Summary
Highlights
This section introduces the lesson on Afro-Latin American and Popular Music, outlining the learning competencies including describing historical and cultural backgrounds, analyzing musical characteristics through listening, and creating sounds suitable for vocal and instrumental selections. Key topics to be discussed are music of Africa, Latin America, jazz, popular music, and Philippine popular music. Music is defined as 'the greatest unifier'.
African music is presented as a link between the actual and spiritual worlds, crucial to daily life and highly influential globally, especially on contemporary American, Latin American, and European music. It is described as energetic and rhythmically diverse, rooting genres like jazz, gospel, spiritual, and R&B. The music's diverse history, topography, and fusion of traditional and European influences due to colonization are highlighted. Traditional African music is functional, used in ceremonial rites, work, and social events. Explicit types of African music such as Afrobeat, Apala, Axe, Jit, Jive, Juju, Kwassa Kwassa, and Marabi are defined.
Vocal forms of African music discussed include Maracatu (combining African percussion and Portuguese melodies), Blues (expressive melodies sung by slaves), Soul (popular music genre from the 1950s-60s African-American community), Spirituals (Negro spirituals used for Christian values and expressing hardships), and Call and Response (question and answer sequence between performers). The five classifications of traditional African instruments are introduced: idiophones (Agogo, Shekere, Slit/Log Drum, Tingting con, Balafon), membranophones (body percussion, talking drum, djembe), lamellaphones (Mbira/Kalimba, Rumba), chordophones (musical bow, Zeze), and aerophones (Fulani flute, Kudu horn).
Latin American music is a blend of Indigenous, Spanish/Portuguese, and African influences, often called Latin music, spanning regions like the Andean, Central America, Caribbean, and Brazil. Indigenous music was functional, used for religious worship. Native American music showcased a wide range of volume and celebrated harvest or important events. Afro-Latin American music is characterized by rich rhythmic patterns from drums and percussion. Euro-Latin American music adopted characteristics from European colonizers. Mixed American music resulted from the fusion of African culture, introducing forms like Afro-Cuban Rumba, Jamaican Reggae, Colombian Cumbia, and Brazilian Samba. Popular Latin American music discussed includes Samba, Son, and Salsa.
Latin American instruments are categorized into four groups: Aztec and Mayan instruments (Tlapitzalli flute, Teponaztli drum, Conch, Rasp, Huehuetl drum), Incan instruments (ocarina, Samponas/panpipes), Andean instruments (Siku flute, Tarkas, Quenas flutes), and Mariachi (a popular Mexican band featuring violins, guitars, harp, and an enormous guitar). Vocal and dance forms discussed are Cumbia (African courtship dance), Tango (Argentinian/Uruguayan urban popular song and dance), Cha-Cha (Cuban ballroom dance), Rumba (Afro-Cuban recreational dance), Bossa Nova (slower, gentler version of Cuban samba), Reggae (Jamaican urban popular music), Foxtrot (20th-century social dance from the USA), and Pasodoble (theatrical Spanish dance).
Jazz music, an offshoot of African slave music brought to America, developed from ragtime and blues in African-American communities. Its characteristics include syncopated rhythms, polyphonic textures, and improvisation (creative musical composition and distortion of pitch/timbre). Different forms of jazz are Ragtime (American popular piano style), Big Band (large ensemble form with swing elements), Bebop (modern jazz style with fast tempo and instrumental virtuosity), and Jazz Rock (mix of funk and R&B with amplification and electronic effects).
Popular music, meaning music of the populace, developed in the 20th century primarily for entertainment. Genres include ballads, standards, rock and roll, disco, pop, and hip-hop/rap. Ballads (blues, pop standard/jazz, pop/rock) are narrative love songs. Prominent ballad composers include George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Duke Ellington. Standards are popular, enduring songs from a genre, characterized by slow/moderate tempo and singable melodies, with proponents like Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Matt Monro. Rock and Roll, a fusion of Afro-American forms with western swing and country music, used piano, saxophone, and later electric guitars; Elvis Presley and The Beatles were key figures. Disco emerged in the 70s as danceable rock music, with artists like ABBA, Bee Gees, Donna Summer, and Gloria Gaynor. Pop music saw the rise of Diana Ross, Olivia Newton-John, Elton John, The Carpenters, Michael Jackson, and contemporary artists like Adele, Taylor Swift, and Bruno Mars. Hip-Hop and Rap, a stylized, rhythmic music with chanted words, evolved into a subculture encompassing rapping, djing, and beatboxing; early artists included LL Cool J and Run DMC, with later artists like Eminem and Kanye West.
Philippine Pop Music started as adaptations of Western hits, eventually gaining wide acceptance. OPM (Original Pinoy Music) is a genre under contemporary Philippine music, originally referring to ballads. While primarily in Tagalog and English, other ethno-linguistic groups also record in native dialects. Prominent OPM artists span from the 1960s-70s (Nora Aunor, Pilita Corrales), 1970s-80s (Claire de la Fuente, Rico Puno), 1980s-90s (Ryan Cayabyab, Jose Mari Chan), to 1990s-present (Eraserheads, Sarah Geronimo, Arnel Pineda). Philippine Jazz had pioneers like Boy Katindig and Angel Peña. Philippine Rock, or Pinoy Rock, merged rock beats with Filipino lyrics, spearheaded by Juan Dela Cruz Band. Philippine Alternative Folk Music combined ethnic instrumentation with electronic accompaniment to present social and environmental themes (Joey Ayala, Freddie Aguilar). Pinoy Rap, popularized by Francis Magalona (the 'King of Pinoy Rap'), evolved into a significant part of the Philippine music scene.
The video concludes by assigning a performance task: creating a short music video (not exceeding 2 minutes) showcasing singing, dancing, acting, or instrumental skills, using Afro-Latin American, Jazz, or any modern music discussed as background. The task requires indicating the music title and role in the video. The instructor thanks the learners and encourages subscription for more videos.