The Music of Puerto Rico has evolved as a heterogeneous and dynamic product of diverse cultural resources. The most conspicuous musical sources of Puerto Rico have primarily included African, Taino Indigenous, and European influences. Puerto Rican music culture today comprises a wide and rich variety of genres, ranging from essentially native genres such as bomba, jíbaro, seis, danza, and plena to more recent hybrid genres such as salsa, Latin trap and reggaeton. Broadly conceived, the realm of "Puerto Rican music" should naturally comprise the music culture of the millions of people of Puerto Rican descent who have lived in the United States, especially in New York City. Their music, from salsa to the boleros of Rafael Hernández, cannot be separated from the music culture of Puerto Rico itself.
Plena is a genre of music and dance native to Puerto Rico.
Wilkins is a Puerto Rican pop music singer and composer.
Carmen Delia Dipiní Piñero was a Puerto Rican singer of boleros. In 2002, she was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame.
Aguinaldo It is a genre of Puerto Rican and Venezuelan traditional and cultural music, popular in several Latin American countries., based on Spanish Christmas carols or villancicos which is traditionally sung on Christmas itself or during the holiday season. Aguinaldo music is often performed by parrandas - a casual group of people, often family or friends, who merrily go from house to house taking along their singing. The instruments used are the cuatro, maracas and drums. Some popular aguinaldos are Burrito Sabanero (Venezuela), El Asalto, Feliz Navidad, and De la Montaña Venimos.
Lunna is a Puerto Rican singer of popular music and jazz who was the director of the television show Objetivo Fama, the Latin version of American Idol.
Cheo Feliciano was a Puerto Rican singer and composer of salsa and bolero music. Feliciano was the owner of a recording company called "Coche Records". He was the first tropical singer to perform at the "Amira de la Rosa Theater" in Barranquilla, Colombia, and in 1987 he played the role of Roberto Clemente's father in the musical Clemente.
Pablo Rodríguez Lozada, better known as Tito Rodríguez, was a Puerto Rican singer and bandleader. He started his career singing under the tutelage of his brother, Johnny Rodríguez. In the 1940s, both moved to New York, where Tito worked as a percussionist in several popular rhumba ensembles, before directing his own group to great success during the 1950s. His most prolific years coincided with the peak of the mambo and cha-cha-cha dance craze. He also recorded boleros, sones, guarachas and pachangas.
Paquito Cordero was a Puerto Rican comedian and music and television producer. He is considered a pioneer of Puerto Rican television.
Tony Vega Cesar is a Puerto Rican salsa singer.
Julio César "Tito" Rojas López, also known as "El Gallo Salsero", was a Puerto Rican salsa singer and songwriter.
Vicente Carattini was a singer and composer of Puerto Rican Christmas-related songs.
Raymond Torres-Santos is a Classical and film music composer and conductor, pianist, arranger, and producer of both classical, film and popular music. Malena Kuss described him as the most versatile Puerto Rican composer active in the 21st century in her book, Music in Latin America and the Caribbean: an Encyclopedic History.
Víctor Guillermo "Yomo" Toro was a Puerto Rican left-handed guitarist and cuatro player. Known internationally as "The King of the Cuatro," Toro recorded over 150 albums throughout a 60-year career and worked extensively with Cuban legends Arsenio Rodríguez and Alfonso "El Panameño" Joseph; salsa artists Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe and Rubén Blades; and artists from other music genres including Frankie Cutlass, Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, Linda Ronstadt and David Byrne.
Puchi Balseiro (born Aurea Mercedes Balseiro; November 1, 1926, in Santurce, Puerto Rico – January 11, 2007) was a composer in the filin ("feeling") music genre.
Marta Romero was a Puerto Rican actress and singer, and one of the pioneers in Puerto Rican television.
Edwin Colón Zayas, is a Puerto Rican cuatro player from Puerto Rico. He joins a large number of Puerto Rican artists, "innovative tradition-bearing," who focus their talents in extolling the virtues of the Puerto Rican creole and Jíbaro way of life.
Victoria Hernández was an Afro-Puerto Rican music entrepreneur. Though a talented musician, she devoted her career to the business aspects of the music industry. In 1927, she opened the first Latin music store in New York City, one of only sixteen businesses owned by Puerto Rican migrant women. She served as an agent to locate music talent for record labels and bandleaders and at one point owned her own record label. After following her brother to Mexico City, Hernández returned to the Bronx and founded Casa de Música, later renamed to Casa Hernández. The music store she founded in 1941, now known as Casa Amadeo, antigua Casa Hernandez has the longest record of continuous operation of any music store in New York City.
Luis Antonio Cosme is a Puerto Rican television cook, actor, singer, musician, writer, producer, reporter and show host. He is mostly known as one of two show hosts and cooks, usually alongside Otilio Warrington, "Bizcocho", of two television cooking shows named "Friendo y Comiendo" and "A Freir y a Comer".
Los Pleneros de la 21 is a New York City-based drum and dance ensemble that has been active since 1983. They specialize in Afro-Puerto Rican bomba and plena music and related dance forms. In addition to performing, they run a community-based, not-for-profit educational company dedicated to preserving and celebrating Puerto Rican traditional culture and "fostering the legacy and history of Puerto Rican artistic traditions of African and Creole descent."
You may listen to Tito Lara's "Si Me Preguntan" on YouTube.
