South America is a continent located in the Western, Southern Hemisphere. It is considered a subcontinent of the Americas, comprising twelve sovereign states: Argentina, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela and two non-sovereign areas, French Guiana and the Falkland Islands (Wikipedia). The continent’s cultural and ethnic outlook is a product of the interaction of indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, more locally, with African slaves.
It was colonized for a long period of time hence majority of the population speak Portuguese or Spanish, with assimilation of the western traditions by most societies. Music constitutes a crucial part of South American culture and tradition. The present picture of South American music is a result of combined uniqueness of South American natives, the Spanish and the Africans who came to South America as slaves. Roman Catholicism has also had great influence on the music (Anderson, 2011). Music is part and parcel of daily life with specific music for major life events, passages and normal routines such as music sang during agricultural labour.
Each music has its associated dance and use of specific musical instruments. Therefore the songs have themes on issues like earth, seasons, harvest time, love, family, children, and stars. Common instruments used include: guitar, a native guitar- charango pan pipes, flutes, rattles, and the drum. The rhythms speak of the African influence on South American music (Small, 2011). . Music is varied among the various countries (Cox, 2011). The most famous music genres include vallenato and cumbia from Colombia, pasillo from Ecuador, samba and bossa nova from Brazil, and tango from Argentina and Uruguay.
Lyrics are mostly in Spanish and Quechua. The world’s famous salsa music is a cultural characteristic of Peru. Common South American dances and dance songs include Carmen Miranda, the Bossa Nova, and the Lambada. Types of music Zamba and Murga from the South Zamba is, the national dance in Argentina and Chile. The sounds of Zamba are produced by a combination of guitars playing along the beats of the bombo leguero drum. Murga on the other hand is a musical theatre played in Uruguay and Argentina during the Carnival. Andean Music Huayno, the traditional music of Andes was born in the extensive region crossed by the Andes.
This means it is popular in countries such as Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, Chile and Ecuador. Music is usually played with a set of different pan flutes, charango and bombo drums. Soca Soca is a mixture of soul and calypso, usually a dance music with a one-two beat. It is sung in English and is very prevalent in the Caribbean region. Tango Tango incorporates a particular language, customs and usage and a certain philosophy. It originated from European immigrants and combined result of cultural amalgamation. It is the most famous dance and song of Argentina.
Choro and Sertaneja Music from Brazil Choro originated in Rio de Janeiro during the 19th century, became popular in the 1930s but it lost its appeal during the Bossa Nova boom. It is played with guitars, flute and cavaquinho. This combination produces a very pleasant music for the ear. Sertaneja music is like the US country music. It has its origins in the sertao and caipira music, two traditional Brazilian music styles. Other Brazilian traditional rhythms include Maracatu, Afoxe, Frevo and Forro. Cumbia from Colombia Cumbia rhythm came from the Atlantic coast of the Colombia during the 19th century.
It offers a heavy percussion which is nicely combined with large guitar flutes. It has been extensively adopted as a musical expression in modern Mexican popular music. Llanera Music from Colombia and Venezuela This music takes inspiration from the country life in the plains of Colombia and Venezuela. Its rich sounds are produced by a standard combination of harp, string instruments and maracas. Son and Danzon from Cuba Cuba is one of the most influential countries in the making of Latin American music. Cuban Son was born in the Cuban country side.
It was originally played with guitars and percussion instruments such as clave and maracas. Today Cuban Son is an essential ingredient of the musical mix, salsa. Danzon rhythm is a perfect combination of European sounds and African influences. It evolved from contradanza and habanera styles Plena and Bomba from Puerto Rico These music is based on the country life. They are heavily charged with African influences hence drums are a major component. Bomba surged in northern Puerto Rico but, plena evolved in the southern, coastal part of the country.
Ranchera and Son from Mexico Ranchera is in totality one of the most popular styles of traditional Latin American music. Originally, it was played by a single guitar player but later became closely related to a full Mariachi band. Ranchera became very influential in promotion of Mexican culture during the troubling times of the Mexican Revolution Mexican Son was developed two centuries before Ranchera. It was influenced by indigenous elements as well as African and Spanish traditions. It is a flexible musical style whose sounds are heavily shaped by the different regions where it is played.
Conclusion Music is a crucial element of South American culture. Due to mixed nature of the population, music has evolved over time becoming more diversified with certain genre of music being more popular in given regions. South American music tradition was also influenced by that of the United States during the 20th century and this gave rise to Latin pop, rock, jazz and reggaeton (Cox, 2011). Some of these music genres are now known by very few people while others are very popular and are sung all over the world. Such include salsa, tango and cumbia
