Currently, there does not seem to be very extensive scholarship on the relations and interaction between Latin American and U.S. music in the early decades of the 20th century; many sources seem to focus primarily on the topic as it relates to the creation and development of jazz. Among my sources, the scholars Gerard Béhague and Ángel G. Quintero Rivera, for example, focus mostly on how the music of Latino and Black communities crossed from the northern to the southern continent and vice versa throughout the 20th century, while author William Howland Kenney examines the practices of major record companies in the first half of the century—however, the former two limit their discussions to Caribbean music and its relatives in the United States, while the latter gives a general overview, but does not give very many details about the music itself. Additionally, Kenney is the only one of the three to focus on the early decades of the century (although he does not focus on Latin America specifically); both Quintero Rivera and Béhague merely include the era as a fairly small part of a chronologically larger discussion.
In his article entitled “Bridging South America and the United States in Black Music Research,” Gerard Béhague, a prominent scholar of Latin American (especially Brazilian) music active in the later 20th and early 21st centuries,[1] seeks to elaborate on the diversity of Latin American musical styles and, in particular, the relationships between Black musical styles across the Americas.[2] The piece is built around the general claim that Latin American music is not a single, static cultural object, and the more specific claim that Black musical styles, and the histories thereof, from Latin America and the United States have a complex, connected relationship, yet remain distinct;[3] the former claim serves mostly as context for the latter, which is supported with various examples of styles throughout the 20th century that cross from communities in the U.S. to those in Latin America, as well as discussions of various scholars’ thoughts on the extent and manner of the spread of African musical heritage through the America.[4] In this article, Béhague mentions that the Brazilian band Os Oito Batutas changed its name to Jazz-Band os Batutas after playing in Paris and meeting American-style jazz, and that its leader Pixinguinha began incorporating jazz-inspired elements in his orchestras at this time—however, he also states that it was the jazz band format, rather than style, that was incorporated,[5] so there is at once an example of U.S. music influencing Latin music, but not supplanting it. Additionally, Béhague points out that the band only adopted some Americanisms after going to France, which indicates that the U.S. could have had an impact without any intention or imperial plans[6]—of the three scholars, he is the only one to address this point.
The Puerto Rican sociologist and historian[7] Ángel G. Quintero Rivera examines some of the ways in which the music of Latin America and the United States interacted and influenced each other over the course of the 20th century in his article “Migrations, Ethnicity, and Interactions, between the United States and Hispanic Caribbean Popular Culture.” Focusing particularly on forms from the Caribbean and Latino and Black communities in the U.S., he argues that the U.S.-Latin American cultural (particularly musical) relationship is a two-way, sharing arrangement resulting in high complexity and diversity, rather than a situation where one dominates or steals from the other; his evidence consists primarily of examples of musical styles and musicians combining or coming together to create new, composite styles—mostly Latin American musicians and music spreading to and combining with American styles, or previously created Latin American-U.S. combined styles.[8] This provides a contrast to Béhague’s work, where it is claimed that the spread of Latin styles to the United States has not been studied much[9]—Quinto Rivera focuses primarily on this very area., by providing various examples of Latin—specifically Caribbean—music being taken to the United stated in the early-to-mid 20th century.[10] He also briefly explains the benefits to the Victor Talking Machine Company of marketing to a generalized “Latin American” audience rather than the individual sub-groups,[11] and discusses the rise in popularity of Latin music following mass emigration from Latin America to the U.S. following World War II.[12]
The influence of major U.S.-based phonograph and record companies in Latin America in the early years of the 20th century is also explored by William Howland Kenney (a professor emeritus at Kent State University, much of whose scholarly output deals with early-20th-century music, whether as a cultural or physical object[13]) in “The Phonograph in the Evolution of ‘Foreign’ and ‘Ethnic’ Records,” the fourth chapter in his book Recorded Music in American Life: The Phonograph and Popular Memory, 1890-1945. Specifically, he examines the ways in which the major phonograph companies of the era approached the matter of recording material for foreign and immigrant audiences in general, with Latin America featuring as one of the foreign markets discussed.[14] He uses a variety of types of evidence, such as phonograph-related publications, data on the numbers of immigrants from various countries and on the numbers of “ethnic” records sold, and phonograph companies’ and music stores’ activities in regard to selling and marketing to foreign or foreign-born audiences.[15] This chapter reinforces the claim put forth by Quinto Rivera that the Victor Talking Machine Company (or phonograph companies in general) found it useful to look at broad generalizations of foreign musical identity, as the various ethnic minorities typically were not homogenous, so it was most economical to choose music that could appeal to all sub-groups—which tended to create artificial identities by overlooking the numerous actual differences present in these groups. Of particular use to my project, Kenney explains how, when the major American phonograph companies began making and marketing records for Latin American audiences in the 1900s and 1910s, their choices of what to record were not necessarily an accurate representation of the actual musical scene; they tended instead to reflect the American preference for patriotic military bands and European-esque “highbrow” music, or their view of these as representative of the musical identities of other cultures.[16]
These sources illustrate a tendency—although not without exception—to focus more on specific styles moving from Latin America to the United States than the reverse; the role of the U.S-based recording industry in selecting certain Latin American music as being worthy of recording is a notable exception, being in fact a prevalent theme across multiple works. In general, the focus of research that covers the period between the World Wars seems to be primarily on relations between Caribbean and U.S. music, and especially jazz; although other regions of Latin America are considered, their musical relations with the United States appear to be a largely unexplored area (except as relates to jazz) until the 1940s or so.
