Celia Cruz Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Celia Cruz - Essay Example She was a Cuban singer who came from a humble background until she rose to fame in the US. It is through her music that she encouraged the conservation of marginalized people, as well as, promoting a world Latin American identity, principally utilizing the different syncretic threads of Salsa, originated from Cuban. By doing so, she was able to make a huge contribution to the Cuban music. By doing so she made Salsa a highly historical genre, by using her influence of musical aspects from different countries. Salas is defined by ethnomusicologists, as a genre that has Cuban traditions, mixed with guaracha in addition to rumba (Abreu 96-100). Moreover, salsa also has a huge influence of Colombian cumbias, and merengues from the Dominican Republic in addition to Puerto Rican bombas, (Abreu 105-107). However, the final form of this genre was developed by Latin musicians in the US by combining all the named contributions with aspects of American rock and jazz (Brill 2011). Nevertheless, S alsa contains some African melodious elements, apparent in the principal percussive instrumentation especially the drums, as well as, the call and response approach which is used to improve the vocal layers. Additionally, there is a Spanish influence that can be identified in some instrumentation of the genre. In general, salsa’s structure is in a pattern of the main body piece followed by the call-and-response aspects (Brill 120-126). This is what offers Salas a rhythm which is fast and lively which is valued in its performance. This can be depicted in some of the famous Cuban music. For instance, â€Å"Flor de Mayo,† starts with the clear guitar timbre. Chord strumming is fast in tempo, with slight tension between notes. The melody’s structure is followed by guitar notes that can only best described to have a Spanish style. These are some of the aspects that are identified in Salsa music that are in Cruz songs. Therefore, one can say that her songs contributed a lot in the invention of Salsa music and mostly because she made it acceptable to different people of diverse origins and culture. This does not mean that the genre was accepted by all genertons. In the 1960s, the trending music was the American rock and pop and many Lation youths did not accept the Salsa rhythm as expected. The genre was associated with the old generation and termed as outdated. This is attributed to the fact that many of them wanted to assimilate into the prevailing American culture. However, decade later, there was an overwhelming popularity of Salsa with the emergence of Celia Cruz as the most popular artist and she was ready to satisfy the transformed enthusiasm portrayed by the Latin American music. Cruz was born in Barrio Santos Suarez in Havana, which was a black neighborhood of Cuba in in October 21, 1924 (Ortiz 5-7). She had 13 siblings but she is the only ones that showed interest in singing. This is because as a child, one or her key chores was singing to her younger siblings to sleep. This encouraged her to sing as a child and in her first appearance, she was able to earn a pair of shoes given to her by some tourist that were watching. She developed to a teenager and performed in numerous talent shows in the community and also at school. Her aunt took her to cabarets and nightclubs. She was supported by her family but the