Learning The Different Types Of Latin Music

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HiDefDJ

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Aug 13, 2006
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Copied from http://www.latinbayarea.com/channels/music/types.htm


Salsa
Salsa is a term of unclear origin that emerged and became popular in New York in the late 1960s. It has remained controversial since. For some, salsa is nothing more than a marketing handle for Afro-Cuban music as updated and reinterpreted by Latinos in New York. Others hear it as a distinctive New York-Caribbean style, pointing out the grittier sound and the pan-Latin elements (e.g.: Puerto Rican, Panamanian and Dominican as well as Afro-Cuban), along with R&B and jazz influences.


Merengue
While there are similarly named dances in other countries, this merengue, a fast-paced music danced in a tight two-step, is the national dance of the Dominican Republic. Born in the Dominican countryside in the 19th century of African and European traditions, merengue was traditionally played by small groups featuring accordion, güiro (metal scraper) and the two-headed tambora drum. It became enormously popular in the 1980s played by brassy, big band-like orchestras.


Traditional
The Latin GRAMMYs' "Traditional" field celebrates classic Creole styles and the Cuban son is an essential, subtle blending of African and European elements developed in the island's Oriente (Eastern) province. Rich and malleable, son is to Cuban popular music what blues is to Afro-American popular music. Much of what is known as salsa, for example, is based on son.


Cumbia
Cumbia, a sweetly syncopated dance music from the Atlantic coast of Colombia, is a classic example of the Creole fusion of indigenous, European and African cultural elements in the Americas. The original cumbia featured percussion and voice but as it evolved, instruments were added. By the time it reached Colombia's urban centers, in the 1940s, it was played by large dance orchestras. Cumbia has reached far and wide, but has been especially influential in Mexico and Central America.


Vallenato
Vallenato is the accordion music from the Atlantic coast of Colombia. The traditional instrumentation features accordion, caja (a single-head drum) and guacharaca (ridged cane scraper). The lyrics once suggested an oral newspaper account of local events and people. Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez, a vallenato scholar in his own right, once called his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude "350-page vallenato." The genre reached a new, younger audience in the '90s with the success of soap opera star-turned-singer Carlos Vives, who updated the music with rock and pop elements.


Ranchera
The dramatic ranchera, which emerged during the Mexican Revolution, is considered by many the country's quintessential popular music genre. Sung to different beats including the waltz and the bolero, its lyrics traditionally celebrate rural life, talk about unrequited love and tell of the struggles of Mexico's Everyman. Tejano/conjunto and norteño acts favor rancheras with romantic themes played to a polka beat. Mariachis and grupos prefer the gentler boleros and waltzes.


Banda
Banda, literally "band" in Spanish, generally refers to the large brass-heavy ensembles that first appeared in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa in the early 20th century. Early banda featured trumpets, trombones, tubas and percussion instruments, but no lead singer. The contemporary banda, although it still features a horn section, often includes keyboards and electric bass. Banda music exploded in the '90s due to the rise of la quebradita, a fast dance that incorporates moves from polka, rock and roll, and cumbia.


Grupero
The term "grupo," which literally refers to a band of musicians, in recent years has come to denote keyboard-driven romantic pop bands with members who share equal billing. Grupo music is referred to as "onda grupera."


Tejano
Tejano, Spanish for "Texan," is a hybrid of traditional Mexican rancheras, polkas and cumbias infused with elements of country, blues and pop. Bandleader and saxophonist Isidro "El Indio" López is credited with creating modern Tejano music in the late 1950s by bringing together the sounds of the big band Tejano orchestra and the accordion-centered conjunto. By the '90s, Tejano had blossomed into many sub-genres including Tejano/pop, Tejano/R&B and Tejano/country.


Norteño
Norteño, Spanish for "northern," is a genre rooted in rural folk music but enriched by many elements from the music of German and Czech immigrants. A norteño band typically features an accordion and a bajo sexto (a 12-string bass guitar), but modern groups such as Los Tigres del Norte and Bronco also include electric bass, sax and keyboards.


Tango
Tango emerged in the 1880s in the outskirts of Buenos Aires as a blend of indigenous styles and elements of Cuban, African and European music. Tango was largely instrumental until the late 1910s when the tango-canción (tango-song) and its greatest interpreter, Carlos Gardel, emerged. While the 1940s are generally considered the golden era of tango, the late composer, bandleader and bandoneonist Astor Piazzolla and his revolutionary New Tango not only energized the genre but, in the 1980s, brought it to a new international audience.


