Canción melódica (; Spanish for "melodic song"), also known as canción ligera ("light song") is a genre of Spanish-language

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

typically defined by

sentimental ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner.J. M. C ...

s with light, orchestral

arrangements In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

. It grew out of traditional forms

Latin music Latin music (Portuguese language, Portuguese and es, música latina) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America (including Music of Spain, Spain and Portuguese music, Portugal) ...

such as

bolero Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It has ...

cuplé The cuplé was a popular risqué Spanish theatre song style in the late years of the 19th century. From 1893–1911 the songs were a feature of the "género ínfimo" (lowest type) cabaret theatre sung by solo female singers, or men in drag, and a ...

and copla, and later incorporated strong influences of French

chanson A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic s ...

and the Italian pop popularized in the

Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annual ...

History

Canción melódica appeared in the first half of the 20th century. Unlike the

, its 19th century predecessor that was primarily

strophic Strophic form – also called verse-repeating form, chorus form, AAA song form, or one-part song form – is a song structure in which all verses or stanzas of the text are sung to the same music. Contrasting song forms include through-composed, w ...

, canción melódica was defined through the emphasis it placed on the

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in which all verse ...

. The orchestras with vocalists had a fundamental protagonism in the dance parties, which evolved from the popular

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to "more refined circles" such as salons and cafés. The

melodic A melody (from Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combinat ...

compositions were accompanied by popular vocalists that appeared in magazines, films and live performances; "

Musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

s describe anción melódicaas the explanation for the birth of the singer

stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

in the 1920s." The use of the

microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and public ...

gave them a greater role—and through radio broadcasting, an ensemble of composers, lyricists and orchestra directors worked in behalf of the vocalist. The popularization of radio during the 1940s made canción melódica a massive phenomenon. Key figures include Jorge Sepúlveda,

Antonio Machín Antonio Abad Lugo Machín (11 February 1903, in Sagua la Grande, Cuba – 4 August 1977, in Madrid, Spain) was a Spanish-Cuban singer and musician. His version of ''El Manisero'', recorded in New York, 1930, with Don Azpiazú's orchestra, was the f ...

, Mario Visconti, García Guirao, Lorenzo González and Bonet de San Pedro, among others. From 1930 to 1960,

Spanish cinema Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

found in the genre its "main supporter." In the 1960s, canción melódica slowly began to lose markets as young people's tastes turned to rock music.

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

singer

Sandro Sandro is an Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swiss, Georgian and Croatian given name, often a diminutive of Alessandro (disambiguation), Alessandro or Alexander. It is also a surname. Sandro may refer to: Given name or nickname Sports *Sandro (f ...

was a popular canción melódica singer during that decade. The genre lived through a period of splendor in Spain during the 1970s through figures like

Camilo Sesto Camilo Blanes Cortés (16 September 1946 – 8 September 2019), known professionally as Camilo Sesto "El Rey del Amor", was a Spanish singer, songwriter and music producer. There are various sales figures for him, ranging from 70 to 200 million ...

. Canción melódica became frowned upon as "light music" from the 1980s on, with the rise in popularity of other genres such as rock.

Notes

External links

* at

Rate Your Music Rate Your Music (often abbreviated to RYM) is an online collaborative database of music releases and films. Users can catalog items from their personal collection, review them, and assign ratings in a five-star rating system. The site also fea ...

{{Music in Spanish Latin music genres 20th-century music genres Spanish styles of music Latin American styles of music Spanish-language music

History

See also

Notes

External links