Latin America refers to the vast area south of the United States to the southernmost tip of South America. The area is equivalent to two Europes, including four parts of Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. Ancient Indians once created the splendid Mayan, Aztec, and Inca cultures here. Music also achieved a high level of development at that time. The Maya's instrumental music is closely integrated with singing and dancing. They use more percussion instruments, such as water drums made from half gourds and placed in a basin to beat, and instruments that use hard long pods to beat each other. , as well as wind instruments that can produce birdsong. The Aztecs often used rattles made of wooden drums, bamboo flutes, conches and gourds. In the music of the Incas, panpipes and recorders are famous. It is said that there were as many as a hundred recorder bands to accompany the dance. Music was an important part of the education of the children of the Inca nobles. The pentatonic scale without semitones is the scale commonly used by Indians.

After more than 300 years of colonial rule, Latin American music culture has undergone tremendous changes. Because a lot of European (especially Spain and Portugal on the Iberian Peninsula) music culture spread throughout Latin America. At the same time, black slaves from Africa also brought African music and art. Long-term inter-racial mixing has also resulted in the formation of various new mixed ethnic groups. The culture of Latin America is a unified and diverse culture that has been fused after a long period of collision, conflict, infiltration, and absorption of European culture, Indian culture, and African culture. It originates from these three cultures but is different from the original culture and appears in the world with a new look. From a macro perspective, Latin American music is also a mixture of European music, Indian music, and African music. However, due to the different types, levels, ingredients, and degrees of mixing, a very rich and diverse music style has been formed. Today, Latin American music is experiencing a richness of color. The unique rhythm, the beauty of the melody, and the richness of the harmony attract a large number of music lovers. Its incomparable enthusiasm, abundant vitality and magical appearance have attracted the attention of the world. As the great Latin American revolutionary Cuban poet Jose Marti said: "This is a harmonious and artistic land decorated with music and beautiful natural scenery."

Latin American music culture can be roughly divided into three types: Indian music; African-American music centered on black music; Latin American folk music represented by native white and mixed-race music .

Indian music can be roughly divided into two categories: one is the music of Indians in isolated and remote areas, such as the Indians in the Amazon tropical jungle. Because it is in a more primitive state, its music is relatively simple; another example is that the music of the Hifaro people in Ecuador only uses three tones. The music of the Camayura people in Brazil is also relatively simple, but they have the longest wind instrument in the world - an instrument tied together by two plant stems (one 1.6 meters long, one 2.2 meters long). Their music and dance are closely connected, and are often performed at various ceremonies and celebrations. These are very useful for studying the origin and development of music. The other type is the highly developed Indian music, such as the Andean plateau music in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and other countries, which is the inheritance and development of Inca traditional music. The panpipe and recorder music they played was very distinctive and excellent in expressing the customs of the plateau Indians. The solemn hymns to the sun god, the melancholy and lyrical Aravidian love songs, and the cheerful and lively Wayino dances are all their creations. The beautiful and moving folk coloratura soprano singing method - the Andean plateau singing method is a treasure in the world's folk music. Cusco, the ancient capital of the Incas, is known as the "Hometown of Archeology in the Americas." June 24th every year is the famous Festival of the Sun, and traditional Indian music and dance performances can be seen at the grand celebration. Puno in the Bolivian Plateau is also known as the "Hometown of Folk Song and Dance in the American Continent".

Black music is also called American-African music. This music is mainly distributed in the Caribbean and coastal areas of Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela. In the primeval forests of Suriname, escaped black slaves and Haiti in the Caribbean have preserved relatively pure African music. Black music in the Bahia region of Brazil and countries such as Cuba and Trinidad Tobago is more influenced by Portuguese and Spanish culture.

The characteristics of American-African music are that rhythm plays a leading role in the music, strong syncopation, often using multi-line rhythms, echo-style songs, uneven segment structure, the use of many European instruments, and a preference for percussion instruments. The steel drum music popular in the Caribbean is a black creation. This is a melodic percussion instrument made from gasoline barrels. This beautiful music from a gasoline drum shocked the world. Brazil's Samba, Lundu and Cuba's Rumba, the Caribbean's Calypso, Mambo, Cha Cha Cha, and Peru's Marinera, Don Deda and other dance music are all typical American-African music and dance genres. .

Latin American folk music refers to the music of native white people and Indo-European mixed race people who are mainly strongly influenced by European music. This type of music originated directly from the Iberian Peninsula, but over the course of hundreds of years it has adapted to the customs and customs of Latin America and mutated. It basically retains the foundation of the European music system (including mode, harmony, rhythm, segment structure, etc.), but its passionate style and exciting atmosphere are fundamentally different from the national music of the Iberian Peninsula. This kind of music is characterized by a touch of nostalgia and melancholy. It has many forms of duets, relaxed singing methods, soft and lyrical timbre, mostly 3/4 and 6/8 beats, a relatively square structure, and a lot of guitars. The harp from Spain is also very popular in Latin America, but the sound of the instrument has become louder and brighter. Paraguay, the "harp country", has also developed solo and duet forms with harp accompaniment. Plucked instruments such as charango (five-stringed harp), tipori (three-stringed harp), and guadero (ukulele), which have the shape of a small guitar and the range of a mandolin, are all ingenious combinations of European music culture and Indian music culture. It has become an indispensable instrument in Latin American music. In Mexico, a kind of Mariachi band music has also been developed that integrates guitar, trumpet, violin and bass guitar. It has distinctive characteristics and is very popular.

Mexico's pine, Chile's cuaica, Argentina's tango, Peru's peruvian dance music, etc. are all typical Latin American folk music song and dance genres.