The Latin musical genre known worldwide as “salsa” has its roots in the islands of the Spanish Caribbean, however, it is in New York City that salsa became a musical phenomena during the sixties and seventies due to a growth in the Latino community in the city.
Slavery had come to an end in the Caribbean region by the late nineteenth century. “With the transformation of plantation economies into agribusiness, displaced agricultural workers migrated from countryside into town, and from island to island.” (http://www.salsaweb.com/ny/historyofsalsa.htm) When these migrations occurred, the rhythm “rumba” was brought to Havana, “bomba” to San Juan, and “merengue” to Santo Domingo. All of these rhythms then migrated to New York City.
Since the 1920s Puerto Rican music has been as much a product of New York City as the island itself, due to the fundamental role the migration experience has come to play in Puerto Rican culture. As a result, Puerto Rican culture can not be seen as something that exists only in Puerto Rico; rather, it has become inseparable from “Nuyorican/Newyorican” culture, which itself overlaps with black and other Latino subcultures in New York and, for that matter, with mainland North American culture as a whole.
Puerto Rican migration to the city increased when Puerto Rico came under USA control. At this time, Latin and African-American came together to form bands that later played at the Carnegie Hall. Latin music grew in popularity during the 1930’s and Cuban dance music was being played theaters such as New York’s Palace Theater. “By the mid-1930’s American nightclubs were featuring the conga, a Cuban carnival tradition, and many Broadway musicals included Latin numbers. In 1939, two key Latino entertainers appeared on the New York stage, Brazilian singer-dancer Carmen Miranda (1909-1955) singing “South-American Way” in the Abbott and Costello revue On the streets of Paris, and Cuban-born Desi Arnaz (1917-1986) as a conga playing football player in the Rodgers and Hart musical “Too many girls.”” Arnaz then teamed up with Lucille Ball and came up with the television comedy I Love Lucy. “Featuring Arnaz’s character, New York based Latin band leader Ricky Ricardo, the show brought Latino music into homes nationwide beginning in 1951 and helped make mambo and cha-cha-cha the dance crazes of the 1950’s.”
And then came the 1960’s. New flavors like “bugalu” and younger musicians, such as Hector Lavoe, appeared to set a new format in music called “Salsa”. Then immigration policy changes made possible the migration of people from other countries. “Along with other demographic shifts, these two events altered the course of Latin music in ways that defined it even more sharply as a New York phenomenon.” By the late 1960’s, the Dominican merengue, the Colombian cumbia, and the Puerto Rican plena and jibaro came into this musical scene.
By the 1970’s, all of these forms and rhythms came together to create Salsa. This new name gained fame when one of the biggest record labels at the time used the term to describe the music it produced.
The 1970’s were the heyday of salsa and of Fania which dominated the market. By the end of the decade, however, salsa found on the defensive against an onslaught of merengue, hip-hop, and the lack of creativeness among the singers, writers, and producers. (http://www.latindance.com/history_of_salsa.htm)
Salsa is a diverse and mainly Cuban Caribbean genre that did not only gained famed in New York City but also spread to Latin America and around the world. “Most specifically, however, salsa refers to a particular style developed in the 1960s and ’70s by Cuban immigrants to the New York City area, and stylistic descendants like 1980s salsa romantica.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salsa_music)
Salsa is the music played primarily at Latin dance clubs because it remains a dance-oriented genre. Salsa is even played in Japan with huge amounts of followers. Salsa might be latin but it all came together under New York City’s roof.