Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music

by George Torres

  was that the predominantly male European colonists seldom brought their families

  with them, which very quickly led to a forced mixing of European, African, and

  American populations. In time, mestizo (a mixture of European and Native) and

  Creole (European and African) cultures came to dominate many regions of Latin

  America, though they too developed in profoundly diverse ways. Other important

  factors were the economic potential of a particular territory and the availability of

  a workforce, which in turn was affected by the relative prevalence of European dis-

  eases. In Mexico and Peru, disease decimated but did not completely annihilate the

  Native populations, negating the necessity to bring large numbers of African slaves

  to these areas. Conversely, many Caribbean islands saw the complete extinction

  of the Native inhabitants. African and Native cultures were thus not felt uniformly

  across the continent, greatly affecting the syncretic dynamic.

  Yet another factor was the religious syncretism that permeated the continent. Ca-

  tholicism (and to a lesser extent Protestant denominations) provided the overarch-

  ing blueprint for the continent’s religious identity, which then absorbed, to varying

  degrees, elements from African and Native beliefs, as well as scattered elements

  of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and other faiths.

  Colonial church and civil authorities realized early on that the most efficient

  way of achieving their goals was to incorporate existing Native elements into the

  transplanted European culture, creating a completely new entity. One strategy was

  to build churches and cathedrals on the same sites as the old temples, to provide

  a sense of religious continuity. Since music had been an important part of Native

  religious ceremonies, the Church emphasized it in Catholic services, to make the

  new converts feel at home in the new religion. Soon, much of the Native popula-

  tion accepted the new faith, though the priests were less successful in eradicating

  the old system of beliefs. Native celebrations, feasts, and processions were sur-

  reptitiously adapted to the Christian faith and held away from the watchful eyes of

  priests and church officials. Idols would find their way onto altars, hidden under

  crosses or stashed away in church walls. As a result, Native religions endured, at

  first alongside (but separate from) Christianity, and increasingly in a mixture of

  interconnected Christian and Native beliefs that adapted to the specific needs of

  the populace.

  Hybridity and Cultural Syncretism | 205

  Meanwhile, African religions were emerging wherever African slaves were

  present in the Americas, providing them with a sense of identity and spiritual con-

  tinuity. These included Cuban Santeria, Haitian Vodou, Jamaican Obeah, and Ku-

  mina (as well as the more recent Rastafarian movement), Brazilian Candomblé, and

  hundreds of other less-famous traditions throughout the continent. Most of these re-

  ligions are a combination of Christian and African (and sometimes Native) beliefs,

  and were often based on communications with ancestral spirits (e.g., orishas in San-

  teria, lwas in Vodou) that dwelled in the African continent and that provided spiri-

  tual help and practical advice. To shield these activities from the disapproving eyes

  of the authorities, the ancestral spirits were merged with Catholic saints and hidden

  under a Christian veneer. Over time, the two deities—and the two faiths—came to

  be intermingled and fused together to produce hybrid religions and cultures.

  The fusion of European, Native, African, mestizo, and Creole characteristics

  quickly distinguished Latin American cultures from its sources, and in time the

  continent became less of a European cultural outpost and acquired its own charac-

  ter and identity. From these syncretic cultures emerged most of the classical, folk,

  and popular music of Latin America (as well as the art, architecture, literature,

  etc.). European ballroom dances (such as the minuete, jota, malagueña, seguidilla,

  contradanza, waltz, polka, and mazurka) emerged from high-society salons and became popular dances, performed in rural settings, now infused with Native or

  African rhythms and instrumentation, but also retaining European dance steps such

  as the zapateado and the zarandeo. Thus, the Martinican quadrille was a dance of the 18th century French salons, typically accompanied by small orchestras made up

  of slaves or former slaves. After the ball, the musicians would perform the music

  at their own get-togethers, melding it with their Afro-Caribbean drumming tradi-

  tions. In time, this kwadril became one of the source components of the popular

  zouk of recent years.

  European instruments such as the guitar and the harp became prevalent

  throughout the continent, embraced by various ethnic groups. Many soon became

  hybridized, yielding new variations that had been unknown in Europe (e.g., the

  Peruvian charango and the jarana from Veracruz), with corresponding tuning

  systems, performance techniques and composition ideals. The harp, brought to the

  Americas by Jesuit missionaries, took hold in many mestizo and Native cultures,

  most prominently the Mexican arpa jarocha, the Venezuelan arpa llanera and the

  arpa paraguaya.

  Similarly, African instruments (drums, marimbas, and thumb-pianos) and prac-

  tices (complex syncopated rhythms, call-and-response singing, ritual dancing) were

  often adopted by other ethnic groups, while African Americans almost invariably

  embraced European and Native instruments, forms and styles, and combined them

  with their own. Yet mixing African and European music did not automatically yield

  a generic result, as can be attested by the marked differences between Brazilian

  206 | Hybridity and Cultural Syncretism

  samba, Cuban rumba, Jamaican reggae, and Dixieland jazz. Some syncretic processes derive from unusual sources, the result of unique historical factors. Thus,

  Trinidadian chutney combines African rhythms with East Indian melodies and in-

  struments, while the music of the Central American Garífuna combines African and

  Native elements with virtually no European contributions.

