Popular Music
History has shown that music molds the goals and aims of a people, merging them towards a common identity. Music has the tendency to convey ideologies to adherents of cultural and social movements. Musical effect played out strikingly in the rise of Caribbean national and cultural identities. Manuel et al. (7) assert that the emergence of the Caribbean was as a result of many interlinked factors. Music was very critical in creating a feeling of belonging and ideological solidarity among the people. It also catapulted the enthusiasm and sustainability of national and cultural identification. This effect is epitomized with salsa, rumba and son in Cuba, plena and bomba in Puerto Rico, and merengue and bachata in the Dominican Republic. These types of music have continuously identified and defined cultural awareness in the Caribbean.
Cuba: Rumba, Son and Salsa
Rumba, son and salsa are not just music and dances. According to Manuel et al (7), they are an expression of Cuba’s cultural and national identity. Rumba is a worldly genre of Cuban music that involves dance, song and drumming. Its origin can be traced to the northern regions of Cuba, primarily in urban Matanzas and Havana. The music was created by slaves who worked in plantations during the 19th century (Manuel et al. 8). Given its origin, it is founded on African music and dance customs such as yuka and Abakua and the Spanish-based coros de clave.
During the age of the slave trade, music (rumba) became a core element of life to the slaves. They used song and dance to express their feelings; rumba also helped them to get through the hardships associated with slavery because the music served to keep their spirits high (Manuel et al. 7).To this day, Cubans use this music style to express how they feel and to release any tensions that they may have. It is also worth noting that rumba developed out of the social situations of Havana city and Matanzas after slavery was abolished as black people seeking jobs and Cubans who were white came together to create collective networks known as rumba (Manuel et al. 8). The term rumba comes from the word “rumbear” which basically means partying and dancing. As such, rumba became part and parcel of Cuban celebrations and parties.
At the start, rumba was used to express the Afro-Cuba and Afro-Cuban cultural norms and,therefore, was perceived to be indispensable to the revolution that occurred in 1959 (Manuel et al. 10). This is what influenced the Cuban government at the time to establish ConjuntoFolkloricoNacional (a cultural institution) to provide lessons on Afro-Cuban music and dance and endorse the rumba to curtail the racism that had featured the society of Cuba (“En Clave: MusicaCubana, Rumba and Afro–Cubana” ). In this context, rumba served to create a culture of ethnic tolerance.
Since 1979, rumba has grown to become an important symbol in the forging of the Cuban national identity. Throughout the years,successive governments in Cuba have strived to advance the Afro-Cuban cultural customs through rumba music (Hebdige 48). It is also important to note that within institutional tactics of cultural preservation, rumba, a dance of predominantly black Cubans from a lower social class in the nineteenth century has come out as a national icon of the Cuban society in the twentieth century. According to Manuel et al. (10), today the dance is used to express identification with African derived concepts that pervade the Cuban culture, and the government supports it so that it can represent the interests of the labor force and to fortify the participation of the artistic community in the social improvement of a new system of politics.
The ‘son’refers to an Afro-American music style and is among the numerous hybrids whose origins are ambiguous. It has African and European elements, and it was played for and by black skinned people (Manuel et al. 88). The ‘son’ is rich with spiritual rites and sensual dances, and its rhythms have a rich history. Culture is one of the major means that minority groups found to be encompassed in post-colonial communities such as the US. Therefore, Cubans living in the US use this music as a means of cultural identity, which they consider to be their largest and most valuable export.
Interestingly, it is also argued that the son’s direct origin comes from the Cuba’s Oriente province peasants, majority of whom were Bantu descendants. There forerunners, which encompassed regina, nengón, changüí and kiribá were regularly played at parties with a guitarist and vocalist. This is what influenced this genre of music to be associated with celebrations. Currently, while the son attained somewhat of resurgence with the recognition of the Buena Vista Social Club in early 1990s, the music is now more of an artifact of the history of Cubans instead of something that is largely played and heard. Still, the son mainly influences what Cubans listen currently because it forms the foundations of timba and salsa and continues to be an essential contributor to the rise of Afro-Cuban rhythms and drumming in contemporary music.
Salsa originated from the Cuban dance styles, particularly the son, rumba and guararba, which had transformed into a unified set of marketable famous styles by the 1920s (Manuel et al. 88). Two decades later, salsa had amassed substantial global appeal, and Latino communities living outside of Cuba began playing an essential role in the transformation of this Cuban music. It was a source of pride for Cubans, and they applied the cultural aspects of the genre to market themselves to the outside world.
The Cuban government understands the importance of salsa in advertising the culture of its people and this is the reason why it uses this music genre to Help it in promoting a love for Cuba, the Cuban culture and history (Manuel et al. 88). By inviting many Cubans to dance salsa, the government pursues its objective for building the community and the nation. Through the artistic delight of salsa, this policy of music embraces huge sections of the population and sustains a mutual Cuban identity among all Cubans.