[1] Noah Lenstra. “Behague, Gerard (November 2, 1937-Jone 13, 2005) | University of Illinois Archives. University of Illinois Archives. https://archon.library.illinois.edu/archives/index.php?p=creators/creator&id=2390
[2] Gerard Béhague. “Bridging South America and the United States in Black Music Research.” Black Music Research Journal, Vol 22, No. 1 (2002): 1-2. https://doi.org/10.2307/1519962
[3] Gerard Béhague. “Bridging South America and the United States in Black Music Research.” Black Music Research Journal, Vol 22, No. 1 (2002): 1-2. https://doi.org/10.2307/1519962
[4] Gerard Béhague. “Bridging South America and the United States in Black Music Research.” Black Music Research Journal, Vol 22, No. 1 (2002): 2-11. https://doi.org/10.2307/1519962
[5] Gerard Béhague. “Bridging South America and the United States in Black Music Research.” Black Music Research Journal, Vol 22, No. 1 (2002): 6-7. https://doi.org/10.2307/1519962
[6] Gerard Béhague. “Bridging South America and the United States in Black Music Research.” Black Music Research Journal, Vol 22, No. 1 (2002): 7. https://doi.org/10.2307/1519962
[7] Lizette Cabrera Salcedo. “Angel G. Quintero Rivera.” EnciclopediaPR (2021).
[8] Ángel G. Quintero Rivera. “Migration, Ethnicity, and Interactions between the United States and Hispanic Caribbean Popular Culture,” translated by Mariana Ortega Breña. Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 34, No.1, “The Crisis of U.S. Hegemony in the Twenty-First Century” (2007): 83-93. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27647997
[9] Gerard Béhague. “Bridging South America and the United States in Black Music Research.” Black Music Research Journal, Vol 22, No. 1 (2002): 7. https://doi.org/10.2307/1519962
[10] Ángel G. Quintero Rivera. “Migration, Ethnicity, and Interactions between the United States and Hispanic Caribbean Popular Culture,” translated by Mariana Ortega Breña. Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 34, No.1, “The Crisis of U.S. Hegemony in the Twenty-First Century” (2007): 84. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27647997
[11] Ángel G. Quintero Rivera. “Migration, Ethnicity, and Interactions between the United States and Hispanic Caribbean Popular Culture,” translated by Mariana Ortega Breña. Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 34, No.1, “The Crisis of U.S. Hegemony in the Twenty-First Century” (2007): 84-85. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27647997
[12] Ángel G. Quintero Rivera. “Migration, Ethnicity, and Interactions between the United States and Hispanic Caribbean Popular Culture,” translated by Mariana Ortega Breña. Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 34, No.1, “The Crisis of U.S. Hegemony in the Twenty-First Century” (2007): 86-88. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27647997
[13] “Kenney, William Howland.” Encyclopedia.com. (2005). https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/kenney-william-howland-iii
[14] William Howland Kenny. “The Phonograph and the Evolution of ‘Foreign’ and ‘Ethnic’ Records,” in Recorded Music in American Life : The Phonograph and Popular Memory, 1890-1945. Cary: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1999: 65-87. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.wooster.idm.oclc.org/lib/wooster/detail.action?docID=272563
[15] William Howland Kenny. “The Phonograph and the Evolution of ‘Foreign’ and ‘Ethnic’ Records,” in Recorded Music in American Life : The Phonograph and Popular Memory, 1890-1945. Cary: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1999: 69-70. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.wooster.idm.oclc.org/lib/wooster/detail.action?docID=272563
[16] William Howland Kenny. “The Phonograph and the Evolution of ‘Foreign’ and ‘Ethnic’ Records,” in Recorded Music in American Life : The Phonograph and Popular Memory, 1890-1945. Cary: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1999: 69-70. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.wooster.idm.oclc.org/lib/wooster/detail.action?docID=272563