There are quite a  few different opinions of exactly how & when salsa music and dancing started and developed in the early years, coming from the fact that salsa dancing doesn’t have any clear single origin…

Instead, both salsa music and salsa dancing, have a mixture of Latin & Afro-Caribbean roots along with additional outside influences which have all been responsible for their birth and development.

Most people think of salsa as a Cuban dance, and although a large part of the dance originated in Cuba, the credit for the creation of the dance as we know it today must go to the Latin community on the East coast of America.

In fact, it was in New York where the term “Salsa” was coined as an umbrella label for all danceable Latin & Afro-Caribbean Music. The word salsa may have been inspired by a Cuban song from 1933 by composer Ignacio Piñerio called ‘Échale Salsita’.

Salsa was a popular nickname for a variety of Hispanic influenced music including the rhumba, Són, Montuno, Guaracha, Mambo, Guaguanco, Merengue, Guajira, Cumbia, Pachanga, Boogaloo, etc. However, the term did not really take off until the 1960s.

One of the earliest recognized salsa albums was ‘Cal Tjader Soul Sauce’ by the Cal Tjader Quintet plus 5. The album cover was a fork on a plate of red beans and chili with an opened bottle of Tabasco sauce. Many of San Francisco’s Latin community began using the term salsa to describe Tjader’s brand of music.

Tjader’s music spread to other cities across the USA, including Los Angeles, Miami and New York. This led to the growth in Latin music being aired on radio stations across the nation.

In 1974 Fania Records released Larry Harlow’s album Salsa, which became very popular and enjoyed tremendous success, helping unleash the term salsa on the American public.

After this, almost all Afro-Cuban rhythms and much of what was deemed exciting in Latin music acquired the term Salsa.

June 1976′s issue of Billboard magazine’s was dedicated to Latin music, containing a 24-page supplement called “Salsa explosion.”

The transformation of salsa, from a mixture of Latin music styles and different Latin & Afro-Cuban dances, to what is heard and danced in clubs today has been a dramatic one.

The dance and music have evolved over a long period of time through an elaborate blending of different sounds, cultures, and meanings.

As an example, much of today’s salsa music you will hear the base of són mixed with the melodies of Cumbia and Guaracha. You will also hear many influences from old music styles mixed with modern beats, varying from place to place and from one song to the next.

The diversity and complexity of modern salsa music is what keeps its listeners, and its dancers totally addicted.

Salsa has also evolved into a dance in its own right, although there are subtle variations in the dance from country to country, and even from city to city… and has grown in popularity to become a worldwide dance phenomenon.

There are a few recognized salsa dance styles (and spin offs) that dominate the salsa world today, namely L. A., New York, Puerto Rican, Colombian, Cuban, and Miami… plus La Rueda de Casino!

Read more about the Different Salsa Dance Styles…

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