During the 1970s, salsa music was largely embraced by Latin Americans residing in New York as their preferred musical genre and expression. The popularity of salsa came about as a result of the convergence of a number of distinctive historical events and social conditions: the civil rights and African pride revolutions in the US and the Cuban revolution and with its incredible effect and aftershocks. For Cubans and other Latinos generally, salsa was a representation of some type of liberation from the political and cultural dilemmas of this period. For one, this music genre was a representation of refuge for Latinos after work, at home, during weekends; as such, it served to provide liberation of the mind and body via the music and dance experience. It does so today as well Secondly, this music style challenged tyrannical hierarchies of musical and cultural values; it was and is still music from the people to the people. With time salsa has come to be recognized as a movement for national recognition and social change.
Puerto Rico: Plena and Bomba
Regularly mentioned together as if they were a sole style of music, both plena and bomba are a reflection of the African heritage of Puerto Rico. Together, these music genres occupy a kind of reputation in the national culture and discourse of Puerto Ricans; they are unique creations of Puerto Rico (Manuel et al. 66). And as such, they have been openly celebrated as vital elements of Puerto Rican musical culture which warrant recognition.Bomba and plena are styles of music that are driven by drumming andmusical customs from the country of Puerto Rico,and they usually move/influence individuals to dance. Notably, the music genres have different lyrics and rhythm (Manuel et al. 66). The origins of Bomba can be traced back to the early colonial period in Puerto Rico. The music originated from the musical customs brought by African slaves in the seventeenth century. It served as a source of spiritual and political expression to them. The lyrics communicated a sense of sadness and anger about their situation, and the songs motivated them to fight for their freedom. However, bomba also helped them to build a community and an identity, and since then, music style has and continues to forge the cultural and national identity of Puerto Ricans.
Bomba is also perceived through the prism of race, and this can be attributed to its marginalization in Puerto Rico and all through the Diaspora. On the one hand, this genre of music is proudly flaunted all through Puerto Rican communities as the typical African heritage symbol while on the other, its lauded status as a sign of blackness is contrasted with its marginalization by the “white-identified privileged and the society at large.” This racial perspective serves to create sets of experience of prejudice making Puerto Ricans to refuse to accept complete integration, and rather, fight racism. Therefore Puerto Ricans based in New York refuse categorizations of white or black and opt to be classified as “other.”
The lyrics of plena are narrative, communicating a story about events, tackling topical subjects and offering ironic remarks. It is a combination of the musical and cultural ancestry of the native Puerto Ricans and those in Africa.Developed from bomba, plena music came about at the start of the twentieth century in Puerto Rico (Manuel et al. 66). At the time, the music was created by the labor force that was shifting to wage labor and capitalist-led agriculture. The working group consisted of former peasants, slaves, and artisans, who used plena to voice strike conditions and daily happenings (Manuel et al. 66). Furthermore, plena ridiculed people of position and wealth, condemning government policies and mocked powerful institutions. Notably, early plena subjects tackled an array of social matters, encompassing the creation of a “national” identity and opposition of the U.S. presence. Puerto Ricans identify with this kind of music because they use plena to voice out their concerns as a people who continue to be subjugatedjust like in the past (Manuel et al. 77).Conclusively, the custom of plena music sums up the struggle of the common person in the society of Puerto Rico amidst quick drastic sociopolitical changes, eventually uniting the working-class against unfairness and subjugation.
The Dominican Republic: Merengue and Bachata
Music and dance, and particularly the merengue and bachata are at the center of Dominican daily life, and they are played in all neighborhoods, in all corners. Away from the party aspect, merengue and bachata have a deeper significance culturally (Hebdige 108). Merengue refers to the national dance and music of the Dominican Republic (DR), and its instruments signify the mixed heritage of the nation: an accordion (which is, European), a drum that is 2-sided (which is, African) placed on a person’s lap, and a guira (Taino), a kind of metal cylinder having holes, with a brush running up and down across its surface (Hebdige 52). From the time it was created, this music genre has had diverse interpretations across regions, classes and political circumstances.
The music’s syncretic nature manifests a truth of the origins of the Dominican than many would want to overlook: its mixture of the European and African music and dance components. Merengue is a reproduction of European stereotypes that normally associated the native-borns with nature, Europeans with the tune (i.e. brains) and Africans with tempo (body) (Hebdige 111). Obviously, merengue attempts to reconcile a Eurocentric stance of the elites in a country dominated by African Americans (“Music and Dance of the Merengue in the Dominican Republic.”). This genre of music has become important to the Dominican identity given the main geopolitical shifts that have occurred in the last one hundred and sixty years (Manuel et al. 126).
