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The beginnings
Early tango was the music of the thugs and gangsters who visited the brothels of a city with 100,000 more men than women (in 1914). The complex dances arose as men danced in groups, expressing machismo and sexual desire, leading to the aggressive and competitive mood of the dance form. The music was played by flute, guitar and violin trios, with bandoneón arriving at the end of the 19th century. Eduardo Arólas was the major instrument of the bandoneón's popularization, with Vicente Gréco soon standardizing the tango orchestra as consisting of two violins and two bandoneóns. Like many forms of popular music, the tango was associated with the underclass, and the well-off of Argentina tried to restrict its influence. In spite of the scorn, some, like writer Ricardo Guïraldes, were fans. Guïraldes played a major part of the international popularization of the tango, and wrote a poem ("Tango") which describes the music as the "all-absorbing love of a tyrant, jealously guarding his dominion, over women who have surrendered submissively, like obedient beasts".
The 1920s and 1930s, Carlos Gardel
Tango soon became the first of many Latin dance crazes to gain popularity in Europe, beginning in France. Superstar Rudolph Valentino soon became a sex symbol who brought the tango to new audiences, especially in the United States due to his sensual filmic depictions of the dance. In the 1920s, tango moved out of the lower-class brothels and became a more respectable form of music and dance. Bandleaders like Roberto Fírpo and Francisco Canaro dropped the flute and added a double bass in its place. Lyrics were still typically macho, blaming women for countless heartaches, and the dance moves were still sexual and aggressive.
Carlos Gardél, a Frenchman from Toulouse, became especially associated with the change from a lower-class music of gangsters to a respectable middle-class dance. He helped develop tango-canción in the 1920s and became one of the most popular tango artists of all time. He helped inaguarate the Golden Age of tango, which ended after his death from a plane crash in Colombia.
Gardeél's death was followed by a division into movements within tango. Evolutionists like Troilo and Di Sarli were opposed to traditionalists like Rodolfo Biagi and Juan D'Arienzo.
The "Golden Age"
The "Golden Age" of tango music and dance is generally agreed to have been the period from about 1930 to 1945, roughly contemporaneous with the big band era in the United States.
Some of the many popular and influential orchestras included the orchestras of Juan D'Arienzo, Francisco Canaro, and Anibal Troilo.
D'Arienzo was called the Rey del compas or "King of the beat" for the insistent, driving rhythm which can be heard on many of his recordings.
"El flete" is an excellent example of D'Arienzo's approach.
Beginning in the Golden Age and continuing afterwards, the orchestras of Osvaldo Pugliese and Carlos di Sarli made many recordings. Di Sarli had a lush, grandiose sound, and emphasized strings and piano over the bandoneon, which is heard in "A la gran muñeca" and "Bahía Blanca" (the name of his home town). Pugliese's first recordings were not too different from those of other dance orchestras, but he developed a complex, rich, and sometimes discordant sound, which is heard in his signature pieces, "Gallo ciego", "Emancipación", and "La yumba". Pugliese's later music was played for an audience and not intended for dancing, although it is often used for stage choreography for its dramatic potential, and sometimes played late at night at milongas.
Tango nuevo
The later age of tango has been dominated by Astor Piazzolla, a New Yorker, who became famous after appearing in Carlos Gardél's El dia que me quieras was released. During the 1950s, Piazzolla consciously tried to make a pop form of tango, earning the derision of purists and old-time performers. The 1970s saw Buenos Aires developed a fusion of jazz and tango, alongside tango-rockéro, mixing tango with rock and roll. Litto Nébbia and Siglo XX were especially popular in this development.
The so-called post-Piazzolla generation (1980-) includes musicians such as Dino Saluzzi, Eduardo Mederos, Enrique Martin Entenza and Juan Maria Solare. Piazzolla and his followers developed Nuevo Tango, which incorporated jazz and classical influences into a more experimental style.
See also