  Syncretism manifested itself in the continent’s art music as well, including

  prominently in the colonial villancico guineo and mestizo e indio, which purported

  to represent African and Native culture. While 19th-century art music (particularly

  opera) often attempted to include ethnic elements, these were usually stylized ver-

  sions of European trends. Conversely, the nationalist movements in the 20th century

  did successfully combine European art music with Native, African, mestizo, and

  Creole folk music, including prominently in the works of Chávez, Ginastera, and

  Villa-Lobos. One began finding in the concert hall the tangos, sambas, sones,

  and rumbas that had previously been the domain of the village, the barrio, the

  nightclub or the Carnival parade.

  The syncretic process redoubled in the second half of the 20th century, with con-

  tinuous cross-pollination aided by increased migration, recording and transmission

  technology, and mass commercialization. British and American rock influenced

  styles such as Brazilian tropicália and Argentine rock nacional. The Colombian

  cumbia was adopted an
d transformed by numerous traditions, from the Mexican

  borderlands to Argentina. Styles such as salsa, soca, reggae, samba, and dozens of others emerged from local and national contexts to become hemispheric and even

  global phenomena. In the process, they continually influenced each other, produc-

  ing limitless combinations of syncretic styles. Yet paradoxically, the same period

  also saw the increased homogenization of Latin America’s music. The forces of glo-

  balization and modernization transformed and re-created countless styles outside of

  their original context, usually in some commercial venue. As Latin American music

  became an important contributor to the so-called world music phenomenon, it often

  adopted a pop orientation, colored by aural uniformity, mass media dissemination,

  Western influences and essentially the same rock ‘n’ roll instrumentation: electric

  guitars, bass, synthesizers, and drum sets. The meaning of the music in terms of

  its function and social representation was altered by this transformation, and in the

  process, much of the individuality that engendered it was lost.

  Further Reading

  Clark, Walter A. “Preface: What Makes Latin American Music ‘Latin’? Some Personal

  Reflections.” Musical Quarterly 92, no. 3/4, Latin American Music (Fall–Winter 2009):

  167–76.

  Davis, Martha Ellen. “ ‘Bi-Musicality’ in the Cultural Configurations of the Caribbean,”

  Black Music Research Journal 14, no. 2 (Autumn 1994): 145–60.

  Floyd Jr., Samuel A. “Black Music in the Circum-Caribbean,” American Music, 17,

  no. 1 (Spring 1999): 1–38.

  Hybridity and Cultural Syncretism | 207

  Guilbault, Jocelyne. “Créolité and the New Cultural Politics of Difference in Popu-

  lar Music of the French West Indies,” Black Music Research Journal, 14, no. 2 (Autumn

  1994): 161–78.

  Hill, Donald R. “West African and Haitian Influences on the Ritual and Popular Music

  of Carriacou, Trinidad, and Cuba,” Black Music Research Journal, 18, no. 1/2 (Spring–

  Autumn 1998): pp. 183–201.

  Jong, Nanette de. “An Anatomy of Creolization: Curaçao and the Antillean Waltz,”

  Latin American Music Review, 24, no. 2 (Autumn–Winter 2003): 233–51.

  Martin, Denis-Constant. “Filiation of Innovation? Some Hypotheses to Overcome the

  Dilemma of Afro-American Music’s Origins,” Black Music Research Journal, 11, no. 1

  (Spring 1991): 19–38.

  Quintero, Angel G., and Roberto Márquez Rivera. “Migration and Worldview in Salsa

  Music,” Latin American Music Review, 24, no. 2 (Autumn–Winter 2003): 210–32.

  Shepherd, John A. “A Theoretical Model for the Sociomusicological Analysis of Popular

  Music,” Popular Music, 2 (1982): 145–47.

  Wade, Peter. “African Diaspora and Colombian Popular Music in the Twentieth Cen-

  tury,” Black Music Research Journal, 28, no. 2 (Fall 2008): 41–56.

  Waterman, R. A. “ ‘Hot’ Rhythm in Negro Music,” Journal of the American Musicologi-

  cal Society 1 (1948): 24–37.

  Mark Brill

  I

  Immigrant Music

  The number of first-generation immigrants and their descendants living in the

  United States has burgeoned since the liberal American immigration reform of

  1965. In 2010, an estimated 55 million people (or 17 percent of the total national

  population) classified themselves in one of the specific Hispanic or Latino catego-

  ries (Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Cuban). Destinations for immigrants broadened

  in recent decades and sizeable Latino immigrant communities have now settled in

  virtually every American state. A United States Census Bureau report foresees the

  national Hispanic and Latino population rising to 30 percent by 2050. Accordingly,

  Latin American and Latin music will increase their already significant impact on

  the American soundscape in the 21st century.

