|
Boogaloo (shing-a-ling, popcorn music) is a genre of Latin music and dance that was very popular in the United States in the late 1960s. Boogaloo originated in New York City among teenage Cubans and Puerto Ricans. The style was a fusion of popular African American R&B, rock and roll and soul with mambo and son montuno. Boogaloo entered the mainstream through the American Bandstand television program.
Dance
The boogaloo dance was loose and interpretive in style. Early Boogaloo used a twelve-step sequence that was later sped up into a thirty-step sequence. It is to be distinguished from the Electric Booglaloo.
History
In the 1950s and 60s, African Americans in the United States listened to a number of styles of music, including jump blues, R&B and doo wop. Puerto Ricans in New York City shared in these tastes, but also listened to genres like mambo or chachacha. There was much intermixing of Latinos, especially Puerto Ricans and Cubans, and African Americans, and clubs that catered to both groups tried to find musical common ground to attract both. Boogaloo was the result of this search, a marriage of many styles, most prominently including soul and mambo. Boogaloo can be seen as the "the first Nuyorican music" (René López), and has been called "the greatest potential that (Latinos) had to really cross over in terms of music" (Izzy Sanabria). Styles like doo wop also left a sizable infuence, through Tony Pabón (of Pete Rodríguez Band), Bobby Marín, King Nando, Johnny Colón and his vocalists Tony Rojas and Tito Ramos. Puerto Ricans played a foundational role in the major doo wop group Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers.
Though boogaloo did not become mainstream nationwide until later in the decade, two early Top 20 hits came in 1963: Mongo Santamaria's "Watermelon Man" and Ray Barretto's "El Watusi". Inspired by these two successes, a number of bands began imitating their infectious rhythms (which were Latinized R&B), intense conga rhythms and clever novelty lyrics. Some long-time veteran Latin musicians played an occasional boogaloo number, including Perez Prado and Tito Puente, but most of the performers were teenagers like The Latin Souls, The Lat-Teens, Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers, Joe Bataan and The Latinaires. The term boogaloo was probably coined in about 1966 by Ricardo Ray. The biggest boogaloo hit of the 60s was "Bang Bang" by the Joe Cuba Sextet, which achieved unprecedented success for Latin music in the United States. Other hits included Johnny Colóns "Boogaloo Blues," Pete Rodríguezs "I Like It Like That," and Hector Riveras "At the Party". Boogaloo also spread to Puerto Rico, where top band El Gran Combo released some material.
The same year as Joe Cuba's pop success, 1966, saw the closing of New York City's Palladium Ballroom, a well-known venue that had been the home of big band mambo for many years. The closing marked the end of mainstream mambo, and boogaloo ruled the Latin charts for about two years before salsa music began to take over.
|
