2024 can be called the year of Latin American music. There are several reasons for this: artists of this style actively cooperate with stars from the USA and Europe; their music combines many different genres and has a bright, sunny energy, which we often need while betting at baji999 or just walking around the city. Let’s find out what Latin is, what genres it’s divided into, and which artists you should listen to immediately.
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Latin American Music Definition
Latin American is recorded by representatives of Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Paraguay, Uruguay, and other American countries, where Spanish and Portuguese are used. The basis of this work is American, European (Spanish and Portuguese), and African musical cultures.
Depending on the region, Latin can be classified into Andean (western South America: Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile), Central American (e.g. El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, parts of Colombia, and Panama), Caribbean (Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic), Argentine, Mexican, and Brazilian music. It’s the blending of different cultures and traditions that makes Latin so “wild,” unrestrained, bold, and special.
Latin American Music Genres
Bolero
This is a romantic song that originated in Cuba in the 1940s and spread throughout Latin America in the early 20th century. It was originally performed by a single musician playing the guitar, similar to medieval troubadours. Then boleros began to be played by duets, trios, and quartets. The 4/4 size allows the genre to blend well with dance styles. It shouldn’t be confused with the Spanish folk dance in 3/4 size, which originated in the 18th century.
Tristezas (Spanish for “sorrow”), written by Pepe Sanchez in 1883, is the first bolero composition. The genre also includes the famous Bésame Mucho (Spanish for “Kiss Me”) by Mexican pianist Consuelo Velázquez. The bolero was later popularized by groups such as Trio Matamoros and Trio Los Panchos. And internationally, it became widely known thanks to Puerto Rican singer Luis Miguel. The star’s album Romance (1991) with classic songs in a new interpretation, is a must for all those who are blinded by love or cherish their broken hearts.
Calypso
A contrasting and challenging genre with roots in the songs of African slaves on sugar plantations in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago in the nineteenth century. Through singing, workers were able to communicate and feel more secure. There is also a less popular version from the artist Roaring Lion, as if calypso comes from the compositions of French medieval troubadours.
The genre worked its way through the formative years of the 20th century and became especially revered in the 1950s. The sound, with its relaxed guitar and brass melodies, may seem frivolous. However, the lyrics are ironic, social, and political, and they talk about the plight of the people, the injustice of the government, and Africa as the performers’ home country. For example, at the Trinidad Carnival in 1941, the “King of Calypso” contest was won by a song about Adolf Hitler with the hope that he would suffer the fate of Napoleon, i.e., exile to some lonely island.
Cumbia
A genre that emerged in Colombia at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, based on European (Spanish), Indian, and African music (courtship dance). Its name is supposedly derived from cumbé, which means “dance” in an African language.
Hearing cumbia makes you want to dance. There is a theory that the genre originated among slaves who wore shackles on their feet. Hence the simple rhythm, which the countries of South and Central America easily picked up. The set of instruments in cumbia is traditional for Latin: flute, maracas (a kind of rattle), tambourines, but there is also quite unexpected — the accordion. Its sound is especially beloved in Colombia. Thanks to its passages, the effect of unrestrained danceability of the style is achieved.
Salsa
Salsa comprises all styles of Cuban music. In a narrow sense, these are the melodies of Latin American immigrants in New York, which appeared in the 1960s and 1970s. According to legend, the American singer Tito Puente christened the new style, under which partygoers party in clubs, “sauce” because of its multi-components (mambo, dream, cumbia, merengue, and so on). And in Spanish, “sauce” is salsa.
The genre is characterized by 4/4 size, fast tempo, complex rhythmic patterns synthesized from the rhythms of tumbao, and son clave. It’s performed on instruments such as viola, cello, violin, trombone, and French horn.
In the 1980s, salsa began to return to South and Central America: Venezuela, Panama, Colombia, and Cuba. Artists Oscar D’Leon, Grupo Niche, and Joe Arroyo appeared. Later, pop, hip-hop, jazz, and reggaeton were added to the style. In combination with pop music, salsa worked well in the work of American of Puerto Rican origin Mark Anthony. Toward the end of the 1980s, a sharper and more aggressive offshoot — timba — appeared in Cuba.