American Music History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

American Music History - Essay Example The drummer and the male dancer compete against each other by increasing the tempo and making the rhythm more intricate, progressively. Rumba is not really the name of a single dance, rather a genre of dances originating in Cuba. The two to four beat rhythm, which is common to all Cuban dances, is called the Clave rhythm, as it is played by two sticks called claves. The tempo changes but never gets too fast as the couple sway from side to side suggestively, holding each other at approximately arm’s length. Initially danced to African music, the songs for the Rumba gradually converted into Spanish. The Rumba has strayed into contemporary Flamenco, Blues and even Rock music and is continually evolving thanks to newer, experimental artists. Popularized in the USA by the sensational Carmen Miranda, the Samba has its origins in Brazil and Africa. Bossa Nova emerged in protest to the commercialization of Samba in the 1960s. It is called jazz samba as it blends jazz music with the upbeat rhythms of the samba seamlessly. It was more intimate and lacked the flamboyance of Samba. The song ‘Desafinado’ introduced the term Bossa Nova. Musicians like Miles Davis and Pat Metheny draw great inspiration from the Bossa Nova tradition. Salsa, literally meaning sauce, originated in Cuba, and by the end of the 1970s became a major component of   almost all vernacular fields. It is quintessentially Cuban music, long held a substyle, and although it originally was defined by upbeat, spirited Cuban music, it slowly developed a Latin tinge to it, although retaining that Cuban flavour as well. Today, we define salsa generally as Latin-African music, and what was once dance band music, albeit music incorporating varied rhythms, complex instrumentations and sounds, usage of flutes and violins, under various Puerto Rican and South American influences, and with the inclusion of jazz, has now grown to be a highly sophisticated style of music capable of being molded into