Tag Archive for 'salsa music'

Contra La Corriente by Marc Anthony

After several years, while listening to salsa music, my iTunes shuffle mode was kind enough to bring up a very classic song “Contra La Corriente” by Marc Anthony. This song, and album, was definitely one of the things that got me truly addicted to salsa music. After I had started dancing salsa for a few months in Ames, Iowa, I remember playing this album over gazillion times in my dorm room in college at Iowa State University – which was a stark contrast to the Alternative/Rock music every other person played in their room.

Since it brought so many salsa memories, I thought I’d recommend it to new salsa enthusiasts that may not know this famous song or album. I think it was this album that really defined Marc Anthony as a great salsa artist.

Here is a video of Marc Anthony performing Live the song. I’m not sure why he’s dressed like Neo from “The Matrix”.

(via: @Persaudified)

Published 7 months, 2 weeks ago in music. 1 Comment Tags: , .

Salsa Music Video Playlists on YouTube!

YouTube, distributors of the highly popular salsa dance instructional videos of addicted2salsa, have launched a new music feature on their website! The new website feature allows you to type a salsa artist or song, and create a salsa music video playlist with videos that are related to that particular artist or song. This new feature is very similar to Pandora (no, not the Avatar type),  where you can create a ‘music radio’ station based on artists that sound similar to a song or another artist.

This is a great way to visually discover new salsa songs and artists! Enjoy!

[YouTube Disco Feature]

Published 2 years ago in music. 6 Comments Tags: , , .

Jason Mraz “I’m Yours” Salsafied by NOTA

NOTA The Sing-Off Jason Mraz I'm YoursIf you didn’t catch the new NBC show called “The Sing-Off“, you missed something pretty cool. The Sing-Off is a competition which mixes the aspects of a capella singing, show choir (similar to the TV show “Glee”) and American Idol. Keeping up with American cover songs remixed into Salsa-like rhythmz, a group from my hometown of San Juan, Puerto Rico, called NOTA. NOTA is the term for a musical note in Spanish. They sang a salsafied version Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” in a capella that I think you are sure to enjoy. I think they mixed the song styles very well, even including a nice big symbal-ish clave as a transition point. I’ll be waiting for their album if they keep it up!

Published 2 years, 1 month ago in DanceOnTV and music. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Create Salsa Music for Free with Garageband! [Salsa Music Contest]

Salsa Music in GaragebandNow that everyone is becoming more experienced with computers, I wanted to give everyone a creative holiday salsa project! About a year ago I created a few salsa music tracks that became very popular with some of our fans and we received several emails asking how any salsero (with a Mac) could make their own. The process is very simple! Garageband, a free application that comes with every Mac computer, allows you to do this with just a few clicks of the mouse. When you start a new project in Garageband, you can select ‘New’ from the menu and select ‘Magic Garageband‘. From there all you have to do is select the instruments you like and you are done! You can also add your own clave in Garageband to give it a more salsa feel!

Here are the salsa music instrument tracks I made previously with Garageband that are available on our salsa feed (feel free to download and distribute, however, not for commercial use):

Here is a video of how you can easily change the different instruments in Magic Garageband to get the right feel for your musical style.

Salsa Holiday Contest Time!

Salsa Music Holiday Album - Navidad SalsaGiven how easy it is to create fun salsa music tracks, we’d like to listen to your creativity! Come up with a few salsa music tracks of your own! Send your track as an email attachment, with your name and location to contact@addicted2salsa.com (we’ll post them on our website at a later time). Submit as many tracks as you’d like for the contest.

The TOP 5 contestants, selected by us, will receive my favorite iTunes album for the Salsa Dancing Holidays: “Feliz Navidad” by Hector Lavoe and Daniel. Please note you need to have a valid iTunes account to receive the prize. Contest ends January 15th, 2009. The best track will be danced by us during the intro of a future Addicted2Salsa video episode (how cool is that!).

Published 2 years, 2 months ago in contest, music and music review. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , .

Link between Peoples Personalities and their choice of Music

Musical tastes and personality are closely linked, according to a recent study by the Heriot-Watt University in Scotland.

We have always known the fact that what you wear, eat and listen is linked to your personality (whether for good or bad). Finally, there has been some research done by the Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University. In a study of more than 36,000 people from six countries, they provide some type of detail on what types of personalities are tied to people’s taste in music. Here is a snippet from the article:

You are what you listen to

You are what you listen to

Jazz fans tend to be creative and outgoing, with high self-esteem, in keeping with the innovative and sociable nature of the music.

Country western fans were found to be hard-working, but introverted, fitting with the blue-collar image of country music.

The research concluded soul music lovers are a well-rounded bunch — creative, outgoing, gentle, at ease with themselves and with high self-esteem.

Rap fans are outgoing and far from gentle, while indie music lovers lack both self-esteem and the work ethic.

While Latin music (or specifically Salsa/Cha-Cha/Bachata) weren’t included in the article, I’m trying to see if it was included in the published research (trying to find the publication). I’m sure salseros(as) would at a minimum fall under ‘sociable’ and ‘outgoing’. But I’d like to hear your opinion. What do you think Latin music expresses about our personality? (your comments below).

You can read and see the entire music genres studied using the links below.

[More over at BBC News: Music tastes link to personality ]
[More over at CBC News: Musical tastes in tune with who you are ]

Published 3 years, 4 months ago in article and music. 20 Comments Tags: , , , .

How to save your hearing from loud salsa night clubs

Have you ever woken up with that obnoxious ringing in your ears after a long night of dancing at the club?  Is that EVERY weekend for you?  If so, you may want to look into options to protect yourself from  Noise induced hearing loss.  The way it develops is this: you go to a noisy club- noisy to the point that the next morning your ears are still ringing.  This is a temporary threshold shift, a (mostly unnoticeable) hearing loss.  In about 24 hours, your hearing is completely back to normal.  However, after doing this week after week for several years, the “temporary” threshold shift becomes more permanent as the damaged inner ear structures can no longer repair themselves.

Salsa clubs vary in how loud the music is, so some people may be more at risk than others.  The more frequently you go out, the more damage you are potentially causing.  If you think this is a problem for you, you may want to try using earplugs.  I made a recent earplug discovery when I noticed a salsero friend wearing these-  musician’s earplugs: they soften the loudness without muffling the sound.

Continue reading ‘How to save your hearing from loud salsa night clubs’

Published 3 years, 5 months ago in music and Salsa News. 2 Comments Tags: , , .