Music of Argentina
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Internationally, Argentina is known mostly for the tango, which developed in Buenos Aires and surrounding areas, as well as Montevideo, Uruguay. Folk, pop and classical music are also popular, and Argentine artists like Mercedes Sosa and Atahualpa Yupanqui contributed greatly to the development of nueva canción. Argentine rock has also led to a defiant rock scene in Argentina.
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[edit] Folklore
'Folklore' - folk music - comes in many forms, developed in different parts of Argentina with different European and indigenous influences. The traditional folk music became important once again to the protest movement against the military dictatorship and the community divisions of the 1970s, with artists like Mercedes Sosa and Atahualpa Yupanqui contributing to the development of nueva canción. Soledad Pastorutti ('La Sole') has brought folklore to a new audience.
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[edit] Andean music
Main article: Andean music
In northern Argentina, on the border with Bolivia and Chile, the music of the Andes reflects the spirit of the land with the sounds of local wind, percussion and string instruments. Jaime Torres is a famous Argentine charango player.
[edit] Chacarera
Main article: Chacarera
Santiago del Estero's Chacarera folk dance is accompanied by Spanish guitar and bombo legüero. The name chacarera derives from the word chacras (farms).
[edit] Chamamé
Main article: Chamamé
Accordion-based Chamamé arose in the northeastern region Corrientes, an area with many settlers from Poland, Austria and Germany, many of them Jews. Polkas, mazurkas and waltzes came with these immigrants, and soon mixed with African and Amerindian musics. Chamamé emerged from this mix, becoming closely associated with the native Guaraní. The 20th century saw limited international popularity for Chamamé, though some artists, like Argentine superstar Raúl Barboza, became popular later in the century. In recent years, Chango Spasiuk, a young Argentine from Misiones province of Ukrainian descent, has once again brought chamamé to international attention.
[edit] Popular music
[edit] Tango
Main articles: Tango music
Tango arose in the brothels, bars and port areas of Buenos Aires, where descendants of Europeans, Africans and South American natives mixed, racially and culturally. The result, tango, came about as a fusion of disparate influences including:
- Old Milonga - songs of the rural gauchos (nowdays much more related to Tango)
- Habanera - Cuban music
- Polka and mazurka - Slav music
- Contradanse - Spanish music
- Candombe and percussion music - African music
- Flamenco - from Andalucia
- Italian folk music
Those mixtures of European and African rhythms, brought to the Rio de la Plata (Argentina and Uruguay) by traders and settlers, mixed with local traditions like the payada. The Milonga dance was born of these influences, slowly evolving into mordern tango. By the 1930s, tango had changed from a dance focused music to one of lyric and poetry, with singers like Carlos Gardel, Roberto Goyeneche, Hugo del Carril, Tita Merello, and Edmundo Rivero. The golden age of tango (1930 to mid-1950s) mirrored the golden age of Jazz and Swing in the United States, featuring large orchestral tango groups too, like the bands of Osvaldo Pugliese, Anibal Troilo, Francisco Canaro, and Juan D'Arienzo. After 1955, as the Nueva canción and Argentine rock movements stirred, tango became more intellectual and listener-oriented, led by Astor Piazzolla. Today tango continues to produce new exponents, has experienced a major revival, and the rise of neo-tango is a global phenomenon with groups like Tanghetto, Bajofondo and Gotan Project.
[edit] Argentine rock
Main article: Argentine rock
Argentine rock, or Rock Nacional, is a distinctive form of Argentine rock and roll. It is said to have begun in about 1965, when a Beatlesque group called Los Shakers, from Uruguay, arrived in Argentina. At the time, popular music was a style called ritmo latino, a mainstream pop genre.
Bohemian hangouts in Buenos Aires and Rosario were the cradles of the genre, relying heavily on British rock influences, but in the mid-1960s musicians began exploring local musical roots, creating a local sound. Los Shakers brought a hard-edged form of rock to the country, and musicians like Litto Nebbia of Los Gatos began recording their own kind of rock. Los Gatos' La Balsa, released early in their year, established the distinctive sound of Argentine rock. By 1970 argentine rock had become established among middle class youth (see Almendra, Sui Generis, Crucis). In the 80s, Argentine rock bands became popular across Latin America and elsewhere (Soda Stereo, Enanitos Verdes, Sumo, Fabulosos Cadillacs, Virus, Andres Calamaro). Today it is a staple of popular culture with many sub-genres: underground, pop oriented, and some associated with the working class (La Renga, Divididos, Los Redonditos). Some of those bands enjoy crossover popularity with listeners of cumbia villera. Current popular bands include: A.N.I.M.A.L., Babasonicos, Rata Blanca, Todos Tus Muertos, El Otro Yo, Attaque 77, Intoxicados, Bersuit, and Miranda!. Argentine rock is the most listened-to music among youth; its influence and success has expanded internationally owing to a rich and uninterrupted evolution.
Some of the most popular Argentinian rock musicians of all time are Charly García, Luis Alberto Spinetta, Fito Páez, and Pappo.
[edit] Cumbia
A very important part of recent and contemporary Argentine music, originally derived from the Colombian cumbia, adopted by the lower classes in the bailantas, widespread in the 1990s, and then turning more aggressive and explicit in the 2000s with "shanty town cumbia" (cumbia villera).
In the 1980s, South American migrants brought so-called "tropical" music to higher prominence in Argentina, a mixture of cumbia (Peruvian and Bolivian style, but originally Colombian), folk rhythms, and Caribbean syles. Around the same time cuarteto in Córdoba, became a major musical genre. Cuarteto and chamamé from Corrientes made it to Buenos Aires alongside tropical music and migrants from the north. All these various musical styles were played in the crowded ballrooms in lower class neighborhoods, and it would eventually give rise to cumbia villera.
The preferred musical style of the shanty towns, its lyrics sometimes parallel those of U.S. rap, concerning the poverty, drugs and crime which are facts of life there. They sometimes include derogatory references of women, but mainly deal with lost love and romance. Cumbia villera has found increased acceptance in mainstrean culture. Today many middle-class kids listen to the music, particularly bands with ties to football idols, many of whom grew up in a villa miseria. (popular bands: Yerba Brava, Pibes Chorros, Damas Gratis, Nestor en Bloque)
[edit] Cuarteto
Main article: Cuarteto
Cuarteto, or Cuartetazo, is a form of dance music similar to Merengue. It became popular in Argentina during the 1940s, beginning with the genre's namesake and innovator, Cuarteto Leo, and was re-popularized in the 1980s, specially in Córdoba. Cuarteto had a national idol called Rodrigo in the late 90's.
| Andean music |
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| Latin American music |
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Argentina - Bolivia - Brazil - Chile - Colombia - Costa Rica - Cuba - Dominican Republic - Ecuador - El Salvador |
[edit] References
- Fairley, Jan and Teddy Peiro. "Vertical Expression of Horizontal Desire". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp 304-314. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0
- Fairley, Jan. "Dancing Cheek to Cheek...". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp 315-316. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0
- Fairley, Jan. "An Uncompromising Song". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp 362-371. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0
- Latin American Music Styles
