Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music Read online

  films, TV programs, musicals, operas, and zarzuelas are italicized. Song titles and

  portions of larger works are in quotations.

  The entry headings are in boldface without italics. Cross-referenced entries are

  also in boldface. The entries begin with a brief and clear identification of the topic

  that provides a quick summary for that entry. The size of the entries ranges from

  200 words to about 2,500 words, depending on the content. The choice of entry size

  was decided in consultation with the authors and the advisory board. While it is

  certainly true that some entries merit more space than others, the challenge in decid-

  ing which entries would be larger is a matter of preference among those working on

  the encyclopedia. There were targeted entry sizes that increased or decreased in their

  actual length in the completed writing. That is, in some cases a projected 1,250-word

  entry was expanded to closer to 2,000 words, while in some cases the same projected

  size entry was left at only 850 words. For those entries that the reader may feel war-

  rant a longer treatment, it is my sincere hope that the quality of the writing, rather

  than quantity, will prove to be more important to the reader in the end.

  In general, the entries in this encyclopedia set out to convey the generally ac-

  cepted viewpoints on the subjects, and there has been an effort to keep the material

  free of special considerations or pleading on the part of the authors, as generally,

  this sort of reference work is not the locus for the presentation of novel ideas or

  original theses.

  Every entry in the encyclopedia presents at least one reference for further reading.

  Each of these bibliographies presents sources that would lead readers to additional

  information on the topics. They provide a next step for accessible investigation, and

  as such, they were chosen as much for their authority as for their availability. For

  that reason, there are few if any unpublished dissertations or theses in the bibliog-

  raphies, usually only included when they represent the only significant research on

  the subject. Additionally, every effort was made to include, where appropriate, En-

  glish language sources. In some cases, a World Wide Web resource is included. No

  attempt has been made to provide exhaustive or comprehensive coverage in these

  lists. Instead, they should be considered a starting point for further investigations.

  A selected, general bibliography at the end of the book directs users to broad print

  and electronic resources suitable for student research.

  Sidebars

  The sidebars that are included in this encyclopedia provide examples of signifi-

  cant practitioners of their art. It was never intended that the encyclopedia provide

  a comprehensive biographical component. Thus, there may appear to be gaps in

  xxiv | Popular Music Resources

  the coverage of significant performers. Inevitably one may ask why one performer

  was chosen over another to represent a particular genre or musical style. There is

  no doubt that almost any of the chosen sidebar entries may have been replaced by

  another equally qualified representative. What seemed important for this study was

  to provide illustrative examples, by way of these sidebars, of representative practi-

  tioners. Thus they are not a declaration of the most important performers, compos-

  ers, or artists. A suggestion for further reading is provided for each sidebar entry.

  Chronology

  In order to provide a broader context concerning popular music in Latin America,

  a chronology of events related to popular music in Latin America is provided

  before the main body of entries. There was no attempt at providing a comprehen-

  sive coverage of musical events; rather, the aim of the chronology is to place certain

  significant events within the context of a wider view of events in order to recognize

  larger relationships between related events and achievements in Latin American

  popular music.

  Lists and Indexes

  There are several lists in the front matter that will aid in the accessing of informa-

  tion contained in the encyclopedia. The first is an alphabetical list of the entries

  that form the main body of the text. There is an additional list of entries grouped

  under the following broad categories: Countries, Genres and Ensembles, Con-

  cepts and Terminologies, and Instruments. There is also a list of the sidebars that

  accompany some of the entries. Lastly, there is an index of names and subjects

  at the end of the text that provide references to where in the encyclopedia these

  terms are located.

  Further Reading

  Appleby, David. “Folk, Popular, and Art Music.” The Music of Brazil, 94–115. Austin:

  University of Texas Press, 1989.

  Behague, Gerard. “Music, c. 1920–c. 1980.” In A Cultural History of Latin America: Lit-

  erature, Music and the Visual Arts in the 19th and 20th Centuries, edited by Leslie Bethell,

  311–67. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

  Bilby, Kenneth M, Michael D. Largey, and Peter Manuel. Caribbean Currents: Carib-

  bean Music from Rumba to Reggae. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006.

  Booth, Gregory, and Terry Lee Kuhn. “Economic and Transmission Factors as Essential

  Element in the Definition of Folk, Art, and Pop Music.” The Musical Quarterly 74 (1990):

  411–38.

  Colburn, Forrest D. Latin America at the End of Politics. Princeton: Princeton Univer-

  sity Press, 2002.

  Popular Music Resources | xxv

  Hamm, Charles. “Popular Music.” The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, edited by Don

  Michael Randel, 646–49. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1986.

  Kuss, Malena. Music in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Encyclopedic History .

  Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004. Currently, only the first two volumes are available:

  Volume 1: Performing Beliefs: Indigenous Peoples of South America, Central America,

  and Mexico (2004) and Volume 2: Performing the Caribbean Experience .

  Manuel, Peter. “Perspectives on the Study of Non-Western Popular Musics.” Popular

  Musics of the Non-Western World: An Introductory Survey. New York: Oxford University

  Press, 1998.

  Moskowitz, David V. Caribbean Popular Music: An Encyclopedia of Reggae, Mento,

  Ska, Rock Steady, and Dancehall. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006.

  Nettl, Bruno. “Folk Music.” The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, edited by Don Mi-

  chael Randel, 315–19. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1986.

  Olsen, Dale A. and Daniel E. Sheehy, eds. The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music,

  Volume 2: South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. New York and

  London: Garland, 1998.

  Perrone, Charles A. and Christopher Dunn, eds. Brazilian Popular Music and Global-

  ization. New York: Routledge, 2002.

  Roberts, John Storm. The Latin Tinge: The Impact of Latin American Music on the

  United States. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

  Shaw, Lisa, and Stephanie Dennison. “Introduction: Defining the Popular in the Latin

  American Context.” Pop Culture Latin America!: Media, Arts, And Lifestyle, 1–7. Santa

  Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005.

  Sublette, Ned. Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo. Chicago: Chi-

  ca
go Review Press, 2004.

  Whitehead, Laurence. Latin America: A New Interpretation. New York: Palgrave Mac-

  millan, 2006.

  Chronology of Latin American

  Popular Music

  The following chronology outlines some of the significant achievements in Latin

  American popular music. The chronology begins with the introduction of European

  culture in the Americas, and as such does not attempt to account for a chronology

  of music in the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans. During much of the

  colonial period, there is scant information regarding popular music outside of the

  strongly dominant European occupation. The Haitian Revolution (1794–1804) saw

  a mixing of classes and cultural groups, which led to a creolization of European

  music. This freedom allowed also for a migration of cultural groups across bor-

  ders that resulted in cultural hybridizations through music. Hence, the period after

  the first quarter of the 19th century shows the first strong wave of popular music

  in Latin America. Throughout much of the chronology, the major Latin American

  centers (Mexico City, Havana, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires) emerge as the

  source for much of the popular music. Specific dates of events are provided when

  appropriate while references to decades and centuries may be more appropriate for

  historical events that occurred over a broader range of dates.

  1492

  Christopher Columbus arrives in Latin America, which marks the

  beginning of a fusion of indigenous Latin American and European

  cultures, a hallmark of Latin American popular music.

  1550s

  The African slave trade begins. Traditional African music that the

  slaves brought with them to the New World becomes an important

  underlying component of Latin American music that is still incorpo-

  rated into the rhythms, style, and instrumentation of popular music

  today.

  late 1700s

  The contredanse and the quadrille, popular European styles of song

  and dance, are introduced to Latin America but enjoyed solely by the

  elites. Over time, these dances became creolized to create authen-

  tically Latin American genres of music and dance including con-

  tradanzas, habaneras and danzones.

  xxvii

  xxviii | Chronology of Latin American Popular Music

  1800s

  The 1800s through the 1820s is a time period characterized by the

  push for freedom on the part of many Latin American colonies who

  achieve their independence such as Haiti (1804), Brazil (1815), and

  Mexico (1821). Freedom leads to the emancipation of slaves and a

  mixing of races, cultures, and styles of music that had historically

  been separated by the structure of slavery.

  The corrido becomes a distinctly Mexican style of narrative song

  used to tell stories of national or local interest during the Mexican

  struggle for independence.

  1840s

  Military-style wind bands become popular across Latin America and

  spread traditional European song and dance styles that were previ-

  ously limited to the elites to urban working classes, smaller towns,

  and rural areas, many of which formed their own municipal bands.

  1860s

  German immigration to Latin American countries such as Mexico

  and Argentina introduces new dance forms like the polka and instru-

  ments such as the accordion.

  1870s

  The Brazilian choro develops as musicians, long dominated by Euro-

  pean ideas, strove to find their own artistic style strongly influenced

  by nationalistic sentiments. The popularity of the Brazilian choro

  continues into its golden age in the 1920s.

  1880s

  The habanera rhythm is exported from Cuba and like other Latin

  American dances it was originally derived from the European

  contradanse.

  1897

  Rosendo Mendizábal’s El entrerriano (the man from Entre Ríos

  Province) becomes the first published tango. In the beginning of the

  1900s the tango reaches an increasingly wider audience and, due to

  its growing popularity, 20 years later Carlos Gardel makes the first

  recording of a tango in 1917.

