Afro-Cuban Music The Buena Vista Club was a club in Cuba where dancing and musical performances were held. The most influential and highly known veteran Cuban musicians would meet there to perform. These musicians are Ibrahim Ferrer, Ruben Gonzalez, Pio Leyva, Manuel “Puntillita” Licea, Orlando “Cachaito” Lopez, Manuel “Guajiro” Mirabal, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Potuondo, Compay Segundo, Barbarito Torres, and Amadito Valdes. As the years kept passing by, these veteran Cuban musicians and their music were being forgotten. However, under the guidance and the Buena Vista Club album project of Juan de Marcos Gonzalez and Ry Coder, these veteran Cuban musicians were able to bring their music to the world and have it remembered by many people.
Although, many argue that salsa originated in Cuba, Puerto Rico also played an enormous role in the orgin of salsa music. The Puerto Rican plena which can be found in salsa is a tropical sound accompanied by percussion, the plena is a uniquely Puerto Rican style that deals with contemporary events, it is often referred to as "el periodico cantado" (the sung newspaper.) It is composed of an alternating, call-and-response scheme between the soloist and the chorus. As time progressed and immigrants from Cuba began to migrate to the United States due to the Cuban embargo, salsa became a blend of many genres; hybrid that it is today. Salsa played an important role for these new immigrants living in the barrios of the South Bronx and Brooklyn at a time where there was violence, illicit drugs, and political and economic disparities among its community.
Carlos Luna Cuban Artist Born 1969 in San Luis in Pinar del Rio / tobacco region of Cuba Studied in art schools of Cuba. Recognized as a talented artist in Cuba with many exhibitions and awards. Relocated to Puebla, Mexico in 1991 and came to Miami in 2001. Like other Cuban artists, he is a product of various influences, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Afro-Cubans. As a leading producer of sugar, coffee, nickel, and tobacco, Cuba was attractive to entrepreneurs who contributed to a diverse cultural mix by bringing workers from Africa and Asia.
As many other musical genres such as Jazz, Gospel, and Blues were developed by African Americans, Hip-hop music is also a creation of their culture. Although the style and the characteristics of Hip-hop music that people have been making have varied over time, the essential purpose of the music remains the same: to send a message through music. African Americans developed their music as a product of their experiences of being under the harsh conditions of slavery in America. According to Megan Sullivan, the author of the article “African-American Music as Rebellion: From Slavesong to Hip-Hop”, white Americans treated African Americans unequally and separated them from white American’s society (21). Under the bleak condition of slavery, African American used music as a way to stay connected with their own African culture, while expressing the painful experiences that they had throughout history.
While popular among the poor, these policies alienated many former supporters of the revolution among the Cuban middle and upper-classes. He wanted the population to have equally distributed resources. I can account for a Cuban neighbor telling me that even a trip to the grocery store was controlled. They would be handed coupons and that was the limit they had each month. Also, Cubans were not allowed to start private business under Castro’s rule.
Many characteristics of African dance have contributed to the dances and styles in America. This started when Africans were sent to North America starting in the 1600’s to work as slaves. The slave trade did not allow Africans to bring possessions, so all that they brought with them was their culture. Once the Africans arrived in America, and settled on the plantations, dance was one of the ways they were able to remember their home, family, and where they came from. Dance became a form of entertainment for themselves and their masters.
While watching the documentary “Buena Vista Social Club” you notice a lot of things about these musicians who want to leave Cuba but never do. Even though the revolution had a big impact on the lives of the musicians who stayed in Cuba, this didn’t cause them to be forgotten by the musicians in the U.S. if anything the musicians from Cuba inspired the famous Cuban musicians from Cuba to become and stay famous by getting their tracks played in the
Rock ‘n’ Roll gave the American youth a freedom to develop and express independent ideas in society. During the fifties, Rock ‘n’ Roll was music that parents of American teenagers didn’t understand or like. Listening to rock was a way to rebel against their parents and the current society. They were bored from the typical mainstream music that was being played at that particular time, such as “How Much is That Doggy in The Window.” Until Rock ‘n ’Roll, white teenagers were getting bored with the music they were listening to, and switched to black rhythm and blues (Rock ‘n’ Roll). Rhythm and blues was popular among the African American population, but until the early fifties, the white audience had little interest in this type of music.
In the beginning of his book ’68, Paco Taibo describes the background of the students that would later play an important role for the ’68 revolutionary movement. These “seven or eight thousand’ students” had, more or less, the same ideas, listened to the same music and admired the same heroes (Taibo, 16). As Taibo describes, these students were influenced by the Cuban revolution and the Vietnamese resistance against American oppression. Che Guevara was their hero, and they would read his works, such as ‘Episodes of the Revolutionary War to Socialism and Man in Cuba’ (Taibo, 16). The students also listened to protests songs and the “music of the anti-Vietnam War generation”(Taibo, 17).
Throughout the years, hip-hop artists express their feelings and opinions in their songs. From these song lyrics, individuals express their own problems, because they might also be going through the same as problems as the singers they listen to. As you might have heard people say, “This song is about my life.” Hip-hop influences American youth in a negative way. Hip-hop music started in Bronx, New York, in black and Latin communities. For many white and black Americans, hip-hop’s culture states the problems the urban black youth went through.