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Read down for an insight into the music of Argentina.
Tango is the country's most prominent and most exported musical form, but by no means its only means of musical expression. The traditional music which binds almost the whole country is folclore (pronounced folc-LAW-ray) whose stirring rhythms and passionate singing can be found in varying forms throughout the northern half of the country. Superb music is produced in the north, in the Andean region of Salta and Jujuy. And home-grown Rock Nacional is the country's main strand of pop music, successfully fending off North American and European competition throughout the 1980's and 1990's to form a distinctive sound.
Tango
If your trip to Argentina includes any time in Buenos Aires, you'll undoubtedly see some tango - probably danced on the streets of Florida or San Telmo, though its much more than a tourist attraction. Testimony to the enduring success of the music among Argentines are the radio stations which only play tango, and the milongas (dance clubs) filled with young people learning the old steps.
Although also sung and played, the tango was born as a dance just before the turn of the 20th century. The exact moment of birth was not recorded by any contemporary observer and continues to be a matter of debate, though the roots can be traced. The name 'Tango' predates the dance and was given to the carnivals (and dances) of the black inhabitants of the Río de la Plata in the early 19th century, elements of the black tradition being taken over by whites as the black population declined. However, the name 'Tango Americano' was also given to the Habanera (aCuban descendent of the English Country Dance) which became the rage in Spain and bounced back into the Río de la Plata in the middle of the 19th century, not only as a fashionable dance together with the polka, mazurka, waltz and cuadrille but also as a song form in the very popular 'Zarzuelas', or Spanish operettas.
However, the Habanera led not a double, but a triple life, by also infiltrating the lowest levels of society directly from Cuba via sailors who arrived in the ports of Montevideo and Buenos Aires. Here it encountered the Milonga, originally a gaucho song style, but by 1880 a dance, especially popular with the so-called 'Compadritos' and 'Orilleros', who frequented the port area and its brothels, whence the Argentine Tango emerged around the turn of the century to dazzle the populace with its brilliant, personalized footwork, which could not be accomplished without the partners staying glued together.
As a dance tango became the rage and, as the infant recording industry grew by leaps and bounds, it also became popular as a song and an instrumental genre, with the original violins and flutes being eclipsed by the bandoneón button accordion, then being imported from Germany. In 1911 the new dance took Paris by storm, thanks to the performance of the dance in a Paris salon by Argentine writer Ricardo Güiraldes, one of a group of aristocrats who enjoyed frequenting the dives where tango was popular. As soon as it was the fashion in Paris, it returned triumphant to Buenos Aires, achieving both respectability and notoriety, and becoming a global phenomenon after the First World War, with the golden voice of Carlos Gardel. Rudolph Valentino helped the image of the dance, when his 1926 movie The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse included a tango scene, and suddenly everyone was doing it, in Paris and London, dressed up like gauchos.
But it was Carlos Gardel (1887-1935), Argentina's most loved tango legend, whose mellifluous voice brought popularity to the music of tango, and whose poor background made him a hero for the working classes too. Tango has always been an expression of the poor and of social and political developments in the country. Gardel recorded 900 songs and was a success in movies too. The Tango on Broadway was his big success in 1934. After Gardel's tragic death in 1935, tango slumped a little, frowned upon by the military regime who considered it subversive. Its resurgence in the 1940's was assisted by Perón's decree that 50% of all music played on the radio must be Argentine. Great stars of this era include the brilliant bandoneón player Aníbal Troilo, whose passionate and tender playing made him much loved among a wide audience. In the 1950s, tango again declined, replaced in popularity by rock'n'roll. It had become increasingly the preserve of middle class and intellectual circles, with the emphasis on nostalgia in its themes.
But its next innovator and star was Astor Piazzolla (1921-), who had played in Troilo's orchestra, and who went on to fuse tango with jazz and create a tango for listening to, as well as dancing. Threatened by the military government in the 1970s Piazzollla escaped to Paris, but his success was already international, and his experimental arrangements opened up the possibilities for other fusions. In the last few years, tango has enjoyed a revival, becoming a popular dance in classes throughout Europe as well as in Argentina. All over Buenos Aires, and all over the province, you can find dance classes where the classic moves are taught, followed by a dance or milonga where couples, young and old, breathe life into the old steps. Part of its attraction, perhaps, is that in the world of tango, men are allowed to be macho and seductive, while their women are required to be sensitive to the subtlety of their next move. Unlike salsa, for example, tango is a dance of repressed passion. Try a class, at least once, while you're in Argentina, to get a feel for the dance from the inside. And then, if you can afford it, see the expert dancers' dextrous footwork at a show such as El Viejo Almácen.
