Son Cubano

With roots on the island of Cuba, Son Cubano is a style of music that became popular in the second half of the 19th century in the eastern province of Oriente. The earliest known son dates from the late 1500s (the oldest known son is "Son de la Má Teodora", from about the 1570s in Santiago de Cuba). It combines the structure and elements of Spanish canción and the Spanish guitar with African rhythms and percussion instruments of Bantu and Arara origin.
While originally a Cuban music style Son has also become a word used for rural traditional musical styles of Spanish speaking countries and apart from the Cuban variant called Son Cubano other son traditions exist in Mexico where for example the Son Jarocho of Varacruz and the Son Huasteca of the Sierra Huasteca constitute distinct popular musical styles where the concept has been fusioned with indigenous musical styles

Reggaeton

Reggaeton- (Porto Rico, Jamaica, Panama)

Reggaeton in English and known as Reguetón and Reggaetón in Spanish is a form of dance music which became popular with Latin American (or Latino) youth during the early 1990s and spread to North American, European, Asian, and Australian audiences during the first few years of the 21st century. Reggaeton blends Jamaican music influences of reggae and dancehall with those of Latin America, such as bomba and plena, as well as that of hip hop. The music is also combined with rapping in Spanish, English or 'Spanglish'. Reggaeton has given the Hispanic youth, starting with those from Panama, a musical genre that they can consider their own. The influence of this genre has spread to the wider Latino communities in the United States, as well as the Latin American audience.
While it takes influences from hip hop and Jamaican dancehall, it would be wrong to define reggaeton as the ‘Hispanic’- or ‘Latino’- version of either of these genres; Reggaeton has its own specific beat and rhythm, whereas Latino hip hop is simply hip hop recorded by artists of Latino descent. The specific rhythm that characterizes reggaeton is referred to as “Dem Bow”. The name is a reference to the title of the dancehall song by Shabba Ranks that first popularized the beat in the early 1990s.
Reggaeton's origins represents a hybrid of many different musical genres and influences from various countries in the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States. The genre of reggaeton however is most closely associated with Puerto Rico, as this is where the musical style later popularized and became most famous, and where the vast majority of its current stars originate from.
2004 was the year that reggaeton gained widespread popularity in the United States, eventually gaining attention in many “Western” countries. This was due to N.O.R.E. introducing the genre to mainstream America with the song “Oye Mi Canto”, followed by Daddy Yankee who came out with his album “Barrio Fino” and his mega hit single “Gasolina”. Another important artist who contributed to reggaeton's increasing popularity, especially in Europe, is Don Omar, with singles like “Pobre Diabla” and “Dale Don Dale” Other very popular reggaetón artists include Alexis Y Fido, Angel Khriz, Nina Sky, Nicky Jam,Zion y Lennox, Rakim & Ken-Y, Voltio, Calle 13, Hécto El Father, Ivy Queen, Wisin & Yandel, Tito El Bambino and Tego Calderon.

Bachata-

Bachata- (Dominican Republic)

Bachata, a form of music and dance that originated in the countryside and rural marginal neighborhoods of 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.Bachata was created and primarily used by servants, who used to play it when they got off of work. They made the music out of ordinary objects like those commonly found in a backyard (Trashcans, Fences,etc). In some rural areas of the Dominican Republic, bachata means trash, but most citizens agree that it means a party. Others say that bachata is derived from the Italian Ballata, which was a popular form of music in Italy centuries ago.Bachata grew out of - and is still closely related to - the pan Latin-American romantic style called bolero. Over time, it has been influenced by merengue - a fast paced danceable music also native to the Dominican Republic - and by a variety of Latin American guitar styles.
The most recognizable aspect of bachata instrumentation is the use of an amplified guitar (either electric or acoustic) whose sound has been doctored with a flanger, reverb, echo, or a combination of the three. Derived from the Latin American tradition of guitar music, and originally named for the crude bars and clubs where guitarists and singers would perform, bachata emerged in the 1960s. According to a documentary, the Beatles cover of Till There Was You (first performed in 1963) helped inspire the genre.
The basic footwork in dance is a series of simple steps that produce a back and forth or sideways motion. A schematic footwork would be as follows: starting with the right foot make a chasse to the right on counts 1,2,3. On 4, touch the left toe beside your right foot (alternatively, tapping the left toe in place, i.e., apart from the right foot, make an upwards jerk with the left hip). Then do the same from your left foot. The character of the dance is achieved through sensual hip and body movements.

