MUS 126
Cuban Popular Music and Culture
Last Offered Fall 2014
Division I Exploring Diversity Initiative
This course is not offered in the current catalog

This class will cover genres of Cuban folk, and popular music and the impact that Cuban history has had on Cuban music, art, and culture in general. Topics to be discussed will include the African influence on Cuban music between the 15th and 16th centuries, the contemporary coexistence of old African musical practices with new musical manifestations now purely Cuban, and the Spanish influence on the Punto Cubano or Punto Guajiro that flourished at the end of the 18th century as a family-neighborhood activity. We will also discuss the connection between folk music and the utilization of European techniques that gave as a result the danzon, the mambo, the cha cha cha, the Cuban son, as well as multiple genres of the Cuban cancion (song). Other topics of discussion will include the strong bonds between Cuban music and North American music during the 20th century, and how the combination of folk music/professional music imparts a dynamic to Afro-Cuban jazz, and salsa. We will also discuss more recent developments of Afro-Cuban music such as timba cubana, Cuban hip hop, and the social issues represented in their lyrics. A good understanding of Cuban music requires the understanding of Cuban people and their culture. We will discuss how Cuban music is and has been for centuries an expression and part of the religious and political systems of belief of the Cuban people. We will also see how Cuban music is an important part of Cuban identity and their heritage. Class examples will also demonstrate how Cuban music is a force that unifies all Cubans regardless of their social class or political view. This is an EDI course because it will promote empathetic understanding of Cuban experience and identity through its most vital cultural expression in music, and explore ways in which the music reveals interactions and responses to African and North American experiences as expressed in music.