Flamenco
Flamenco is the result of a blend of cultures, including Gypsy, Muslim and Jewish, which at some point settled in Andalusia in the south of Spain. Traces of these roots can be heard in the rhythms, the harmonies and the elaborate melisma of the singers. Like blues or tango, it began as the forbidden dance and music of the disenfranchised. No museum piece, in recent years flamenco artists have successfully explored the links of this music with other genres and traditions such as jazz, pop and African music, finding a new, broader audience.


Latin Jazz
The term "Latin jazz" has been largely a misnomer, as it has generally referred to Afro-Cuban jazz, a fusion of jazz harmonies and improvisation over Afro-Cuban rhythms that took shape in the 1940s or some Brazilian-tinged blend. In recent years, due to the efforts of musicians such as Cuban saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera and the emergence of young artists such as Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez and Puerto Rican saxophonist David Sanchez, who have brought their roots to the music, Latin jazz has developed more of a true pan-Latin sound.


Samba
Perhaps the most famous Brazilian popular music style, samba is characterized by a 2/4 meter, and simple rhythms woven into a dense, intricate, interlocking texture and a call-and-response structure. It emerged as an urban style in Rio de Janeiro in the 1910s. The samba that evokes images of carnival and large samba schools — with their floats and hundreds of drummers on parade performing a song with a narrative — is known as samba de enredo. But there are other samba styles such as the samba canção, a slower, softer, more sentimental samba; the samba do morro, an earthier, heavily percussive, neighborhood samba; and the samba reggae, which takes on the reggae backbeat.


Pagode
Pagode draws strongly from classic samba roots but updates them with earthy lyrics, refreshing pop production and surprising instrumental twists. Pagode's origins can be traced to a series of mid-1970s jam sessions frequented by musicians gathering for Rio's Carnaval. Contemporary pagode has a more pop-ish sound, with a touch of Brazilian soul and R&B, and feature keyboards and electric guitar and bass.


MPB
Música Popular Brasileira, or MPB, is an umbrella term for contemporary Brazilian pop music. It also refers specifically to a generation of musicians and songwriters who rose to prominence in Brazil in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a time of political turmoil in the country and under a military dictatorship that lasted 22 years. This, in fact, helped turn MPB into much more than just another let's-have-a-good-time rock and pop movement. Esthetically, MPB covers a broad spectrum, from literate ballads to inspired, mad blends of indigenous music with Anglo pop and rock. Far from being a '60s artifact, MPB is still a vital form today.

Sertanejo
Música sertaneja, or simply sertanejo, is a type of regional country music from Brazil that, in recent years, has enjoyed great national popularity and record sales. Critic Antonio Carlos Miguel notes that sertanejo is rooted in música caipira, the acoustic country music of Southeast and Central Brazil, and that while it was originally characterized by naïve lyrics about romance and rural life, sertanejo has, in recent decades, incorporated the influences of guarânia music from Paraguay, Mexican mariachi music and North American country music.

Rock en Español
Rock en Español is an umbrella term for creolized Ibero-American rock. Loosely defined, this Latin take on rock emerged in Mexico in the mid-1960s, and soon after in Argentina, and came of age in the Ibero-American world in the 1980s. Stylistically, Rock en Español stretches from the sound of tribute-like bands mimicking the sound of Anglo groups to label-defying gumbos that might include, for example, at any given time, elements of Anglo rock, hip-hop, ska, punk or techno but also of indigenous styles such as corridos, tangos, cumbias and vallenatos
 
Copied from http://www.latinbayarea.com/channels/music/types.htm


Salsa
Salsa is a term of unclear origin that....rock, hip-hop, ska, punk or techno but also of indigenous styles such as corridos, tangos, cumbias and vallenatos

Hi Brian,

Excelent,

LatinBayArea is from my hometown, and I know Mario Cruz the founder/editor of this publication since his early start in 99/2000. At that time I was the MexicanHeritagePlaza Technology Coordinator.

Great contribution.

Rig
 
Great post chris, and a very good link rig. If you have any questions about artists or classic Rock en Español, I'll be glad to help.
 
Hi Rig,
I need to get my lists out but from 1997 on you had groups like Kabah, Jeans, OV7 (AKA Onda Vaselina), La Ley, Paulina Rubio, Benny Ibarra, Plastilina Mosh, Sentidos Opuestos, Las Ketchup (with their overused Asereje), Fey, Miguel Bose and Ana Torroja brought some of the old hits back in 1998+ as a tour, Mercurio, Jeans, Alaska (Another one coming back from the 80's latin rock), Sin Bandera, Nek, Moenia, Proyecto Uno, Thalia, and a whole bunch more. Give me a little bit of time and I'll make a list with songs for you. There's a whole bunch of neat stuff available. If you want to take a look at one of the music stores in Mexico City take a look here www.mixup.com.mx
Take care
 
