Is Brazilian Music "Latin?"
soundsreal
128 Posts
I wanna give this question it's own thread, thanks to finelikewine for asking this in another thread, I had previously been wondering what the opinion of others was on this.
Personally I say bull.
1)In spite of the differences between the music of all the south american countries, there is far more in common between the music of any other 2 countries than that of Brazil and any other.
2) Brazilian people are not Latino
3) From personal experience, anytime I walk into a record store and ask for Brazilian, and they say "sure, the Latin section is just over there," I can pretty much tell right away its not even worth checking out. Best to look for other stuff in these places and leave the digging for Brazilian for places where they at least know what it is.
Personally I say bull.
1)In spite of the differences between the music of all the south american countries, there is far more in common between the music of any other 2 countries than that of Brazil and any other.
2) Brazilian people are not Latino
3) From personal experience, anytime I walk into a record store and ask for Brazilian, and they say "sure, the Latin section is just over there," I can pretty much tell right away its not even worth checking out. Best to look for other stuff in these places and leave the digging for Brazilian for places where they at least know what it is.
Comments
So Mexico belongs to Latin America too?
Yes
Pan-American
African
Arab
via the Iberian peninsula
I would endorse a re-branding as Panamaribaf (to be pronounced Panama-REE-baf, in the style of Speedy Gonzales).
You might find it easier to get your chops round 'Latin'.
In fact, even French-speaking Haiti is considered part of Latin America
When Louis Gates goes to BRAZIL for Black In Latin America he's not in Latin America?
Previously known as part of the island of Hispanola. And still called that by cruise lines for some reason or other
If you go back and listen to pre 60s music from African-descended people in the Western hemisphere, you will find common ground between music from New Orleans, Haiti, Martinique, Jamaica, Trinidad, Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay and many more. Most of these places are well known for their Mardi Gras and related celebrations.
"Latin" or "Brazilian" music as determined by record stores is a whole nother thread.
And how Non-Latin/Latino folks categorize by region or "race" or both?
Latin music is music from Latin America, like American music is music from the US. There are a ton of sub-genres in both.
I didn't really understand your second question.
And Italians are the only true latinos.
It's all so non-linear.
But really, there is roots music, and there is modern music, sometimes they cross paths, sometime not.
Cajuns dude
Because there are Puerto Rican and Dominican Jews going back 500 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_the_Dominican_Republic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_immigration_to_Puerto_Rico
How should I classify my sitar "Guantanamera" record then? I'm so confused!
Brazil is in Latin America, so why not classify it Latin? Having said that, just because JLo is latina doesn't make her music Latin.
LOL, I was trying to be funny.
Have you seen the doc about LES Klezmer being linked to Jazz (sharing the blue note) and the invention of the Broadway musical? It's a bit of a stretch but very interesting.
And where do non Spanish speaking Afro-Filipinos fit in to this?
Sure, but not if we are defining "latino" as people who speak romance languages, then they'd have to be included. Clearly the word has evolved from a strict linguistic demarcation. So what does the word mean now? Is it just the Spanish speaking countries of the new world? I don't know, but for sure I wouldn't call someone from French Guiana a latino. I don't think Brazilians, or Spaniards for that matter, call themselves latino either. In regards to records and stores, latino is really just an umbrella term, mainly used by stores with so few salsa and Brazilian records (with a token Don Quijote OST) that they have to combine the section so as not to appear sparse ;)
Do Haitians consider themselves Latino?
Sorry, the caps should have tipped me off.
I've read articles on the subject (maybe spurred by the documentary) and it seems feasible. Listening to the Klezmer of the time, I think there's a connection. One of those Secret Museum records has a cut from somewhere in Eastern Europe late 1800's that sounds just like a Jazz band.
Depends, where's the record store, NYC, Chicago, LA, DF, Buenos Aires, Sau Paulo, London, Madrid, Berlin, Tokyo? Could be in any number of sections...
Nailed it.
This shit is fascinating to me. It is all mixed up and for every rule you can probably find an exception. But so much more useful than talking about genre sections in records shops, IMO.
Good point.
But it depends, right? If you're listening to a samba or batucada song, I'd be hard pressed to say, "that doesn't sound like Latin music to me." But if you're playing bossa nova? I might feel differently.
As for ethnic categorizations...for what it's worth, the U.S. Census doesn't include Brazilians under its "Hispanic/Latino" category. Again, that may mean nothing besides some arbitrary federal rule but in this case, it may be that who-colonized-who still makes a difference.
I also wouldn't normally consider Mexicans to be Latin American but I don't have a consistent, logical argument as to why they would NOT be but, say, Salvadorans would be.
Quebec would most likely count as a Latin American country if it were a country.
Exactly. I think there's a big difference between Latin American music and Latin. LA music is music made in or in the style of any LA country, regardless of genre. Latin, on the other hand is, to me, an umbrella term that a ludes a variety of genres with Afro-Caribbean influence: salsa, latin jazz, etc.
That's a tricky one. Geographically speaking, Mexico is in North America, but culturally we're Latin Americans as much as people from Argentina, Ecuador or Guatemala.