The first recorded inhabitants of what is now Puerto Rico were the Taino, a group of speakers of an Arawakan language who came to the Island from Venezuela. Later, the Spanish colonized the Island and brought enslaved people from Africa. The local musical traditions developed from these three cultures, and the sounds of all three can still be heard in Puerto Rican music, including the iconic salsa music that has enriched not only the Island and the states, but the world.
Traditional musical styles included these:
- Bomba is percussion-driven, dance-centered, and historically tied to community expression and resistance.
- Plena developed from Bomba in the 20th century, but the focus is on singing rather than dance. Plena was called “the sung newspaper” because of the importance of the narrative. It was influenced by migrants from other West Indian islands, and combined Spanish melodic patterns with Afro-Caribbean call-and-response structures and African syncopated percussion.
- Música jíbara was more clearly related to Spanish vocal music, with sung poetry passed down in an oral tradition in rural areas. This type of music still shows African and Taino influences. It was the first type of Puero Rican music to gain commercial success in the states.
Bringing the music to the states
As Puerto Ricans moved to he states after the second World War, especially into New York, their music came with them. Music continued to develop and evolve on the Island as well, and the free communication back and forth between stateside Puerto Ricans and those living on the Island led to increasing innovation.
Rafael Hernández, an amazingly prolific Puerto Rican songwriter, composed music in the forms of bolero, canción, and guaracha, more commonly associated with Cuba than with Puerto Rico. His music was popular not only in Puerto Rico and the states, but in Latin American countries in general. His work encouraged the mid-century “tropical” sound — but his songs were also recorded in salsa style by artists like Marc Anthony and Fania-era musicians.
The tropical sound
Rafael Cortijo and Ismael Rivera modernized Bomba and Plena within a dance-band format. This made Afro-Puerto Rican music. more accessible to the general U.S. audience.
El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico formed in 1962, bringing the tropical sound into modern popular music. They became known as “The University of Salsa” because of the number of influential salsa musicians who began their commercial careers with El Gran Combo: Willie Rosario, Tito Rodríguez, Bobby Valentín, and others.
The 1970s Salsa explosion
Salsa emerged as a major commercial genre in New York in the 1970s. It sprang from Afro-Caribbean rhythms, Spanish melodic forms, R&B, jazz, and Big Band roots. Fania Records, founded by Johnny Pacheco in 1964, was considered “the Motown of Salsa.” Puerto Rican musicians from the Island and from New York were central to the movement, and to the success of Fania Records.
Héctor Lavoe, Willie Colón, Ismael Rivera, Cheo Feliciano, Roberto Roena, Andy Montañez, and El Gran Combo were legendary power players in the Salsa explosion. Salsa developed throughout the ’60s, and in the ’70s became a favorite American style of dance music across the nation. At the same time, it continued to be an important keystone of Puerto Rican cultural identity.
The Boy Band era
Puerto Rican artists expanded into salsa romantica in the 1990s with romantic ballads and Latin pop. When Venezuelan salsa boy band Salserin made its name, a Puerto Rican group called the Salsa Kids was deliberately based on European and American boy bands. They were pioneers in the evolution of salsa, followed by groups like Sons by Four and Los Chicos, which launched the career of Chayanne, one of the best-selling Latin pop artists.
Ricky Martin, another wildly popular Puerto Rican artist, incorporated salsa into his repertoire even as he developed in other directions. The 1990s were the end of the Golden Age of Salsa, but salsa lives on as a classic musical style with global influence.
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