Hi Rig,
I need to get my lists out but from 1997 on you had groups like Kabah, Jeans, OV7 (AKA Onda Vaselina), La Ley, Paulina Rubio, Benny Ibarra, Plastilina Mosh, Sentidos Opuestos, Las Ketchup (with their overused Asereje), Fey, Miguel Bose and Ana Torroja brought some of the old hits back in 1998+ as a tour, Mercurio, Jeans, Alaska (Another one coming back from the 80's latin rock), Sin Bandera, Nek, Moenia, Proyecto Uno, Thalia, and a whole bunch more. Give me a little bit of time and I'll make a list with songs for you. There's a whole bunch of neat stuff available. If you want to take a look at one of the music stores in Mexico City take a look here www.mixup.com.mx
Take care


Thanks bro.

Rig

http://www.myspace.com/deejayrig
 
Rig haven't forgotten about you and the list, let me get through the holidays and rearrange somethings at home and I'll post it.
Happy holidays!
Jacob
 
Good stuff. Maybe I missed it but Bachata was not mentioned.

Right,

Bachata didn't have much success, for some reason, maybe because it is difficult to dance and too mellow...

But you are right, it does exist and many people like it.

Mochi y Alexander: "la hoja en blanco"
 
On a Bachata Merengue type you can take a listen to Juan Luis Guerra y su 440.
 
Right,

Bachata didn't have much success, for some reason, maybe because it is difficult to dance and too mellow...

But you are right, it does exist and many people like it.

Mochi y Alexander: "la hoja en blanco"

Don't know what you mean but Bachata is the easiest to dance to next to Merengue. There are alot of popular songs besides "hoja en blanco".
 
Mr Havoc

Don't know what you mean but Bachata is the easiest to dance to next to Merengue. There are alot of popular songs besides "hoja en blanco".
with your extensive knowledge please share more of the bachata
artist and titles.
:sqcool: Thanks!!!
 
Aventura is the most popular here in Toronto.

Also I would like to add one more style - Punta. Very danceable music and I play it quite often.
 
Since I am Cuban I know about all these types of music but I just really deal with Salsa,Merengue,Baladas,Reggaeton and Bachata at the parties I DJ at. But those were all great defenitions of all the different types of Spanish music.
 
I have a great book...it is a bound paper book called A DJs Guide to Latin Music. It is a perfect primer for those ignorant to Latin Music, but getting calls to play it.

It is currently unavailable at Amazon: A Dj's Guide to Latin Music: Amazon.ca: Jose Miguel, Chuck Fresh: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://img.amazon.ca/images/I/719ENPDM4CL.@@AMEPARAM@@719ENPDM4CL

BUT you may be able to contact Chuck at Brevard Marketing and see if he has any copies or would be willing to bind one up...

http://www.chuckfresh.com/brevard/web.htm
 
1.OPTIMO-CONECTATE**************************************************
2.LOS TOROS BAND-VUELVE MI REINA***********************************
3.MONCHY Y ALEXANDRA-DOS LOCOS**********************************
4.AVENTURA-MI CORAZONCITO
5.FRANK REYES-POR EL ALCHOL
6.AVENTURA-INFIELES*************************************************
7.DOMENIC MARTE-VEN TU*********************************************
8.HECTOR EL TORITO ACOSTA-ME VOY**********************************
9.DOMENIC MARTE-DESEOS DE AMAR
10.MONCHY Y ALEXANDRA-PERDIDOS**********************************8
11.ZACARIAS FERRER-AMAR ES TAN DIFICIL
12.AVENTURA-IN BESO**************************************************
13.LOS TOROS BAND- SI TU ESTUVIERAS*********************************
14.MONCHY Y ALEXANDRA-HASTA EL FINAL*****************************
15.MONCHY Y ALEXANDRA-AMOR DE NOVELA***************************
16.XTREME-NO ME DIGAS QUE NO***************************************
17.HECTOR ACOSTA-SIN PERDON****************************************
18.FRANK REYES-AMOR DESPERDICIADO********************************
19.AVENTURA-EL PERDEDOR********************************************
20.AVENTURA-CUANDO VOLVERAS**************************************
21.DOMENIC MARTE-CON LOS OJOS CERRADOS***************************
22.DOMENIC MARTE-LA QUIERO*****************************************
23.ZACARIAS FERRER-LA AVISPA
24.RAULIN RODRIGUEZ-AY HOMBRE
25.AVENTURA-LA BODA
These are some of the ones that I use John Tuck
 
To DJSAZON1:

What kind of mix CDs would you suggest to buy?
I'm looking for some new stuff, could be Ebay, Amazon or any major store.
Keep in mind that in Canada We are still not allowed do use on line services like itunes. So for now it has to be Cd.