Latin Music: An Umbrella Term for Everything from Bossa Nova to Reggae

Latin music encompasses a large number of styles from Central and South America, including salsa, merengue, samba, bossa nova, and many more. Today, we’re looking at what defines Latin music. Join us on a rhythmic journey that starts in Mexico and ends in Argentina!

From Caribbean to Brazilian

Latin music is popular all over the world. There are countless bands active within countless substyles, and you can learn how to salsa in practically every major city these days. Looking at it more broadly, Latin music can be roughly divided into two groups: Caribbean and Brazilian styles. In addition, there are various smaller and more narrowly defined styles, like Argentinian tango and the music of various indigenous cultures. A great example of the latter is a Chilean style that’s made using a kena, a flute made from bamboo. Every nation and every island has its own music, rhythm and, of course, its own national dance, which you can see in the map above.

First, let’s look at Caribbean music. The Caribbean includes the Caribbean sea and the islands in it, plus the seas around the Bahamas. The Caribbean is home to a Cuban style called son, reggae from Jamaica, the merengue music of the Dominican Republic, Haitian compas (or kompa), zouk from Martinique and Guadalupe, calypso from Trinidad, bomba and plena music from Puerto Rico, tumba from the Netherlands Antilles, and kaseko from Suriname.

The second big group, Brazilian music, includes samba and bossa nova — more on those later. Latin music expert, Francine van Dam is here to explain the difference between Caribbean and Brazilian styles: “The main difference has everything to do with rhythm. Brazilian styles are based on sixteenth notes, while Caribbean styles revolve around eighth notes,” she says.

Salsa

Then there’s Mexican mariachi bands with their ranchera music. While the younger audience finds this style somewhat old-fashioned, it’s incredibly popular across the Caribbean, despite the fact that it actually comes from Central America. Another odd one out is salsa. Salsa music originated in New York, where it was developed by immigrants who took the Cuban style of son and fleshed it out with Puerto Rican influences. Ballroom dances like the mambo, cha-cha-cha and rumba share a similar origin story and were developed in North America (New York in particular) based on Carribean styles and rhythms. Compare the Brazilian samba with its ballroom counterpart and you’ll find that the latter doesn’t even come close to the samba that’s danced in Brazil.

Polyrhythm

Latin music is amalgamation of the music that African slaves brought to Ibero America, the music of Spanish, Portuguese and French colonists, and native tribal music. One key element of Latin music is polyrhythms, which it borrows from African styles. Polyrhythm means that two or more rhythms are played at the same time, which explains why it’s hard to play polyrhythmic music by yourself. In Latin bands, almost every instrument – including lead instruments like the piano and guitar – helps shape the polyrhythm, each via their own rhythmic pattern. Polyrhythm is what makes Latin music stand out from other styles like pop and rock where, instead of rhythmic layering, the whole band sticks to more or less the same rhythm.

Syncopation and Timing

Syncopation is another feature of Latin music. Syncopated notes basically emphasise a part of the beat that you wouldn’t expect to be accentuated. The opposite is true for styles like rock, blues, pop and jazz, where the accent falls on the first and third count in every measure. What’s more, in Latin music, you usually play right before the count instead of precisely on time. This adds liveliness to the rhythm, especially in combination with a polyrhythmic pattern, and ties into another characteristic of Latin music, the propulsive feel of the timing. While jazz musicians create a laid-back feel by playing just after the count, slightly drawing out the note, Latin musicians have a tendency to play their notes just before the count. “It’s immediately obvious when Latin musicians play jazz, and vice versa. Making Latin music is a specialised skill that requires serious ‘conditioning’ as well as deep knowledge of the various substyles. For example, salsa is very different from zouk,” Francine explains. And that’s not all there is to it: “Someone from the Antilles will play salsa differently to someone from Cuba. The same goes for the eponymous dance. There are so many different variations that it’s hard to put your finger on a standardised salsa. This even trickles down to salsa dance schools, where each owner teaches a slightly different way to dance salsa, based on where they or their ancestors are originally from. For example, Cuban-style salsa partners dance at more of a distance than Antillian-style salsa dancers.”

