| Latin Music | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Airdate | October 1, 2008 Update: October 27, 2020 | ||
| Curriculum | Arts & Music Social Studies | ||
Latin Music is a BrainPOP Arts & Music/Social Studies video which launched on October 1, 2008. An update launched over 12 years later on October 27, 2020.
Summary[]
Tim and Moby are at a Latin food festival when they get a letter about Latin Music.
Update[]
Tim & Moby eat their way through every stall at The Uptown Latin Gluten Fest (ULGF). Tim gets a letter and reads it. He proceeds to talk about latin music while going through the stalls. At the end, Tim "can't go on" because he's too full from eating at Uptown Latin Gluten Fest, so Moby carries in him a wheelbarrow.
Appearances[]
Transcript and Quiz[]
Trivia[]
The music that plays in the original video is:
- Visit of the Mariachi - Fiesta Mambo.
- A Gozar Timbero - Tito Puente.
- Rie y Llora - Celia Cruz.
- Conga - Gloria Estafan.
- The Girl from Ipanema - João Gilberto.
- Para Siempre - Vicente Fernández.
The music that plays in the updated video is:
- More Hot Salsa - Alan Fagan.
- Bossa Nova Guitars - Laurent Bruning.
- Amigo Cantinero (Mariachi) - David Peña
In the original video, Tim and Moby eat balleadas.
In the updated video, Tim and Moby each consume:
- Three glasses of guava juice (as an apéritif) (two for Tim, one for Moby)
- A bowl of Sancocho Antioqueño.
- Four tacos each.
- Argentinian steaks.
- Two balleadas with everything.
Quotes[]
Old[]
- Tim: Oh, we'll have two balleadas with everything, please.
Update[]
- Tim: All right, it's time for our most secret annual tradition: eating our way through every stall at the Uptown Latin Gluten Fest! I've been stretching out my belly for weeks. Let's go---
- [last lines]
- Tim: I can't... go on. Can't... go on. [Moby beeps along with a wheelbarrow] Ugh....
FYI[]
Famous Faces[]
Crossover artists are musicians who popularize their style of music among a very wide audience. Many Latin musicians begin by conquering their own genre before trying to make it in the English-language pop scene. Here are a few of the most successful Latin crossover stars! Julio Iglesias: This singer from Madrid, Spain wooed audiences with his love ballads in the 1970s and 80s. Since then, he’s recorded albums in 14 different languages and sold more than 300 million records.
Carlos Santana: The Mexican-American guitarist and bandleader’s mix of rock, blues, jazz, and salsa first became popular with English-speaking audiences in the 1960s.
Gloria Estefan: The Cuban-born performer started her career singing English pop songs with the band Miami Sound Machine. After achieving success, she returned to her roots and released a number of award-winning Spanish-language albums.
Selena: The American teen sensation began her career singing Tejano music (music from south Texas) in Spanish, despite the fact that she didn’t know the language. She was murdered just as she was beginning to break out in the English pop scene. See the Real Life FYI to learn more.
Ricky Martin: Martin, a Puerto Rican pop singer, got his start with the Latin boy band Menudo, which sings primarily in Spanish. In the late 1990s, he made the big time in the English market with his hits, “Livin’ La Vida Loca” and “She Bangs.”
Shakira: This Colombian singer and dancer recorded exclusively for the Latin market until she released an English-language album in 2001. Since then, Shakira has been the poster girl for crossover success.
Real Life[]
A young Mexican-American who grew up in southern Texas, Selena Quintanilla-Perez always knew she wanted to sing. At age 9, Selena’s father started a band for her to perform in. Three years later, she recorded her first album at a local studio.
Selena started to receive national attention when, at age 16, she won the Best Female Vocalist award at the 1987 Tejano Music Awards. Tejano is a type of Latin music popular in Texas that includes elements of rock, blues, country, and funk. Over the next seven years, Selena became extremely successful, selling tens of thousands of records, singing to sold-out crowds, and earning dozens of awards, including a Grammy in 1994.
In 1995, Selena’s family discovered that a woman named Yolanda Saldívar, the manager of Selena’s fan club and two boutiques she owned, had been stealing money from her. Selena and her family decided to fire Saldívar, even though she claimed she’d done nothing wrong.
On March 31, Selena met Saldívar in a hotel in Corpus Christi, TX, to collect some paperwork. But Saldívar neglected to bring the documents she’d promised, and gave Selena a phony excuse as to why. The two began arguing, and Saldívar pulled out a gun and shot Selena in the back.
She was rushed to the hospital, but the 23-year-old singer had lost too much blood, and died. Saldívar was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
In Practice[]
Latin music has a distinct sound, often thanks to some unique percussion instruments! Here are some of the most common.
- Cajón: A box drum played with the hands
- Marimba: Like a xylophone with wooden keys
- Tambora: Two-sided drum played with the hands
- Timbales: High-pitched drums usually played with sticks
- Claves: Short, thick pieces of (usually) wood hit together to make a clicking sound
- Güiro/güira: Hollow instrument that’s rubbed to make a sound
- Maracas: An empty shell, often with a handle, filled with seeds
- Conga: Barrel-shaped drum played with the hands
Way Back When[]
As Tim mentions in the movie, European and African musical traditions shaped much of the Latin sound. Europeans, particularly the Spanish and Portuguese, brought their musical customs with them as they conquered the indigenous groups in Latin America. And African traditions came over as Africans were imported as slaves. So what kind of music existed in Mesoamerica before the Europeans arrived?
Early writings by Spanish colonizers indicated that much of the music of the Aztec civilization (in what is now Mexico) was religious in nature. Religious songs, known as cantares, were considered holy, so they were often left to professionals. This reduced the chance of a missed note offending the gods! There were other styles of Aztec music as well. Often, families would create their own songs that chronicled the deeds of their ancestors!
The Aztecs and the Maya, who lived in the Yucatan peninsula, used instruments including the flutelike tlapitzalli, a wide variety of rattles, “trumpets” made from conch shells, and the huehuetl, a large hand drum made from wood and animal hide.
Apparently, the Incas of South America often played in ensembles, or musical groups. The Inca played similar instruments to the ones used by the Maya and Aztec, and specialized in two flute-like instruments: the ocarina, made from ceramic; and the pan flute, a set of reeds of different lengths.
Unfortunately, we may never know exactly what early Mesoamerican music sounded like. Yet some of the musical styles of the indigenous peoples from before the Spanish conquest are still alive today in the form of regional folk music.
FYI Comic[]
