What is salsa?
Q: What is salsa?
A: Salsa is a type of music and dance of hispanic origin. It is based on Cuban music, which is a fusion of musical ideas from Africa and Spain.
Q: When did salsa originate?
A: Salsa originated during 1965-1975 in New York when musicians of Cuban and Puerto Rican origin combined to produce this Cuban-style music.
Q: How did the label 'salsa' come about?
A: No-one really knows how the label 'salsa' came about, but everyone recognised how good it was to have a label for it.
Q: What other influences were used in salsa bands over time?
A: Over time, salsa bands worked in other influences such as Brazilian rhythms. N.Y radio programmes also offered 'salsarengue' as a further combination.
Q: Is there much difference between salsa and popular music in Cuba?
A: Initially, not much difference could be heard between salsa and popular music in Cuba but later it became clear that salsa in New York was a bit different from popular music in Cuba. Other places such as Miami, Venezuela, Colombia all had their own ideas too.
Q: Why has salsa receded from its great position achieved in the late 1970s?
A: It seems that salsa has receded from its great position achieved in the late 1970s due to difficulty for any foreign language based music to succeed in an English speaking market-place.
Q: How does one learn to dance salsa?
A: Unlike standard ballroom dancing, there is no clear agreement on how one should dance salsa so learning methods differ widely depending on where you are located or who you are learning from. Generally though, it can be said that dancing salsa is similar to other dances from Cuba such as the cha-cha-cha
