Music Essay Sample

The Proliferation of Tango Styles

1. Reasons for Tango’s popularity between the years 1912 – 1914
During the early years of the twentieth century, Argentina was one of the most successful global economies and the Argentinian upper-class were highly affluent. These people were inclined towards a chic lifestyle and as part of this, they used to send their children to Europe for higher studies. A Grand Tour to Paris became a common thing for these people. A majority of the rich Argentinians visited Paris and soon were part of the Paris society. The Tango dance was more a phenomena in the urban working-class households in Argentina and the rich were not used to this in their homes. However, the children from the upper-class who moved to Paris for educational purposes got used to visiting the most sophisticated salons in Paris and got acquainted to Tango dance with their Paris comperes. Thus, Tango got its big breakthrough in the salons of Paris.
Akin to the way in which Jazz shook off its infamous image and transformed into an elegant music by migrating from the New Orleans and moving to New York, Chicago, Tango migrated from the tenements of Buenos Aires and transformed into a stylistic dance form (Denniston, 2007). The third reason was that Tango had a strong hold on culture and it was more about the taste of exoticism about the dance that made it popular.
2. Difference between international Style ballroom tango and American style ballroom tango from Argentine Tango –
Arthur Murray has been credited of taking this dance and “cleaning” its move and even adding a few moves from the classical ballroom dance. He is credited to have cleaned up the moves, Anglicized the terms used in the dance form and even created stratification of Bronze, Silver and Gold in the dance forms and moves. Once the Dance moved across the Atlantic to the English shores it was further cleaned up and moves classified with one major difference. The American Tango allows breaking of the holds while the English Tango (also referred to as International Tango) strictly prohibits any kind of breaks in the contact points – hips, left arms and right arms. The further differences are in music, posture, Foot Placement and Techniques among others.
3. Difference between Stage Tango and Social Tango - Surprisingly the origin of Tango is in the streets of Buenos Aires – the original diversion of the night for its denizens. Tango till today despite all the modifications that it has undergone still remains to be sensuous, intimate and very elegant. Only that the brashness has been toned down. The American Tango is based on the Argentinian Tango. It gradually branched off and changed – including its music to become the softer version of the Tango or the Ballroom Tango. Tango was introduced into the United States through its silent movies in the 1920s. The Tango had an instant appeal with the public then. However it was also seen as scandalous and too intimate for comfort!

Works Cited

Denniston, Christine. The Meaning Of Tango: The Story of the Argentinian Dance. Pavilion Books, 2007.