[Eli5] What makes Latin music sound like Latin music even though there’s so many different styles?
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..the language? They don’t really have all that much in common other than being predominantly Spanish (and Portuguese, which sounds similar to a non-speaker)
Percussion and rhythm. Latin sound comes from syncopation, the fusion of multiple rhythmic timings into a single harmonious beat.
In your standard 4/4 musical score, you might have a rhythmist superimposing sets of three-beat patterns over top of the four-beat patterns. The three-beat rhythm lines up with the four-beat rhythm every twelveth measure. This leads to satisfying departures from, and returns to, rhythmic harmonies that create the meta-rhythm we recognize as Latin music.
Other musical genres incorporate syncopation too. But Latin music is essentially built on it.
A great example is War’s Lowrider. It’s all syncopation, and epitomizes the form. It’s a 4/4 timing. But you have one percussion line running 4/4, another keeping 4/4 but skipping every 4th beat. Then you have another percussion instrument playing 3/4, and yet another keeping 6/8 time. It’s insane, but the result is some of the most rhythmically satisfying music humans have ever composed.
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