Latin Music and Its Influence on American Culture: A Cause and Effect Essay

Running head: CAUSE AND EFFECT
ESSAY
-Cause and Effect
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1CAUSE AND EFFECT
Introduction:
Latin Music is an umbrella term that is used to identify various musical styles
originating from Spanish and Portuguese speaking nations such as the Latin Americas,
Portugal and Spain. In the United States, Latin Music comprises of songs which are sung in
Spanish and has been rapidly gaining popularity over the last five decades (Hernandez). With
an increase in the rise in the Hispanic population and the advent of several skilled Latin
musicians in USA as well as word wide, Latin Music have become symbolic to the popular
culture and have often been associated with the expressions of having ‘fun’ and ‘enjoyment’
(Lewis). According to musicologists, the upbeat and energetic music of Latin music makes it
fun to listen to, gives relief from stress and helps people to relax and have a good time as a
result of which it have significantly influenced the American culture (Corti).
The aim of this essay is to discuss how Latin Music have changed the American
culture, especially since the early 1960’s era of Latin Rock legends such as Carlos Santana up
to the more resent Latin Hit Singles such as ‘Despacito’ by Louis Fonsi.
Discussion:
Because of the unique musical style of Latin music, it has been significantly related
with various dancing styles, as the Latin style beats and grooves provides the best
accompaniments for dancing. Also, Latin music sets a happier tune and melody lines which
became hugely popular in United States during the 1960’s and 1970’s at the heights of the
‘Hippie Era’ (Miller). While bands such as Jefferson’s Airplane, Lynyard Skynyard, Grateful
Dead, Creedance and Clearwater Revival, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Joan Baez were
experimenting and incorporating blues, country and rock and roll styles into the music, Latin
legends such as Carlos Santana started using Latin and Bossa Nova based elements into the
music. By 1969, New York became one of the most prominent destinations for highly

2CAUSE AND EFFECT
prominent hippie era bands who were drawn to the famous Woodstock Open Air Festival that
went on for four days of celebrating various styles and genre of music. The audiences also
showed more openness towards a wider variety of musical styles such as Latin or even Indian
Classical (Phuong; Daley).
One of the most famous performance was by Carlos Santana who masterfully used
both Latino, Samba, Bossa Nova styles with contemporary rock n roll styles and immediately
caught the attention of several musicians as well as audiences alike (Bush). Carlos Santana,
who was himself influenced by Blues legends such as BB King, T Bone Walker, Javier Batiz
and John Lee incorporated the elements of rhythm and blues along with contemporary rock
and roll sound and infused it with Latino Style music to create a unique amalgamation of
musical genre that captivated the American Music culture (Santana). Pop culture soon started
having its distinct Latino influence, featuring prominent Hispanic and Latino musicians being
featured in the Billboards and winning music awards. Singers such as Gloria Estefan and
Ricky Marten captured the stage during the 1990’s and Latino music kept getting more
prominent in the American Culture. By the 80’s and 90’s Latino styled themes could be
found in Movies such as Dirty Dancing (1987), Salsa (1988) and Dance with Me (1998).
Latino Music kept propping up in several dance scenes in the films and in most the cases, the
Latino music would be in the form of upbeat and fun songs that people can dance to. The
music also provided the people a glimpse of the colorful Hispanic culture which is quite
unique from the American culture (Darrow). Even big budget animated films such as Rio 2
(2014) or Coco (2017) features an amazing assortment of Latino music, showing that the
American culture have travelled a long way into incorporating Latin culture into the
American popular media. In the early 60’s talented Latino musicians such as Julio Iglesias or
Paco De Lucia were mostly had to live in the shadows of contemporary artists such as Elvis
Presley, Frank Sinatra or Billie Holiday. However with the Hippie movement, there was a