Latin Music

Putting The Science Into Music

Latin Music is a broad category covering music from Latin America, the Caribbean and related diaspora communities, alongside later styles that combine these traditions with Jazz, House, Techno and other electronic forms. It isn't one fixed genre, but an umbrella for many regional sounds connected by language, rhythm, instrumentation and cultural history.

Its foundations include Indigenous traditions, African rhythmic systems and European musical forms introduced through colonisation. These influences developed differently across countries and regions, producing styles such as son, salsa, mambo, merengue, cumbia, samba, bossa nova, tango, rumba and Latin Jazz.

During the twentieth century, migration and international recording industries carried Latin American and Caribbean music into cities including New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Paris and London. Artists and musicians combined regional traditions with Jazz, Soul, Funk, Rock and popular dance music, creating new hybrid forms for clubs, radio and concert audiences.

Latin Jazz developed through the meeting point between Afro-Cuban rhythms and American Jazz, with musicians including Machito, Mario Bauzá, Tito Puente and Dizzy Gillespie helping establish its early language. Later artists expanded the category through Brazilian Jazz, salsa, fusion and electronic production.

Latin House emerged by combining House Music's four-to-the-floor rhythm with percussion, vocals and samples drawn from salsa, samba, mambo and other Latin styles. Latin Tech and Latin Techno use similar influences within more stripped-back, percussive and electronically focused club arrangements.

The Latin Music category can include traditional recordings, Latin Jazz, salsa, cumbia, Brazilian music, Latin House, Latin Tech, Latin Techno and other crossover productions. Its classification is intentionally broad, letting music from different regions and electronic scenes group together through their clear connection to Latin American and Caribbean musical tradition.

At Scientific Sound Asia, latin music is a defining feature of Roots, with further appearances on Basement Soul and Calis HouseNation Radio.