AFRO-LATIN
AMERICAN AND
POPULAR MUSIC
GRADE 10 MUSIC QUARTER 2

• Music has always been an important
part in the daily life of the African,
whether for work, religion, ceremonies,
or even communication. Singing,
dancing, hand clapping and the beating
of drums are essential to many African
ceremonies, including those for birth,
death, initiation, marriage, and funerals.
Music and dance are also important to
religious expression and political events.

WHAT’S IN

Traditional music of
Africa
•Apala (Akpala)
is a musical genre from
Nigeria in the Yoruba tribal
style to wake up the
worshippers after fasting
during the Muslim holy
feast Ramadan

Juju
•is a popular music style from
Nigeria that relies on the
traditional Yoruba rhythms,
where the instruments in
Juju are more Western in
origin

Zouk
is fast, carnival-like hythmic
music, from the Creole slang
word for ‘party,’ originating in
the Carribean Islands of
Guadaloupe and Martinique
and popularized in the 1980’s

Blues
•the notes of the blues create
an expressive and soulful
sound. The feelings that are
evoked are normally
associated with slight degrees
of misfortune, lost love,
frustration, or loneliness.

Soul music
• was a popular music genre of the
1950’s and 1960’s. It originated in the
United States. It combines elements of
African
• American gospel music, rhythm and
blues, and often jazz. The catchy
rhythms are accompanied by handclaps
and extemporaneous body moves
which are among its important
features.

Spiritual,
• normally associated with a deeply religious
person, refers here to a Negro spivritual, a
song form by African migrants to America
who became enslaved by its white
communities.
• This musical form became their outlet to
vent their loneliness and anger, and is a
result of the interaction of music and
religion from Africa with that of America.

Call and response
•much like the question and
answer sequence in human
communication, it also forms
a strong resemblance to the
verse-chorus form in many
vocal compositions.

Latin American Music
• Cumbia became a popular African courtship
dance with European and African
instrumentation and characteristics. It
contained varying rhythmic meters among
the major locations – meter in Colombia; , ,
and meters in Panama, and meter in
Mexico. Instruments used are the drums of
African origin, such as the tabora (bass
drum) and cleves.

Tango
•may have been of African
origin meaning “African
dance” or from the
Spanish word taner
meaning “to play” (an
instrument).

Cha cha
•Is a ballroom dance the
originated in Cuba in 1953,
derived from the mambo and
its characteristic rhythm of 2
crochets – 3 quavers – quaver
rest, with syncopation on the
fourth beat.

Bossa Nova
•means either “trend” or
“something charming,”
integrating melody, harmony,
and rhythm into a swaying
feel, where the vocal style is
often nasal.

Salsa
•is a social dance with marked
influences from Cuba and Puerto Rico
that started in New York in the mid
1970’s. Its style contains elements
from the swing dance and hustle as
well as the complex Afro-Cuban and
Afro-Carribean dance forms of
pachanga and guaguanco.

Rumba
•is a repetitive melody with an
ostinato pattern played by the
maracas, claves, and other Cuban
percussion instruments. It
contains jazz elements that
became a model for the cha cha,
mambo, and other Latin American
dances.

Reggae
•is an urban popular music and
dance style that originated in
Jamaica in the mid 1960’s. It
contained English text coupled
with Creole expressions that
were not so familiar to the
non- Jamaican.

Foxtrot
•is a 20th century social dance that
originated after 1910 in the USA.
It was executed as a one step, two
step and syncopated rhythmic
pattern. The tempo varied from
30 to 40 bars per minute and had
a simple duple meter with regular
4-bar phrases.

Paso doble
• (meaning “double step”) is a
theatrical Spanish dance used
by the Spaniards in bullfights,
where the music was played as
the matador enters (paseo)
and passes just before the kill
(faena).

Jazz Music
•Ragtime is an American popular
musical style mainly for piano,
originating in the Afro-American
communities in St. Louis and New
Orleans. Its style was said to be a
modification of the “marching mode”
made popular by John Philip Sousa

Big Band
•refers to a large ensemble
form originating in the United
States in the mid 1920’s closely
associated with the Swing Era
with jazz elements.

Bebop or bop
•is a musical style of modern jazz
which is characterized by a fast
tempo. The speed of the
harmony, melody, and rhythm
resulted in a heavy performance
where the instrumental sound
became more tense and free.

Jazz rock
•Is the music of 1960’s and
1970’s bands that inserted jazz
elements into rock music. A
synonym for “jazz fusion,” jazz
rock is a mix of funk and R&B
(“rhythm and blues”) rhythms