Latin Music

There are many diverse styles of Latin music some of which constitutes Afro-American musical traditions, meaning that elements of European, African and indigenous music are fused. In the past, various authors have suggested extreme positions like Latin music being bereft of African influence, or being purely African with no European or indigenous elements, but it is now generally accepted that Latin music is inherently syncretic. Specifically, Spanish song forms, African rhythms and European harmony are major parts of tropical Latin music, as are the more modern genres such as rock, heavy-metal, punk, ska, hip hop, jazz, reggae and R&B.

The Spanish décima song form, in which there are ten lines of eight syllables each, was the basis for many styles of Latin American song. The African influence is, however, central to Latin music, and is the basis for the Cuban rumba, the puertorican bomba and plena, the Colombian cumbia, the Brazilian samba, the Ecuadorian bomba and marimba music, or the Peruvian Festejo, Landó, Negroide, Socabón, Son de los Diablos, and Zamacueca, among other styles. African musical elements are most prevalent in the religious music of the multifarious syncretic traditions, like Brazilian candomblé and Cuban santería.

Syncopation, a musical technique in which weak beats are accented instead of strong ones, is a major characteristic of Latin music. The African emphasis on rhythm is also important in Latin music, and is expressed through the primacy given to percussion instruments. The call-and-response song style which is common in Africa, is also found in Latin American; in this style of song, two or more elements respond to each other, musically or lyrically, one at a time. Author Bruno Nettl also cites as essentially African characteristics of Latin music the central position of instrumental music, the importance of improvisation and the "tendency to use a variety of tone colors... especially harsh, throaty singing".

Those African musical techniques that were similar to European techniques were kept in Latin America, while the more dissimilar elements abandoned; in addition, the most specialized aspects of African music, such as polyrhythms, remain a part of Latin music, while the less central aspects of African music, like scale and form, have been replaced by European features. Some elements of African music, most commonly the emphasis on rhythm, have been suggested as having a biological basis, though this is no longer generally accepted among scholars and has been refuted by several studies. Bruno Nettl instead suggests that African techniques were retained because music played a central role in daily life and because African music was "in several ways more complex and more highly developed in Africa than in the Indian and Western folk cultures".