Latin music

Latin music is a form of popular music played by from Latin America. For practical purposes that includes the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Much Latin music is accompanied by song (singing) in Spanish.

Latin music is a part of world music, which is the study of popular and traditional music in all countries.^[1][2] Part of the story is also the influence of Latin music in other parts of the world, especially North America.^[3][4]

In discussing Latin music these themes are important:

1. Place: the country and sometimes the region of the music's origin.
2. The former European colonial power and its heritage
3. The culture of aboriginal inhabitants (the Indian tribes)
4. The culture of slaves brought from Africa
5. Musical style; for instance, church music will be different from art music, and different again from popular music. In this article we shall talk mostly about popular music.

For example, differences in the music of Peru from that of Brazil are influenced or caused by such differences:

1. Peru had few African slaves. Its colonial power was Spain, and its Indian culture was and is quite strong. Most of the population is of mixed European and Indian descent.
2. Brazil had many African slaves, especially in the Bahia province, and today has many people of mixed descent. Its colonial power was Portugal, and its people speak Portuguese, not Spanish. It is also geographically a vastly different country from Peru.

1. ↑ Broughton, Simon & Ellingham, Mark 2000.World music. Volume 2: Latin and North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific. London: The Rough Guide. ISBN 1-85828-636-0
2. ↑ Hanly, Francis & May, Tim 1989. Rhythms of the world. London: BBC Books. ISBN 0-563-20790-6
3. ↑ Roberts, John Storm 1979. The latin tinge: the impact of latin american music on the United States. Oxford University press. ISBN 0-19-502564-4
4. ↑ Roberts, John Storm 1999. Latin jazz: the first of the fusions, 1880s to today. New York: Schirmer. ISBN 0-02-864681-9