Salsa

Salsa music is a diverse and predominantly Spanish Caribbean genre that is popular across Latin America and among Latinos. Salsa incorporates multiple styles and variations; the term can be used to describe most any form of popular Cuban-derived genre, such as chachachá and mambo. Most specifically, however, salsa refers to a particular style developed in the 1960s and '70s by Cuban immigrants and Puerto Rican migrants to the New York City area. The style is now practiced throughout Latin America and abroad; in some countries it may be referred to as música tropical.[1] Salsa's closest relatives are Cuban mambo and the son orchestras of the early 20th century, as well as Latin jazz. The terms Latin jazz and salsa are sometimes used interchangeably; many musicians are considered a part of either, or both, fields, especially performers from prior to the 1970s.[2]
Salsa is essentially Cuban in stylistic origin,[3] though it is also a hybrid of Puerto Rican and other Latin styles mixed with pop, jazz, rock, and R&B.[4] Salsa is the primary music played at Latin dance clubs and is the "essential pulse of Latin music", according to author Ed Morales,[5] while music author Peter Manuel called it the "most popular dance (music) among Puerto Rican and Cuban communities, (and in) Central and South America", and "one of the most dynamic and significant pan-American musical phenomena of the 1970s and 1980s".[6] Modern salsa remains a dance-oriented genre and is closely associated with a style of salsa dancing.
History:
In the 1930s, '40s and '50s, Cuban music within Cuba was evolving into new styles derived primarily from son and rumba, while the Cubans in New York, living among many Latinos from Puerto Rico and elsewhere, began playing their own distinctive styles, influenced most importantly by African American music.[5] Their music included son and guarachas, as well as tango, bolero and danza, with prominent influences from jazz.[29] While the New York scene continued evolving, Cuban popular music, especially mambo, became very famous across the United States. Following this was a series of other genres of Cuban music, which especially affected the Latin scene in New York. Many Latin musicians in New York were Puerto Rican, and it was these performers who innovated the style now known as salsa music, based largely off Cuban, and to a lesser extent, Puerto Rican music.[30]
Salsa evolved steadily through the later 1970s and into the '80s and '90s. New instruments were adopted and new national styles, like the music of Brazil, were adapted to salsa. New subgenres appeared, such as the sweet love songs called salsa romántica, while salsa became a major part of the music scene in Venezuela, Mexico and as far away as Japan. Diverse influences, including most prominently hip hop music, came to shape the evolving genre. By the turn of the century, salsa was one of the major fields of popular music in the world, and salsa stars were international celebrities.


Origin:
Salsa's roots can be traced back to the African ancestors that were brought to the Caribbean by the Spanish as slaves. In Africa it is very common to find people playing music with instruments like the conga and la pandereta, instruments commonly used in salsa. Salsa's most direct antecedent is Cuban son, which itself is a combination of African and European influences. Large son bands were very popular in Cuba beginning in the 1930s; these were largely septetos and sextetos, and they quickly spread to the United States.[31] In the 1940s Cuban dance bands grew much larger, becoming mambo and charanga orchestras led by bandleaders like Arsenio Rodriguez and Felix Chappotin. In New York City in the '40s, at the center for mambo in the United States, the Palladium Dancehall, and in Mexico City, where a burgeoning film industry attracted Latin musicians, Cuban-style big bands were formed by Cubans and Puerto Ricans like Machito, Perez Prado, Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez.[32] New York began developing its own Cuban-derived sound, spurred by large-scale Latino immigration, the rise of local record labels due to the early 1940s musicians strike and the spread of the jukebox industry, and the craze for big band dance music.[33]
Mambo was very jazz-influenced, and it was the mambo big bands that kept alive the large jazz band tradition, while the mainstream current of jazz was moving on to the smaller bands of the bebop era. Throughout the 1950s Latin dance music, such as mambo, rumba and chachachá, was mainstream popular music in the United States and Europe. The '50s also saw a decline in popularity for mambo big bands, followed by the Cuban Revolution of 1959, which greatly inhibited contact between New York and Cuba. The result was a scene more dominated by Puerto Ricans than Cubans.

Tango

General Information:
Origin: Buenos Aires Argentina.
Dancing Styles: Argentine Tango, Uruguayan Tango, Ballroom tango (American and International styles), Finnish tango, Chinese tango, and vintage tangos.
Activities related to Tango dancing: figure skating, synchronized swimming.
Feeling: Dramatic feeling, cultural associations with romance & love.

The Argentine tango

ü Consists of a variety of styles that developed in different regions and eras of Argentina and Uruguay.
ü Developed in response to many cultural elements, such as the crowding of the venue and even the fashions in clothing.
ü The styles are mostly danced in either open embrace, where lead and follow connect at arms length, or close embrace, where the lead and follow connect chest-to-chest.

