Tango is a style of music in 24 or 44 time that originated among European and African immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay (collectively, the "Rioplatenses").

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,[10] in a city with 100,000 more men than women (in 1914).

The music was played on portable instruments: flute, guitar, and violin trios, with bandoneón arriving at the end of the 19th century.

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".

Superstar Carlos Gardel soon became a sex symbol who brought tango to new audiences, especially in the United States, due to his sensual depictions of the dance in film.

Evolutionists like Aníbal Troilo and Carlos di Sarli were opposed to traditionalists like Rodolfo Biagi and Juan d'Arienzo.

The "Golden Age" of tango music and dance is generally agreed to have been the period from about 1935 to 1952,[citation needed] roughly contemporaneous with the big band era in the United States.

Some of the many popular and influential orchestras included those of Mariano Mores, Juan d'Arienzo, Francisco Canaro, and Aníbal Troilo.

D'Arienzo was called the "Rey del compás" or "King of the beat", for the insistent, driving rhythm which can be heard on many of his recordings.

Beginning in the Golden Age and continuing afterwards, the orchestras of Osvaldo Pugliese and Carlos di Sarli made many recordings.

Di Sarli had a lush, grandiose sound, and emphasized strings and piano over the bandoneón, which is heard in "A la gran muñeca" and "Bahía Blanca" (the name of his home town).

Pugliese's first recordings were not too different from those of other dance orchestras, but he developed a complex, rich, and sometimes discordant sound, which is heard in his signature pieces "Gallo ciego", "Emancipación", and "La yumba".

[citation needed] Eventually, tango transcended its Latin boundaries as European bands adopted it into their dance repertoires.

[citation needed] Non-traditional instruments were often added, such as the accordion (in place of the bandoneon), saxophone, clarinet, ukulele, mandolin, electric organ, etc., as well as lyrics in non-Spanish languages.

European tango became a mainstream worldwide dance and popular music style, alongside foxtrot, slow waltz, and rumba.

The so-called post-Piazzolla generation (1980–) includes musicians such as Dino Saluzzi, Rodolfo Mederos, Gustavo Beytelmann, and Juan Jose Mosalini.

Piazzolla and his followers developed nuevo tango, a musical genre that incorporated jazz and classical influences into a more experimental style.

In the late 1990s, composer and pianist Fernando Otero[33] continued to add elements to the innovation process which had started decades ago, expanding the orchestration and form while including improvisation and atonal aspects in his work.

Other bands have also become part of the movement, such as Orquesta Rascacielos, Altertango, Ciudad Baigón, as well as singer-songwriters Alfredo "Tape" Rubín,[34][38] Victoria di Raimondo,[39] Juan Serén,[34][40] Natalí de Vicenzo,[36] and Pacha González.

Gotan Project is a group that formed in 1999 in Paris, consisting of musicians Philippe Cohen Solal, Eduardo Makaroff, and Christoph H. Muller.

Their releases include Vuelvo al Sur/El capitalismo foráneo (2000), La Revancha del Tango (2001), Inspiración Espiración (2004), and Lunático (2006).

Kurt Weill continued this style in The Threepenny Opera (1928) (Die Dreigroschenoper), with "Tango Ballade", or "Zuhälterballade", a fateful song about underworld life (a symphonic version commissioned by Otto Klemperer); a bit later, he composed "Youkali" (Tango-Habanera), with French lyrics.