Latin American Music

345 Words2 Pages
In recent times, there has been a definite increase in the popularity of Latin American music and culture outside of the continent. Cuban “son” music has received a superior understanding and consciousness about it through the release of the Buena Vista Social Club album in 1997 and the subsequent documentary film on its production. The Argentinean Tango has also received exposure through television and in Hollywood films in addition to an already growing fan base. The effects of this globalisation, however, has been criticised in the way Latin American music has been portrayed by the various foreign media and clichéd view over the music, born out of ignorance and inaccurate coverage. The articles “The Buena Vista Social Club” by Tanya Katerí Hernandez and “Globalisation and the Tango” by Chris Goertzen and María Susana Azzi have both discussed the issue of the globalisation of Latin American music and how it is portrayed in foreign countries. Cuban son music emerged in the country during the 1910s and by 1930 had gained worldwide success. This style of music, a blend of Spanish canción, Spanish guitar and African rhythms and played in the clave rhythm, provided a key symbol of Afro-Cuban culture and identity while also heavily influencing other musicians and music genres. It provided Havana’s Afro-Cuban lower classes with a source of income and the chance to enter a previously European dominated market. Son was exported to the rest of the world during the 1930s and 1940s and became particularly popular in the United States, also providing the grounds for the creation of salsa music in the 1970s. The music however began to decline in popularity before the 1997 album, “The Buena Vista Social Club” named after the famous Havana nightclub, was released. The album inspired resurgence in son music outside of the country and an opportunity for the world to revisit
Open Document