Folklore
Beyond Buenos Aires, the dominant musical traditions can be broadly described as folclore. This takes various forms over the north of the country, with the finest examples in Salta, but all the northern provinces have a very rich and attractive heritage of folk dances, mainly for couples, with arms held out and fingers clicked or handkerchiefs waved, with the 'Paso Valseado' as the basic step. The slow and stately Zamba is descended from the Zamacueca, and therefore a cousin of the Chilean Cueca and Peruvian Marinera, where the handkerchief is used to greatest effect.
Equally popular throughout most of the country are the faster Gato, Chacarera and Escondido. These were the dances of the gaucho and their rhythm evokes that of a cantering horse with wonderfully stirring syncopation. Guitar and the bombo drum provide the accompaniment. Particularly spectacular is the Malambo, where the gaucho shows off his dextrous footwork, creating a complex rhythm using the heels of his boots, alternating with percussion created by whirling the hard balls of the boleadoras into the ground, with the spurs of his boots adding a steely note to the rhythm.
Different regions of the country have their own specialities. The music of Cuyo in the west is sentimental and very similar to that of neighbouring Chile, with its Cuecas for dance and Tonadas for song. The northwest on the other hand is Andean, with its musical culture closer to that of Bolivia, particularly on the Puna, where the indigenous groups play haunting wind instruments, the quena and sound mournful notes on the great long erke evocative of huge mountain landscapes. Here the dances are Bailecitos and Carnavalitos, depending on the time of year. Exquisitely beautiful and mournful songs - the extraordinary high pitched Bagualas - are sung to the banging of a simple drum. And everyone, from children to grandmothers, can quote you a copla: two lines of rhymed verse expressing love or a witty joke. Tomás Lipan's music is worth seeking out, especially his cautivo de Amor. Andean bands use the sikus, pan pipes and miniature guitar, the charango, to create ethereal and festive music which reflects the seasons of the rural calendar. In the northeast provinces of Corrientes and Misiones, the music shares cultural similarities with Paraguay. The Polca and Galopa are danced and the local Chamamé is sung, to the accordion or the harp, in sentimental style. Santiago del Estero has exerted the strongest influence on Argentine folk music as a result of the work of Andres Chazarreta: it is the heartland of the Chacarera and the lyrics are often part Spanish and part Quichua, a local dialect of the Andean Quechua language. Listen, too, to Los Caravajal, and Los Hermanos Abalos.
Down in the province of Buenos Aires you are more likely to hear the Gauchos singing their Milongas, Estilos and Cifras and challenging each other to a Payada or rhymed duel- protest songs and wonderfully romantic and witty stories to guitar accompaniment. Seek out Atahualpa Yupangui's El Payador Persguido. Argentina experienced a great folklore revival in the 1950s and 1960s and some of the most celebrated groups are still drawing enthusiastic audiences today. These groups include Los Chalchaleros and Los Fronterizos, the perennial virtuoso singer and guitarist, Eduardo Falú and, more recently, León Gieco from Santa Fe. Most famous of all, though, is the superb Mercedes Sosa, whose rich voice articulated much of the sorrow and joy of the last 30 years in a brilliant series of albums which also include the most popular folklore songs. Start with The Best of Mercedes Sosa. Also listen to Ariel Ramirez, a famous singer and pianist whose moving Misa Criolla is among his best known work. The cuartetos of Córdoba, popular since the 1940s with the characteristic dance in a huge circle, can best be sampled in the much loved records of Carlitos 'La Mona' Jiminez.
Rock Nacional
The great stars of Rock Nacional are still much loved and listened to. It started in the 1960s with successful bands Los Gatos, and Almendra, whose songwriter Luis Alberto Spinetta later became a successful solo artist. But the Rock Nacional found its real strength in expressing unspeakable protests during the military dictatorship from 1976-83. Charly García, who was a member of the enormously successful band Sui Generis, captured popular feeling with his song No te dejes desanimar (Don't be discouraged) which roused mass opposition amongst young people against the atrocities of the Proceso. Inevitably, the military regime cottoned on to this form of subversive behaviour and stopped rock concerts, so that many bands had given up performing by the end of the 1970s. However, the rock movement survived, and the cynical lyrics of Fito Páez in Tiempos Dificiles and Charly García in Dinosaurios remain as testimonies to that time, and guaranteed them subsequent success.
Once democracy had returned, music became more lightweight with likeable output from Los Abuelos de la Nada and Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota. Fito Páez has continued to record and his album El Amor Después del Amor was a success across Latin America. Los Fabulosis Cadillacs and Andrés Calamaro also made some great records, and Charly García continues, undiminished in popularity.