Voz, Mambo and Coro Pregón

Latin songs have a specific structure too. After all, it’s important that the tunes are long enough to dance to without getting overly repetitive. Latin musicians have various tricks up their sleeve to draw out a song and keep it engaging all the way through. Usually, Latin music starts with an intro followed by vocals called ‘voz’ in Spanish, subsequently followed by the mambo, which is a wind instrument section. Next up is the coro pregón: vocals sung choir-style by the instrumentalists, alternated with vocals from the lead singer. Coro pregón alternated with lead vocals comes with a fixed pattern, which is either 8/8, 4/4 or 2/2 in terms of bars, and may be followed by piano or wind solos. After the optional solos, you’re free to go for more coro pregón or go straight to the coda, the final part of the song. This is how Latin musicians turn a short song into a long one, but it’s also a structure that works really well when you want to extend a song because people are burning up the dance floor. It’s pretty similar to how blues musicians drag out tunes. Note that the chord progression that backs up the coro pregón is typically simpler than the chord progression played to accompany the lead singer. It’s usually a harmonic pattern consisting of three or four chords that are simply repeated. Rooted in African traditions, coro pregón (improvised vocals) refers to singing about everyday life in a question-and-answer-style format. Much like blues licks, the sung improvisations feature elements that are used by singers all over the world. The same goes for the instrumental solos since Latin music has its own subset of characteristic octave trills and scales. Have a listen:

No Cover-Ups

Francine: “While Latin music is rhythmically complex, don’t forget that every musician only has their own rhythm they need to focus on. It’s actually easier than it looks. For example, if you play the congas and have certain patterns down, you can play 90% of all Latin music. Not every band member is required to keep tabs on every part of the song, but you do need to make sure that every single piece of the puzzle is played correctly. Your timing needs to be bang-on and there’s no room for covering up little mistakes. A single instrument not playing the right rhythm is enough for the entire polyrhythmic structure to collapse like a house of cards.” Most Latin music is made using regular major and minor scales and basic chords with progressions like I-IV-V and I-IV-V-IV. This means that a Latin song in C-major is played as C-F-G or C-F-G-F. Latin jazz is the only exception here because it’s based on jazz chords.

A Social Function

Latin music serves a clear social purpose in the countries where the various styles were cultivated. Many of those countries are characterised by poverty and suppression, and making music is a way to escape the difficulties of everyday life. “Ironically, you could almost say: the worse off the country, the better the music,” says Francine. “Haiti is a great example. The country is plagued by unrest, but Haitian kompa music is incredibly cheery and upbeat.” Feel-good songs make up the lion’s share of Latin music, but that’s not to say there aren’t any Latin tear-jerkers. After all, most songs are about love, which undeniably means that some of them will always be about heartbreak too.

African slaves played a big role in Latin music as we know it today, but they also laid the foundation for the emergence of blues in North America. Latin music and blues share African roots yet sound very different from one another. How so? Francine thinks it has to do with the role that Spanish, Portuguese and French colonists played. “There’s also the fact that they imposed catholicism across Latin America. Catholicism was also brought to North America by protestant settlers, which clearly resulted in a different outcome, musically speaking.”

Conquering Europe

Latin music eventually found its way into North America and Europe, where it spread and became quite popular. The first salsa dancing schools popped up around 1980 and the total number has been steadily expanding ever since. Since it’s a genre that really lends itself to mash-ups with other styles, new substyles of Latin music continue to emerge as well, some of which even turn into a mainstay, both across Latin America and far outside of it. Reggaeton is a textbook example.

Good to Know

Common Percussion Instruments

In Latin music, practically every instrument plays a part in creating the polyrhythm and percussion is essential. The image below includes a number of common instruments.

Latin Music: An Umbrella Term for Everything from Bossa Nova to Reggae

The 3/2 and 2/3 Clave

There’s a well-known rhythm in Latin music called the clave. Uncoincidentally, it’s played using claves. There’s a 2/3 clave rhythm and a 3/2 clave rhythm, which are technically the same rhythm but kick in at different times. Clave (Spanish for ‘key’) is a fitting name because it serves as a determiner for all rhythmic patterns, giving it even more significance than the time signature in Latin music. It’s also why you don’t listen to the time signature while you’re playing, but to the clave. Here are two examples of the clave:

Latin Music: An Umbrella Term for Everything from Bossa Nova to Reggae

Samba and Bossa Nova

Samba and bossa nova both originated from Brazil. Bossa nova (which means ‘new wave’ in English) is basically a softer version of samba, which can get quite loud. Neighbours complaining about noise pollution eventually led to the need for a low-volume alternative, which became bossa nova. Originally, bossa nova was made with nothing but a guitar and vocals, since the melody and lyrics are more important than in samba. While bossa nova doesn’t have the right rhythm for dancing, it does have that classic Latin feel to it.