In the vast Latin America, the customs and races are extremely diverse, so there are also various styles in music. As mentioned earlier, in terms of ethnic groups, except for the aborigines, ethnic groups migrated from all parts of the earth are mixed with each other here, so it can be said that multi-mixed culture is the biggest feature of this region's culture. Among these mixed factors, there are three most important ones: the music culture of indigenous Indians; The music culture of Europeans who once conquered and ruled Central and South America, with Iberian peninsula as the main body; The music culture of African blacks who were sent to the New World as serfs of Europeans at an early age.

1. Indian factors in Latin American music

Before Columbus discovered the New World in 1492, Indians were native Americans, so their music culture became the mainstream of American music culture at that time. After 1492, the church music was passed from Jesuit priests to Native Americans, and the colonial authorities suppressed the native music. The local rhythm and melody gradually mixed with those of Europe to form a new and distinctive Latin American music form. So far, many Indian factors can still be found in Latin American music.

It is difficult to generalize the Indian music culture according to the different tribal conditions, but it can be roughly summarized as follows:

First of all, many Indian music is closely related to life, combined with religion, labor and dance, so generally speaking, their melodies are simple and have unique expressions. This feature is especially manifested in the famous South American folk music "Eagle Flying" based on folk songs in the Andean region (played by Indian instruments and guitars). There is no pentatonic scale of semitone, and the melody composed of five tones of do, re, mi, sol and la forms a unique style and interest.

Secondly, the Indian music rhythm is relatively simple. However, according to records, before the Spanish conquered Mexico, in Mexico, in order to adapt to religious dance, there was already a very complicated rhythm of percussion instruments. In addition, there is no harmony in the European sense in the traditional Indian music.

Thirdly, in terms of musical instruments, the absence of stringed instruments is a major feature of Indian musical instruments. Although stringed instruments such as guitar, violin and harp are often used in Indian music today, they have been brought by Europeans since the 16th century or made in the New World under the influence of Europe. The traditional Indian musical instruments are wind instruments such as flute and okari, or percussion instruments such as drums and vibrators. Among wind instruments, the clarinet is the most popular one, which is baked with bamboo, reed or clay, as well as flute and nose flute. Indian flute is called antara flute in Peru, Cappado flute in Colombia, Long Da flute in Ecuador and six flute in Bolivia. Some people refer to all kinds of flutes as zampona. Indian percussion instruments are especially colorful. Drum-making is often done by burning empty trunks, such as Teponastal in Mexico and Trocano in Brazil. The shell can be used as a scraper or a hollow shaker. The wiggler is collectively referred to as Malacas. In addition, there are "ground drums" and jungle drums. Indians usually humanize their flutes and drums, some of which belong to yin and some belong to yang. For example, Malacas is Yin and Guillo is Yang. The Guna Indians in Panama have two kinds of Trollos flutes, of which only one is the Yang flute and the other four are the Yin flutes.

In the first few centuries after Central and South America were conquered by Europeans, the church regarded Indian drums and flutes as pagan equipment and prohibited their use, but it was ineffective. Indigenous music still survived and finally became a part of social life, even entering the church. In festivals or street celebrations held in urban and rural areas of Central and South America, Christianity and primitive religion are strangely combined, and European music and Indian indigenous music coexist. However, in more cases, India and Europe are mixed to form a new form, genre and style.