Cuban folk music

Music of Cuba
General topics
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Genres
Afro Afro-Cuban jazz Bolero (filin) Canción Chachachá Charanga Conga Contradanza (habanera) Criolla Cubatón Danzón Descarga Guajira Guaracha Hip hop Mambo Mozambique Nueva trova Pachanga Pilón Pregón Punto guajiro Rock Rumba (guaguancó, columbia, yambú, batá-rumba, guarapachangueo) Son (montuno) Songo Timba Trova
Specific forms
Religious music	Abakuá Arará Iyesá Makuta Palo Santería Yuka
Traditional music	Changüí Coros de clave Kiribá Nengón Tumba francesa
Media and performance
Music awards	Beny Moré Award
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem	La Bayamesa
Regional music
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Cuban folk music includes a variety of traditional folk music of Cuba, and has been influenced by the Spanish and the African culture as well as the remaining indigenous population of the Caribbean.

During the 1960s, a methodological organization was consistently applied to the Cuban popular music; and that methodology, called of the "generic complexes" was mainly based on the works of Cuban musicologist Argeliers León. In his book Del canto y el tiempo, León divided the study of Cuban popular music in several sections presented in the following order: Música yoruba, Música bantú, Música abakuá, Música guajira, El son, La rumba, La guaracha, La canción y el bolero, Música instrumental, De la contradanza al danzón, al chachachá and Hacia el presente, en el presente.

Dr. Olavo Alén says about the "generic complex system": "In his book Música Folklórica Cubana as well as in his opus masterpiece Del canto y el tiempo, he (León) shows us a panoramic view of our music departing fundamentally from the description of the original genres of Cuba. But those divisions proposed by Argeliers didn't pretend to be as rigorous as a scientific organization that would be in compliance with the classificatory principles of coherence, exclusivity, exhaustivity and most importantly, dychotomy."

According to the Cuban popular music "Generic complex theory", Cuban folk music is classified as follows:

The "Generic complex theory" has been refuted since long time ago by renowned musicologists such as Leonardo Acosta, which explains in his article titled "About the Generic Complexes and other matters":

Fortunately, the theology [sic.] of the generic complexes has been viewed with skepticism within the musicology circles from various countries, including Cuba, where some musicologists have oscillated between rejection, skepticism and depise…

According to Cuban composer and musicographist Armando Rodríguez Ruidíaz:

Autochthonous Cuban popular music is indeed similar to a macroorganism in which all its components descend from a common origin and are related, in one way or another, through its entire evolutionary process, which is shown as the development of a formal and stylistic primeval prototype; the common ancestor of all posterior generic forms…

…the Spanish song-dances of sesquiáltera (hemiola) rhythm were the primeval starting point of the evolutionary process from which numerous Iberic-American autochthonous styles departed. The structure of those songs, which included its couplet-refrain as well as its hemiola rhythm from African origin, was replicated and modified in the American countries, thus originating diverse regional genres.

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