甘肅甘谷第一中學 李 霞

Latin American music is sometimes called Latin music.It includes the music of many countries and comes in many varieties,from the down-home music of Northern Mexico to the sophisticated habanera（哈巴涅拉舞曲）of Cuba,from the symphonies of Heitor Villa-Lobos to the simple and moving Andean flute.Some critics have defined Latin music as an mixture of four elements:music style,geography,cultural background of the artist and language.The first of those includes all music styles generated from Latin countries,such as salsa,merengue and bachata as well as other styles deriving from a more mainstream genre,such as Latin pop,rock,jazz and hip-hop.It also includes recently developed genres,such as reggaeton.Latin music has long influenced American popular music,jazz,rhythm and blues,and even country music.Many an American band has added a conga player,maracas,or other Latin percussion for just that reason.

The Argentine tango was a worldwide success in the 1930s.It was common in dance halls in the 1940s for a Latin orchestra to alternate with a big band.Latin music was extremely popular with dancers.Starting in the middle 1980s,Billboard introduced the Top Latin Albums and Hot Latin Tracks charts for Latin music albums and singles.During the next decade,Latin music gained interest into the mainstream.Ricky Martin's performance of the Spanglish version of The Cup of Life at the 41st Grammy Awards in 1999 earned him a standing ovation and much press attention.Martin was seen as the pioneer of a trend in pop music of using Latin tropes which the press dubbed a“Latin Pop explosion” or “Latin invasion”.Today even all the mainstream artists and producers tend to feature more on songs from Latin artists.