Although Merengue has progressively become more intricate due to the borrowing of more African aspects, relations of race and anti-Haitian opinion are yet to be resolved. Unlike other national symbols, Merengue encapsulates the Dominican history, heritage, and culture and it is celebrated as such (Dudley 78). Ironically, people from both the middle and upper classes now enjoy this sort of music while still preserving their racial discriminations, accepting the merengue is a national symbol, dancing to the praise of African components but still refusing to acknowledge that the African heritage is part of the Dominican identity.
Bachata is a music style that is centered on the guitar featured by passionate lyrics and a singing style that is highly emotional that united as a style in the DR in the 1970s (Dudley 99). Those who liked Bachita were mainly people of African origin. However, because of the DR’s history of rejecting its African heritage, bachata was perceived as music for poor people instead of a type of black music (Hebdige 112). Since the class is closely related to race in the DR, most of the bachata’s segregated fans and practitioners had black skin. And as such, it was utilized to intentionally degrade the music and its fans by relating it to crudeness, roughness, and a lack of sophistication.
The fans of Bachata who were marginalized and impoverished remained loyal to this sort of music, but Dominicans who aspired to move to upper social classes constantly disassociated themselves from the music, and instead, prefer more proper indicators of multi-ethnic urban modernity, like big band merengue taking over the Latin music airwaves all through urban Latino America (Hebdige 89). The low social status associated with bachata and its identity as music for the poor people changed in the 1980s and the 1990swhen the Dominican migrants transported it to New York City and became a strong symbol of the Dominican identity (Manuel et al. 126). To melancholic immigrants in the city, the music style’s once belittled plain simplicity turned out to be its signature asset and the source of its attractiveness.
As bachata changed to become a loved symbol of Dominican identity, its fame ultimately exceeded the merengue, making it one of the renowned symbols of Dominican-ness (Dudley 45). It is important to point out that bachata became predominantly famous among 2nd generation Dominican immigrants since it provided them with a powerful way to remain emotionally linked to their ancestral motherland.
How Music has Unified and Shaped the Pan-Latin Identity
The popularity of the music from these three countries partly stems from its abilities to bring the pan-Latin audience in the New York metropolitan area. Rumba, son, plena, bomba, merengue, salsa, and bachata have reached Latino audience in many parts of the world, and as such, they have been mythologized and marked as defining cultural characteristics of pan-Latin unity and consciousness thus becoming synonymous with the pan-Latin identity (Manuel et al. 21). These styles of music have come to describe the identity of pan-Latino in New York through the manner in which they underline similarities between the fans’ individual Caribbean nations of heritage.
The music genres have brought together Latino groups in New York that trace their lineage to the Caribbean, Central or South American nations through the creation of a pan-Latin community that is centered around the celebration of these sorts of music (Manuel et al. 67). This popular music also unifies the pan-Latin identity by speaking to the audience. The music mainly characterizes song lyrics that straightforwardly address issues that affect Pan-Latin’s, pervading the community with a sense of unity that arises from an understanding of other Latino cultures that reside in the city (Manuel et al. 88). The sense of pride derived by identifying themselves with the various forms of music serves to unite and shape the pan-Latin identity as well (Manuel et al. 88). This influences individuals to come together and share their common beliefs and values. The Cuban ‘son’ contributed a lot towards the creation of ‘salsa’. ‘Salsa’ is however a collaboration of various artists from Latin America (Manuel et al. 98). Their contribution helped to shape what was known as the Pan-Latin identity in in the New York metropolitan area.
Conclusion
From the analysis, it is clear that popular music (i.e. rumba and son; plena and bomba; merengue and bachata; and salsa music) has always been one of the central defining elements involved in forging various Caribbean national and cultural identities. Cubans not only use salsa, rumba and son music for entertainment but also to express their cultural identity. These kinds of music inspire them to express their customs, values, and beliefs as well as encourage them to voice out issues that concern them just like their forefathers did. Each of the music genres has a rich history behind it;as such, the actions of Cubans are inspired by this history. And by adhering to the historical trends of these music styles, they are able to identify with their culture. The music associated with the Puerto Ricans is areflection of their African heritage. It was created by their ancestors who are mainly from Africa, and therefore, the music has some African elements. With regard to the Dominican Republic music, it is evident that the genres serve to define Dominican-ness. The music is what defines them as a people with a common identity.
Works Cited
“En Clave: MusicaCubana, Rumba and Afro–Cubana.” YouTube, Jul 2, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoC7cAvuEVc
“Music and Dance of the Merengue in the Dominican Republic.” YouTube, 30 Nov. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=fautemcgU48.
Dudley, Shannon. Carnival Music in Trinidad: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture, New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Hebdige, Dick. Cut N’ Mix: Culture, Identity, and Caribbean Music, London & New York:
Routledge, 1990.
Manuel, Peter et al. Caribbean Currents (Revised & Expanded Edition): Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006.

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