Reference no: EM13139094

Latin music is an expression of the cultural diversity and is known for there four basic characteristics its style, cultural background, geography, and language which inspires or is represented in a song. They are flexible in combining with various music styles around the world, such as in jazz, hip-hop, rock etc. An artist that has been a visionary force that transcends from Latin music and merged in to various genres is Carlos Santana. We can see this transformation in one of his commercially recorded songs, “Evil Ways.”

Carlos Santana an Afro-Latin-blues rock fusion is one of the world’s best-known musical signatures(Santana.com). Santana is known for his passion and legendary style of his guitar. “ Evil Ways” was composed by Clarence Henry and was Santana’s first hit and released primary towards the U.S. in his first album “Santana,” December 30, 1969 after his outstanding performance in the Woodstock festival (Wikipedia.com). This song is about a young lady that is unpleasant and prefers to spend time with her friends than her boyfriend causing her boyfriend to become upset and jealous because he gets no attention. He warns her if she doesn’t change her ways that he will leave her. You can see the meaning in this lyrical representation from the song, "You've got to change your evil ways, baby/Before I stop lovin' you." “Evil Ways” hit the top ten in the U.S. and ranked number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for approximately two years (Billboard.com). It also earned a gold record for sales it had coast-to-coast. According to songfacts.com there were a few radio stations that played an edited version of the song, cutting a few bars from the introduction, parts of the organ instrumental portion in the middle, and the coda, shortening the guitar improvisation by fading the song out earlier, part of this reason is to make it more for AM radio use, than for progressive rock use. “Evil Ways was, in essence, a rocked-up version of a standard Latin dance band–style cha cha chá, Oye Como Va, (pg. 236).” Under the Latin genre this song would fall in a mixture of categories rock, salsa, and jazz. The tempo of the song is constant, making it a good song to dance to. Towards the end unexpectedly leads up to a guitar solo, known as syncopation. Syncopation was also used to emphasize his vocal solos. The tune was delivered in a high pitch powerful style, accompanied by the electric guitar rising above the texture. This maybe known as tonal inflection at certain parts of the song as he speaks about how the woman makes him feel it raises and lowers once guitar hits the high notes. The strong use of the electric guitar started a huge trend of Latin and rock rhythms exposing it to the world. As mentioned above “Evil ways” tempo came from the basis of the Cha Cha. There was a variety of instrumentation used in this song such as percussion; consisting congas, guiro, and timbales, drums, organ, electric guitar used in composing this song (Songs.com). When the keyboard has a solo in part of the song it almost sounds like it has a ¾ rhythm. The percussion had a strong presence in the song compared to other Afro-Latin songs. Although above it has distinction of syncopation it contains an Afro-Cuban clave sound, which is determined by the beat, measured by 5 beat rhythm and the distinction of instruments. The vocals of Santana and the electric guitar make an appealing smooth sound in this song, but the use of instruments over all have a greater appeal to my ear the rhythm; it makes me want to go out dancing.

Santana is an Afro-Cuban artist this song “Evil ways” was produced in English and not of Spanish dialect. Even though the song in English the presence of Latin style is very strong and noticeable; the fundamental base. Since Santana is a Mexican-born American that would be the main reason why his songs were produced in English, but expressed his Latino musical heritage through the use of his music and guitar. The Latino music style has been seen thru the use of percussion instruments and the Afro-Cuban clave rhythm; his music is influenced by the Latin style. Another Latin artist Ricky Martin opened the door for many artists like Santana himself to share their music style (Songfacts.com). The music genre of rock and jazz are universal, but salsa is part of Latin tradition that was introduced to the other countries like the U.S. Salsa originates from Cuba and is a combination of guitar and Afro-Cuban percussion, which started getting, recognized mainly in New York and spreading from there on. “Evil Ways’ can be purchased by major retailers such as iTunes, amazon, ebay, and other large businesses marketed as Latin infused jazz and rock.

“Evil ways” has a lively rhythmic touch, smooth vocals, and noticeable organ and guitar solos making it an enticing music style combination the public has not been exposed to before, this left a trend of for Latin music spreading in the music industry