Make a two-page report comparing and contrasting the
music of Latin America and Africa.
Latin American Music
This
refers to
music originating from Latin America, namely, Spanish- and
Portuguese-speaking countries of the Americas and the Caribbean.
Latin American music also
incorporates African music from slaves who were transported to
the Americas by Europeans as well as music from indigenous peoples of the Americas. The first of those
encapsulates all music styles generated from Latin countries, such as salsa, merengue, tango, compas, bossa nova and bachata, as well as other
styles derived from a more mainstream genre, such as Latin pop, rock, jazz and reggaeton.
Geographically, the music usually
refers to the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking regions of Latin America but sometimes
includes Francophone countries and territories of the Caribbean and South
America as well. The origins of
Latin American music begins with Spain and Portugal's colonization of Latin
America in the 16th century where the European settlers brought their music
from overseas.
Popular styles
·
Nueva canción – This is a movement and genre within Latin American and Iberian folk music, folk-inspired music and socially committed music. It
is widely recognized to have played a powerful role in the social upheavals in
Portugal, Spain and Latin America during the 1970s and 1980s.
·
Salsa – Based on Cuban
music in rhythm, tempo, bass line, riffs and instrumentation, salsa represents
an amalgamation of musical styles including rock, jazz and other Latin American
(and Puerto Rican) musical traditions. Modern salsa (as it became known
worldwide) was forged in the pan-Latin melting
pot of New York City in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
·
Tejano –
This may be categorized as a blend of country music, rock and R&B born in Texas and performed in both
Spanish and English with a variety of cultural influences.
·
Reggaetón – This has become a
Latin American phenomenon and is no longer classifiable as a Panamanian (or
even a Puerto Rican) genre. It blends the Jamaican musical influences of reggae and dancehall and Trinidadian soca with Latin American music (such as the
Puerto Rican bomba and plena)
and American hiphop and rap. The music is also combined
with rapping, generally in Spanish.
·
Latin ballad – This is very popular in Latin America and Spain, and is
characterized by a sensitive rhythm. A descendant of the bolero, it has several variants
(such as salsa and cumbia).
African Music
Given the vastness of the continent, the traditional music
of Africa is
historically ancient, rich and diverse, with the different regions and nations of Africa having distinct musical traditions.
Traditional music in much of the continent is
passed down orally (or aurally) and is not written. In Sub-Saharan African music traditions, it also frequently relies heavily on percussion
instruments of every variety, including xylophones, drums and tone-producing instruments such as the mbira or "thumb piano."
The music and dance of the African diaspora, formed to varying degrees on
African musical traditions, include American music and many Caribbean genres, such as soca, calypso and zouk. Latin American music genres such as the samba, rumba, salsa and other clave (rhythm)-based genres, were also found to
varying degrees on the music of enslaved Africans, and have in turn influenced African popular music.
North Africa is the seat of ancient Egypt and Carthage, civilizations
with strong ties to the ancient Near East and which influenced the ancient Greek and Roman cultures. Like the
musical genres of the Nile Valley and the Horn of Africa, its music has close ties with Middle Eastern music and utilizes similar melodicmodes (maqamat).
North African music has a
considerable range, from the music of ancient Egypt to the Berber and the Tuareg music of the desert nomads. The region's art
music has for centuries followed the outline of Arabic and Andalusian classical music: its popular contemporary genres
include the Algerian Rai.
Historically, several factors have influenced the tribal music of Africa. The music has been influenced by language, the environment, a variety of cultures, politics and population movement, all of which are intermingled. Each African tribe evolved in a different area of the continent, which means that they ate different foods, faced different weather conditions, and came in contact with different tribes than other societies did. Each tribe moved at different rates and to different places than others, and thus each was influenced by different people and circumstances. Furthermore, each society did not necessarily operate under the same government, which also significantly influenced their music styles.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_American_music
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Africa
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