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Regional styles and genres
Latin American folk and popular music comprises numerous musical styles and genres that have emerged over time in specific countries or regions. These styles originate in the indigenous, European, and African heritage of Latin America; the particular combination of influences varies by country, region, and social group.
Hispanic American and Luso-Brazilian folk musics continue to relate to their Iberian heritage. The most pervasive elements of that heritage are the main features of the European musical system: modal and tonal melodies, symmetric melodic contours, tonal harmony, sectional formal structures, and particular types of ensemble combinations and arrangements. Typical traits of Spanish folk song, such as regular two- and four-bar phrases with a repeated structure, prevail in the extensive repertory of Hispanic American vocal and instrumental music.
The most widespread song genres in Hispanic America are the Spanish romance, a ballad type of medieval origin, in a décima (10-line verse) or copla (couplet) literary structure; the song duel that gave rise to the desafio (“challenge”), contrapunto (poetry contest), and porfía (“dispute”); the generic son; the amatory tonada; and children’s songs. The traditional Spanish villancicos have developed into many Christmas song genres, including the aguinaldo (carol), adoración, and coplas de Navidad (Christmas couplets). Iberian work song genres, particularly those associated with farming, found their suitable place in many Latin American rural communities. Types of ballads are the Mexican, Central American, and Chilean corrido; the Cuban punto guajiro (peasant song); and the coplas and romances of various nations. The vast repertory of the canción, found with many different regional names, tends to have a lyrical, romantic character.
By far the most numerous genres are combinations of song and dance. Nearly all of the major national genres follow this format. Examples are the son of Mexico and of Cuba, the merengue of the Dominican Republic, the plena of Puerto Rico, the bambuco of Colombia, the joropo of Venezuela, the pasillo of Ecuador, the huayno and marinera of Peru, the cueca of Bolivia and of Chile, the tango-canción of Argentina and its Uruguayan counterpart, and the samba of Brazil.
Mestizo musics of either Indian-Hispanic or Afro-Iberian traditions exhibit their own stylistic idiosyncrasies. For example, mestizo music of the Andean regions is strongly influenced by Quechua descending pentatonic melodies and by characteristic two-beat rhythmic patterns. Call-and-response patterns characterize Afro-Iberian styles; other aspects of those styles include syncopated melodies and accompaniments, driving rhythms, complex polyrhythmic textures, and extensive improvisation.