Rumba

Rumba is a family of percussive rhythms, song and dance that originated in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves and Spanish colonizers. The name derives from the Cuban Spanish word rumbo which means "party" or "spree". It is secular, with no religious connections. People of African descent in Havanaand Matanzas originally used the word rumba as a synonym for party. Olavo Aln states that over time, "rumba ceased to be simply another word for party and took on the meaning both of a defined Cuban musical genre and also of a very specific form of dance. The term spread in the 1930s and 1940s to the faster popular music of Cuba (the "Peanut Vendor" was a classic), where it was used as a catch-all term, rather like salsa today. Also, the term is used in the international Latin-American dance syllabus, where it is a misnomer: the music used for this slower dance is the bolero-son. Ballroom rumba, or rhumba, is basicallyson and not based on the authentic folkloric rumba. Similarly, the African style of pop music called African Rumba or soukous is also son-based. The term is also used today for various styles of popular music from Spain, as part of the so-called Cantes de

ida y vuelta, or music that developed between both sides of the atlantic. Flamenco rumba is a genre that is
entirely different from Cuban rumba.