguera and vallenato composer Rafael Escalona, they created the Vallenato Legend Festival.

Venezuelan merengue

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The origins of the word are controversial. For some people, the word merengue comes from the French word “meringue”, a confection made from whipped egg whites. However, this concoction is called suspiro in Venezuela. There is a stronger link to a Haitian popular dance with that name. Another theory links the name to African words like “muserengue” or “tamtam mouringue”. In Caracas, the term merengue rucaneao designated a way of dancing with couples holding and often featuring exaggerated hip movements (which added to the craze and subsequent controversy). Dances were paid affairs, with popular prices being “a locha” ( cents) or “a medio” (25 cents) in dance halls known then as mabiles. Live accompaniment consisted of four solo instruments: trumpet, trombone, saxophone and clarinet and rhythm instruments such as the cuatro, bass and percussion (which, depending on the size of the ensemble, could be as simple as a scraper, or incorporate maracas and even a snare drum) . Travelling groups known as cañoneros walked around the neighborhoods staging impromptu performances for tips. The name “cañoneros” comes from their marketing approach, which included firing a carbide charge from a blank cannon made of a thick, hollowed-out bamboo cane.

Venezuelan rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

1950s#

First steps for rock music in Venezuela started by the oil industry jump in the late 1950s and can be traced to the band Los Flipper, The Thunderbirds and Los Dangers, where after , it would be part with Henry Stephen of Los Impala, a band from the prominent crude oil city Maracaibo and the first South American group with a high reputation and considerable impact in other continents (pretty much of his career in Spain). In Caracas, Los Holidays released several albums, and were the first Latin-American rock band to travel and work in Europe. Los Holidays main vocalist, Wolfgang Vivas went on to a solo career, as did guitarist/vocalist Franklin Holland (Van Splunteren) who later joined the American band Gary and the Playboys, and created a new and very original Proyecto Franklin Holland in Caracas, 1984, releasing several well received albums on the Sonografica label. Then came up bands like Los Dinámicos, Los Clippers, Los Darts, Los 007, Los Supersonicos and Los Claners who followed the British and French rock patterns. Bands such as Los Memphis of Pablo Manavello y Los Buitres of , Ladies WC or Azúcar, Cacao y Leche focused on progressive and even the fusion stage of rock. Las Cuatro Monedas introduced in Venezuela the Jamaican rithms as reggae and ska.

Xuc

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

The name “xuc”, originates from a Salvadoran instrument called juco or juque, a typical wind instrument, which sounds “xuc, xuc” when played. Usually xuc is composed in time. Some of the most emblematic songs of this rhythm are: “El Carnaval de San Miguel”, “El Xuc”, “Santa Ana”, “El Cocotero”, “El Torito”, “El Candelareño”, “El Cuarto Carnaval de San Miguel”, “Vamos Usulután”, and “Ensalada a la Palaviccini”.

Choreography#

In 1958, sixteen years after the creation of xuc, the first choreography was created, which is composed of a dynamic dance, essentially described in the following steps: #Heel-toe-heel positions with right and left foot, combined with small jumps, as a first step. #Keep your feet stretched by moving them back and forth (crossed), walking with several short distance jumps, the woman is shown characterizing herself by transmitting joy to the movement of the feet, the skirt of the suit (regularly typical) and the head, depending on the side towards which the step is oriented. The man regularly moves with his hands inside the front pants bags (regularly made of cotton or ixtle fabric), during the dance the dancers make wheels holding hands and with stretched arms, at the same time that they advance and flirt with each other, this without missing a beat. The choreography was staged by a dancer belonging to the Salvadoran dance group Morena Celarie and was done within the framework of the patron saint festivities at the famous San Miguel Carnival.

Yu-Mex

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

In the immediate post-war period, Yugoslavia did not have much of a film industry and the majority of films were imported from the Soviet Union. Following the Tito–Stalin split of 1948, Soviet films were no longer shown in the country. At the same time, due to ideological differences, Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito did not want his country to import American films. As a result, he turned to importing Mexican films. The fact that many Mexican films of the “Golden Age” glorified the Mexican Revolution and depicted ordinary Mexicans rising up against the oppressive Mexican state made Mexican films “revolutionary” enough to be shown in Yugoslavia. Many parallels were drawn between the struggle waged by the Yugoslav Partisans in World War II and the guerrillas who fought in the Mexican Revolution. The first Mexican film to premiere in Yugoslavia was the 1950 drama Un día de vida (One Day of Life, Jedan dan života), which became a huge hit when it appeared in Yugoslav theaters in 1952. The plot of Un día de vida, which dealt with the execution of a rebel during the Mexican Revolution, brought many Yugoslav audiences to tears, as they saw a parallel with their own experiences in World War II. Other, less political Mexican films, such as comedies and romances, also became popular. It was common for many young Yugoslavs to imitate the styles of Mexican film stars, who were seen as embodying everything that was “cool”. Because many of the films shown in Yugoslavia in the 1950s–1960s were Mexican, everything Mexican became very popular in Yugoslavia and many musicians started to don sombreros to perform Mexican music, either singing in Serbo-Croatian or in the original Spanish. The interest slowly faded after the 1970s. Some of the well-known Yu-Mex performers of the era were Nikola Karović, Slavko Perović, Ljubomir Milić and his ensemble Paloma ( Palomci, among them Rade Todosijević ), Miroslava Mrđa, Đorđe Masalović, Ana Milosavljević, Trio Tividi, Manjifiko, Nevenka Arsova, and others. Other famous singers and musicians, such as Predrag Cune Gojković and Mišo Kovač, also performed Yu-Mex songs.

Zamba (artform)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Name and origin#

The name “zamba” refers to a colonial term for zambo (people that are descendants of Amerindian and African people). It is therefore called zamba because its lyrical content was aimed at its native listeners. The dance originated in the Argentine province of Salta in the Creole genre known as the zamacueca of Peru, in 1824 at the same time that Peru, under José de San Martín, obtained independence. It came to Argentina through Upper Peru, a region that is modern day Bolivia and through Chile between 1825 and 1830.

Latin America on Music Theory Print

Afoxê

Afoxé in Afro-Brazilian Carnival#

Afro-Brazilian music

Musicians#

Afro-Peruvian music

Instruments#

Aguinaldo (music)

Venezuelan aguinaldo#

Andean music

Instruments#

Argentine cumbia

History#

Argentine heavy metal

History#

Argentine rock

Origins in the mid-1950s#

Arrocha

History#

Avanzada Regia

Origins#

Axé

Roots and history#

Bachatón

Background#

Bachata#

Baião (music)

Description#

Baithak Gana

Instruments#

Banda music

Traditional ensembles#

Bolero

Origins#

Bomba (Ecuador)

List of most popular bomba bands#

External links#

Bossa nova

Etymology#

Brazilian gaucho music

History#

Brazilian hip-hop

Precursors#

Brazilian rock

1950s#

Brazilian thrash metal

1980s#

Brega (music)

Etymology#

Brega pop

Background#

Cachaca (musical genre)

Etymology#

Cachi Cachi music

Etymology#

Caipira music

Etymology#

History#

Canción melódica

History#

Candombe

Common origins#

Capoeira music

History#

Chacarera

Chacarera music#

Melody and harmony#

Chamamé

See also#

External links#

Chamarrita

Azorean Chamarrita#

Champeta

Musical characteristics#

Chicano rap

Origins#

Chicano rock

History#

Chilean electronic music

History#