  Americanized interpretations of Cuban dance music from danzón and rumba to

  mambo and cha-cha-chá filled American dance halls from the 1930s to the 1950s.

  Argentine tango and Brazilian bossa nova gained popularity among mainstream audiences while Mexican mariachi and other folklórico ensembles are widely

  known to a national public. But Latin American music has also been a consider-

  able outside influence on popular music styles of the United States such as jazz

  (or more recently rap), and numerous bandleaders and musicians of Caribbean and

  Latin American heritage have shaped various musical scenes, particularly in the

  larger urban centers. While immigrants brought their regional music genres with

  them to the United States such as bachata , vallenato, or banda , for example, some genres developed as a result of collaborations among musicians of different national origins. Salsa , for instance, is considered one of the most dynamic and sig-

  nificant pan-American musical phenomena of the 1970s and 1980s. Incorporating

  multiple styles nurtured by Cuban and Puerto Rican immigrant musicians to New

  York City, it quickly became a favorite dance music among all Latino communi-

  ties in the United States as well as in the Caribbean and Latin America. Reggaetón ,

  which emerged in the late 1990s as a blend of Jamaican music influences of reggae

  and dancehall with Puerto Rican genres and the Boricua/Latino-centric rap scene

  in New York City, took the younger Latino generations by storm.

  The large metropolitan areas on both the East and West Coast, but increasingly

  also in the Midwest, constitute a fertile ground for musical innovation. Immigration-

  heavy cities have given birth to numerous transnational popular music phenomena.

  Technobanda and its associated quebradita dance style, for example, spread in the

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  210 | Immigrant Music

  late 1980s from Guadalajara, Jalisco, to Los Angeles, California, where it gained

  great popularity among immigrants as well as American youths of Mexican heri-

  tage. In the early 21st century, pasito duranguense (“the little step from Durango,” a

  state in northwestern Mexico ) originated in Chicago as a fusion of Mexican banda,

  norteño and grupero music, while the dance steps were borrowed from the Mexi-

  can American quebradita and Dominican merengue . Duranguense ’s phenomenal rise of popularity reflects the growing importance of Latino immigrants and their

  own music styles. Despite the fact that the American news media tends to advertise

  Latin pop stars who sing in English rather than immigrant music, regional Mexican

  music accounted for more than half of all Latin music sales in the United States,

  according to a 2001 report of the Recording Industry Association of America. In

  the summer of 2004, various duranguense groups claimed almost one-half of the

  spots on Billboard’s Top 25 Latin Albums chart.

  Visibility through National Awards and the Media

  Although many genres performed, listened, and danced to by Caribbean and Latin

  American immigrants stay within the confines of their own communities, the more

  commercially oriented music styles are made accessible to a national audience

  through the media. The music industry has contributed to an increased awareness

  by creating awards such as the Billboard Latin Music Awards that grew out of the

  Billboard Music Awards program from Billboard Magazine , an industry publica-

  tion charting the sales
and radio airplay success of musical recordings. Nine years

  after the awards’ inauguration in 1990, the awards ceremony was broadcast on the

  television network Telemundo, the second largest Spanish-language media com-

  pany in the United States, and it since has become the network’s highest-rated

  music special. Recognizing the most popular Latin music on the charts, the Bill-

  board Latin Music Awards features top solo performers and Latin groups vying

  for honors in such categories as pop, rock, tropical, Mexican regional music, and

  reggaetón. In 2000, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences desig-

  nated seven categories of the Grammy Awards for Latin music performance: Latin

  pop, Latin rock /alternative, traditional tropical Latin, salsa, merengue, Mexican

  American, and tejano . Meanwhile, all major recording labels have Latin divisions.

  Among the most successful Latin labels in the United States are Disa, Fonovisa,

  Sony Music Latin, and Universal Music Latino.

  Assimilation versus Multiculturalism

  Latin Americans, like other groups of immigrants, assimilated in varying degrees

  to the American way of life. The 1960s to 1970s Mexican American rhythm and

  Immigrant

  Music

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  211

  blues and rock bands from East Los Angeles adapted musical styles representa-

  tive of the American mainstream rather than developing any particular, regional

  musical style as, for example, the Texan Mexican musicians did with conjunto

  and orquesta . While the musical replenishment from south of the border has had

  a major impact on Mexican American musical production and consumption, sev-

  eral Latin American music genres were brought to the United States via Mexico:

  the mambo was introduced by Mexico City–based bandleader Pérez Prado and a

  Mexican version of the bolero was popularized by Los Panchos and other bolero

  trios in the 1940s and 1950s. Mexicans, not Colombians, brought cumbia to the

  United States and when Colombian immigration began to surge in the 1990s, it

  was vallenato, not cumbia that enjoyed the status as a quintessential symbol of

  Colombian identity. Today it is Mexican immigrants, not Colombians, who nu-