Music of Latin America
[2] Due to its highly syncretic nature, Latin American music encompasses a wide variety of styles, including influential genres such as cumbia, bachata, bossa nova, merengue, rumba, salsa, samba, son, candombe and tango.
During the 20th century, many styles were influenced by the music of the United States giving rise to genres such as Latin pop, rock, jazz, hip hop, and reggaeton.
[5] It is unclear on the birthplace of tango, though musicologists collectively agree that it most likely originated in Germany in 1860 as a form of religious music in organless churches.
Tango became an urban music scene, which was a result of a melting pot of European immigrants, criollos, blacks, and native populations.
Tango is influenced by Andalusian flamenco, Spanish contradanse, southern Italian melodies, Cuban habanera, African candombe and percussion.
Brazil is a large, diverse country with a long history of popular-musical development, ranging from the early-20th-century innovation of samba to the modern Música popular brasileira.
[7] Many musical genres are native to Chile; one of the most popular was the Chilean Romantic Cumbia, exemplified by artists such as Americo and Leo Rey.
In Central Chile, several styles can be found: the Cueca (the national dance), the Tonada, the Refalosa, the Sajuriana, the Zapateado, the Cuando and the Vals.
Typical instruments are the quijongo, marimba, ocarinas, low drawer, the Sabak, reed flutes, accordion, mandolin and guitar.
Colombian Andean has been strongly influenced by Spanish rhythms and instruments, and differs noticeably from the indigenous music of Peru or Bolivia.
Typical forms include the bambuco, pasillo guabina and torbellino, played with pianos and string instruments such as the tiple guitarra.
A romantic style is also popular in the Dominican Republic from vocalists such as Angela Carrasco, Anthony Rios, Maridalia Hernandez and Olga Lara.
Like other Latin American countries, Ecuadorian music includes local exponents of international styles: from opera, salsa and rock to cumbia, thrash metal and jazz.
[citation needed] In recent years reggaeton and hip hop have gained popularity, led by groups such as Pescozada and Mecate.
The country's ancient capital of Comayagua is an important center for modern Honduran music, and is home to the College for Fine Arts.
Northeastern Mexico is home to another popular style called norteña, which assimilates Mexican ranchera with Colombian cumbia and is typically played with Bavarian accordions and Bohemian polka influence.
The music of Panama is the result of the mestizaje, It has occurred during the last five hundred years between the Iberian traditions, especially those of Andalusia, American Indians and those of West Africa.
Mestizaje that has been enriched by cultural exchange caused by several waves of migrations originating in Europe, in various parts of the Caribbean (mostly Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica and Saint Lucia) in Asia and several points in South and North America.
With this rich cultural heritage, Panama has contributed significantly to the development of Cumbia, Decima, Panamanian saloma, Pasillo, Panamanian bunde, bullerengue, Punto Music, Tamborito, Mejorana, Panamanian Murga, Tamborera (Examples: Guarare and Tambor de la Alegria), bolero, jazz, Salsa, reggae and calypso, through composers like Nicolas Aceves Núñez (hall, cumbia, tamborito, Pasillo), Luis Russell (jazz), Ricardo Fábrega (bolero and Tamborera), José Luis Rodríguez Vélez (cumbia and bolero), Arturo "Chino" Hassan (bolero), Nando Boom (reggae), Lord Cobra (calypso), Rubén Blades (salsa), Danilo Pérez (jazz), Vicente Gómez Gudiño (Pasillo), César Alcedo, among many others.
The polka is usually based on poetic lyrics, but there are some emblematic pieces of Paraguayan music (such as "Pájaro Campana", or "Songbird", by Félix Pérez Cardozo).
The Taíno Indians have influenced the Puerto Rican culture greatly, leaving behind important contributions such as their musical instruments, language, food, plant medicine and art.
When two singers, either both men or a man and a woman, engage in vocal competition in música jíbara this is a special type of seis called a controversia.
As rural farmers moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico and other cities, they brought plena with them and eventually added horns and improvised call and response vocals.
Candombe, a style of drumming descended from African slaves in the area, is quintessentially Uruguayan (although it is played to a lesser extent in Argentina).
There are also African-influenced styles which emphasize drumming including multiple rhythms, such as sangueo, fulia, parranda, tamborera and calypso from the Guayana region (influenced by neighboring English-speaking countries).
El merengue venezolano es una música bailable del siglo XX de Venezuela, con un característico ritmo atractivo.
Es un género completamente diferente del merengue de la República Dominicana en cuanto a su ritmo, instrumentos, cultura e historia.
At first, merengue music was associated with the mabiles, popular drinking and dancing spots in Caracas, and with the capital's carnival celebrations in street parades and plazas.
[16] Reggaeton was developed in areas of Public housing in Puerto Rico, known as "caserios," which were filled with urban poverty and criminal activity such as drug violence.
[17] Popular Reggaeton artists, such as Daddy Yankee,[18] grew up in these "caserios," where their lyrics reflected life in the public housing developments and, in addition, experiences of racial exclusion in the country.