  1898

  Gaspar Vargas forms the musical group Mariachi Vargas. Through

  the use of the son jaliciense Mariachi Vargas demonstrates the pro-

  fessionalism and changes in instrumentation that would come to

  characterize the modern mariachi. In 1907 the first known phono-

  graphic recordings of mariachi music are made.

  1917

  “Pelo telephone,” considered to be the first Brazilian samba, is re-

  corded. Samba would become the most important Brazilian popular

  music genre, closely associated with the Brazilian Carnival even to

  this day. In 1928 the first escola de samba is formed in Brazil and in

  1932 the first samba competition takes place during Carnival.

  Chronology of Latin American Popular Music | xxix

  1927

  Rita Montaner records “El Manisero” (“The Peanut Vendor”) by

  Cuban composer Moises Simone, which becomes enormously pop-

  ular leading to the rhumba fad in the United States and Europe.

  1930s

  With the advent of radio, music is spread throughout Latin America

  like never before. In 1930 Emilio Azcarraga establishes Radio XET

  in Monterrey, Mexico, and Radio XEW in Mexico City. Over time,

  XEW becomes the most influential radio station in Mexico.

  1933

  President Fanklin Delano Roosevelt establishes the Good Neighbor

  Policy, which initiates an era of unprecedented cultural exchange

  between the United States and Latin America.

  1935

  Narciso Martínez makes the first commercial recording of Tex-Mex

  music with his piece “El Huracán del Valle.”

  1936

  Merengue is declared the national music of the Dominican Republic.

  Radio

  Nacional is established in Brazil. While it is used by Getúlio

  Dornelles Vargas, dictator of Estado Novo, to spread government pro-

  paganda, ample funding is also allotted to popular music. In the 1940s

  and 1950s Radio Nacional is one of the most listened to radio stations.

  1940s

  The 1940s marks the beginning of a widespread fusion of North

  American and Latin American popular music as a result of immi-

  gration and mass communication. New genres of music develop and

  become popular intersecting with styles of traditional music. Big

  Bands begin to incorporate Afro-Cuban rhythms and sounds into

  their arrangements and jazz musicians start to collaborate with Latin

  American musicians that immigrate to the United States, such as

  Machito.

  Brazilian baião achieves prominence in the popular music scene

  through singer-accordionist Luiz Gonzaga.

  1943

  “Tanga” written by Mario Bauza and performed by Machito and his

  orchestra is considered to be the first Latin jazz composition. Fur-

  ther collaborations with Dizzie Gillespie, Stan Kenton, and Charlie

  Parker lay the foundation for the Latin jazz movement.

  1944

  Trío Los Panchos has its first concert in the Teatro Hispano in New

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sp; York city establishing the genre trío romántico and internationaliz-

  ing the bolero as a popular song.

  1947

  Dizzy Gillespie and Afro-Cuban conga player Chano Pozo compose

  the influential “Manteca.”

  1950s

  The 1950s is characterized by innovations in popular music and the

  rising popularity of rock ‘n’ roll all over the world. It was in this

  xxx | Chronology of Latin American Popular Music

  decade that Luiz Gonzaga develops the trio nordestino, Pérez Prado

  writes the first mambo, and bossa nova evolves in Brazil among other

  new musical genres.

  Cumbia, a dance developed on Colombia’s Atlantic coast during the

  colonial period, spreads throughout South and Central America and

  is adopted and transformed in Mexico, El Salvador, and Nicaragua

  in to the 1960s.

  1954

  Raphael Cortijo forms his group, Cortijo y su Combo, which incor-

  porates the Puerto Rican folkloric traditions of bomba and plena into

  popular music.

  1955

  The cha-cha-chá is introduced in Cuba by director Enrico Jorrín. The

  first piece in the cha-cha-chá genre is “La engañadora,” composed

  by Jorrín sometime between 1949 and 1953, but, at the time, it was

  registered as mambo-rumba.

  1956

  The first jam session to be known as descarga takes place in Cuba

  with singer Francisco Fellove. His recordings “Descarga Caliente”

  and “Cimmarron” are taken from that first session and sell over one

  million copies.

  1958

  Vinicius de Moraes and Antonio Carlos Jobim release the influential

  bossa nova recording “Chega de Saudade.” A year later, the movie

  Black Orpheus is released with music composed by Jobim, which

  makes his music internationally popular.

  1959

  Fidel Castro comes to power in Cuba initiating the exodus of many

  artists from Cuba. The United States, in response, cuts ties with Cuba

  ending the long standing reciprocal popular music exchange.

  1960s

  As a result of the civil rights movement, a strong Latino identity con-

  sciousness develops in the United States as musicians try to recon-

  nect with their roots in Latin America.

  In response to the military dictatorships that arise in South America