Different styles of Argentine Tango are:
· Tango Canyengue
· Tango Liso
· Tango Salon
· Tango Orillero
· Tango Milonguero (Tango Apilado)
· Tango Nuevo
· Show Tango (also known as Fantasia).

These are danced to several types of music:
· Tango
· Vals (the tango version of waltz)
· Milonga (a related dance that usually has a faster tempo)
· Tango Electronico
· "Alternative Tango," i.e. non-tango music appropriated for use in the dance

Flamenco

Flamenco Music

The most important element of flamenco music is undeniably the singing, "Cante". In fact, originally flamenco was comprised purely of Cante, with handclapping "Palmas" or knuckle rapping percussive accompaniment. The guitar, a variation of the Arabic Oud, was gradually incorporated in the 19th century. The strongest influences evident in the evolution of Flamenco singing and music can be traced from:
Punjabi singing of India
Persian Zyriab song form
Classical Andalusian Orchestras of the Islamic Empire
Jewish Synagogue Chants
Mozarabic forms such as Zarchyas and Zambra
Arabic Zayal which themselves are the foundation for Fandangos
Andalusian regional folk forms
Western African influences via the slaves of the New World Caribbean, Central and South American colonies. These include Rumba, Garotin, Guajiras,

Flamenco Dance

Although much less research has been undertaken in the field of flamenco dance than music, it has been documented that during the Phoenician empire, in the city of Cadiz, Hindu dancers were hired as entertainers for the festivals, aspects of which were incorporated into local processions and religious festivals.
This very strong resemblance to East Indian dance is seen in the Katak, NianiPuri, Kathakal and Bharatanatyam forms. Elements such as the deep-seated plie, outturned leg position, sharp angles of the body and arms, splayed fingers, rapid barrel turns and, most certainly, the percussive foot movements are all evident in flamenco dance.
As previously mentioned, the Mozarabic "Zambra" was occasionally performed for a very brief time during the late 19th to early 20th centuries, although its role in the development of flamenco dance is minimal. This dance, in 2/4 time, combined elements of Andalusian folk dance with Arabic elements, such as finger cymbals, tambourines and atypical theatrical costuming. However, this bears no resemblance to the performances of Sevillanas, Tangos and Bulerias by the commercial, touristic band of gypsies in the caves of Granada, which Amaya identifies as Zambra in her video "Gypsy Fire". In fact, apart from some of the percussive foot movements found in the Moroccan Shikhate, there is almost no similarity between flamenco and Middle Eastern dance. Even the open-knee hip movements of flamenco are attributed to the African influence from the colonies and/or Indian dance. Absent to flamenco dance are the torso undulations, pelvic oscillations, hip shimmies and rotations, all of which are fundamental components of Oriental. Finally, the soft, fluid, feminine, sweet and joyful external nature of Middle Eastern dance is the complete antithesis of the internal, spring-loaded, strong, defiant, explosive, masculine character of Flamenco.

Ranchera- Mexico

The ranchera is a genre of the traditional music of Mexico. Although closely associated with the mariachi groups which evolved in Jalisco in the post-revolutionary period, rancheras are also played today by norteño (or Conjunto), banda (or Duranguense), groups. Drawing on rural traditional folklore, the ranchera was conceived as a symbol of a new national consciousness in reaction to the aristocratic tastes of the era. Probably the greatest living exponent of the ranchera is the Mexican singer-songwriter Vicente Fernández.
Traditional rancheras are about love, patriotism or nature. Rhythms can be in 3/4, 2/4 or 4/4, reflecting the tempo of, respectively, the waltz, the polka, and the bolero. Songs are usually in the major key, and consist of an instrumental introduction, verse and refrain, instrumental section and another verse and refrain, with a tag ending. Instrumentation may include guitars, horns, trumpets, or accordions, depending on the type of band that plays it.
The 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 adornos interrupting the lines in between. The instruments then repeat the theme again, and then the lyrics may either be repeated or have new words.
Some of the most popular ranchera composers have been Felipe Valdez, Antonio Aguilar, as well as the prolific José Alfredo Jiménez. Well-known rancheras include "Noches Eternas", "El Palomito", "Una Mujer Casada", and "En Las Cantinas." Rancheras can be played by a variety of ensembles, such as mariachis and bandas, and incorporating strings, brass, and/or accordion.
Another closely related style of music is the corrido, which is often played by the same bands that regularly play rancheras. As contrasted to the corrido, however, rancheras are not necessarily heroic ballads and vary more in terms of tempo.
The word ranchera was derived from the word rancho because the songs originated in the countrysides of rural Mexico. Rancheras that have been adapted by norteño bands are sometimes called norteños.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranchera