Caribbean Music Class 5,6,7  Essay

(4) Latin Music (15,16,17,18)- Write a short research essay on the Latin American composer of your choice. Be sure to include the following;

* Basic biographical data

* a work representative of that composer's style, with specific reference to what can be heard in the score

* That composer's significance both in Latin America and internationally.

One of the most compelling figures in Latin American music is the irrepressible Carlos Santana. From his roots as a psychedelic scenemaker in the 1960s to his rebirth as a pop music crossover in the late 1990s, Carlos Santana has long been central to the infusion of Latin sounds into mainstream music. The Mexican-born Santana began his career in Southern California, assembling percussively-based groups from his neighborhood and working his way up to the massing scene in Northern California. By the time he was leading a band playing under the name Santana, he was in San Francisco on culturally important stages at the Fillmore, the Winterland and Cow Palace. He would become the first Latin American music icon of the counterculture, bringing the tones of Tejano and Salsa to both artistic and commercial music-making communities.

(5) Native American Music (19,20,21)- After viewing the segment from the Pow-wow video "Into the circle: An introduction to Native American Pow-wow," write a short essay summarizing the historical information given on the beginings of Pow-wows in Oklahoma.

(6) Popular Music (25,26,27,28) - Compare Big Mama Thornton or Little Richard's recording of Hound Dog with that of Elvis. In what ways does each resemble the other and what ways are they different?

Elvis would be in many ways faithful in his version of "Hound Dog" to that of Big Mama Thornton, channeling a similar vocal ferocity in his take. But as is almost universally true when a white artist has recorded black music, there is a musical sanitation and a lyrical sanitation, both of which render the music more palatable to white audiences. There is a sexuality and abandon to the version by Thornton which is a feature common to black versions of songs ultimately made more…