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. Balla ...

s with light, orchestral

arrangements In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing Composition (music), composition. Differences from the original composition may include Harmony (music), reharmonization, Musical phrasing, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or M ...

. It grew out of traditional forms

Latin music Latin music (Portuguese language, Portuguese and ) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America, which encompasses Music of Latin America, Latin America, Music of Spain, Spain, Mu ...

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 h ...

, cuplé and copla, and later incorporated strong influences of French

chanson A (, ; , ) is generally any Lyrics, lyric-driven French song. The term is most commonly used in English to refer either to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval music, medieval and Renaissance music or to a specific style of ...

and the Italian pop popularized in the

Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival ( ), officially the Italian Song Festival (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria, organized and broadcast by (RAI). It is the longest-running ...

History

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

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

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song), the part of a song that is repeated several times, usually after each verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in whic ...

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

verbena ''Verbena'' (), also known as vervain or verveine, is a genus in the family Verbenaceae. It contains about 150 species of annual and perennial herbaceous or semi-woody flowering plants. The majority of the species are native to the Americas ...

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

melodic A melody (), 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 combination of pitch and rhythm, while more figuratively, the term c ...

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

Musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

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

stars A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of ...

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 publi ...

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

Spanish cinema The art of motion-picture making within Spain or by Spanish filmmakers abroad is collectively known as Spanish Cinema. Only a small portion of box office sales in Spain are generated by domestic films. The different Spanish governments have t ...

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, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

singer

Sandro Sandro is an Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swiss, Georgian and Croatian given name, often a diminutive of Alessandro or Alexander. It is also a surname. Sandro may refer to: Given name or nickname Sports * Sandro (footballer, born 1973), Braz ...

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, was a Spanish singer, songwriter and music producer. There are various sales figures for him, ranging from 70 to 200 million records sold, and ...

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

Notes

{{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