World Music Genres - Letter S
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Sakara - a Yoruba (Nigeria) musical style played at namings, weddings and funerals.
Salegy - In Madagascar, Salegy is probably the most danceable music of modern times. Born in the era of Pop music (end of the 60s), Salegy is an electric music but owes nothing to the West. An original and powerful ternary rhythm pulls dancers into its spiral; the instrumentation is delicate, inspired by tradition.
The origin of Salegy goes back to the fifteenth century at least, to man’s arrival in Madagascar. The rhythm, a quick six-eight, came to the Southeast of the Island (Fort Dauphin region) with the first inhabitants, and then moved with them towards the Southwest and then the North. In each region it has a particular name: tuska in the North and bassessa in the East, but it is fundamentally the same, with imperceptible variations for someone who is not from these parts. It has become the symbol of Malagasy music, which is nonetheless very diverse.
The word Salegy itself dates back to the 60s. Apparently it has an Indonesian origin and means a new, electric music, conceived by certain guitarists at the crossroads between popular and traditional music.
As for the world music public, they discovered Salegy during the Jaojoby 1994 tour of clubs and festivals.
Salsa
Salsa Dura - means hard salsa. It is a term that defines salsa as it developed in New York, with genres and rhythms drawn from Cuba and other islands in the Caribbean melding with the tempo, drive and improvisational techniques picked up by the immigrants in New York City.
Saltarello - a fast two-step Italian dance whose name comes from jump. However, only expert dancers hop. The dancers are accompanied to the sound of the guitar, mandolin, tambourine or the drum.
Salterello - See Saltarello.
Saltones - traditional Asturian dance tunes (Spain).
Samba de Coco - a fusion between the Fulnio Indian culture of Brazil and African musical roots.
Samba Reggae - this style grew out of the blocos afros (Black carnival associations) in Bahia (Brazil).
Sangleik - Scandinavian song games.
Sema - the Whirling Dervish rite.
Semai - dance of the Alevis, also know as screaming dervishes.
Serranas - The Serranas is a Flamenco style with the same beat structure as the Siguiriyas, although less intense. Its themes revolve around the concerns of and about mountain bandits.
Sevillanas - a very popular dance which is typical of the province of Sevilla (Spain) and is derived from the seguidilla and the fandango. The sevillanas are danced by couples and consist of six couplets.
Sha'bi - indigenous Egyptian music. It is also spelled shaabi and chaabi in some cases.
Shoegaze - A term coined in the 1980s. It refers not to the sound of the music,
but on the onstage behavior of the musicians, particularly the guitarists. The
characteristic sound of shoegaze is one of electric guitars with numerous
effects (i.e. distortion, delays, reverb, compression et al.). The players are
typically fiddling with their effects pedals forcing the guitarists to look down
at their pedals. As a consequence, they are said to be "gazing at their shoes"
or "shoegazing". Thus the genre, shoegaze came to be in the 80's.
Description courtesy of Mark Dungey.
Siguiriyas - a Flamenco deep song style derived from tonás. They are full of drama and the number of variations is very high. They consist in a powerful wordless introduction followed by a four verse stanza.
Singsing - pop music from the Solomon Islands.
Soleares - a flamenco singing style of ternary beat, without rational continuity in its words, mainly formed by a quartet and a trio or solearilla de cierre, which is more agile and simple. Although, in some occasions, this finishing is best defined as a difficult culmination that requires particular voice qualities and a highly expressive emotion.
Soca - a musical style from Trinidad and Tobago. The name derives from so, from soul, and ca, from calypso. The bands usually feature a drummer, bass player, guitar and horns.
Soleariya - a flamenco soleá with three verses.
Son - means pleasant artistic sound in Spanish. The word son is used throughout the Spanish speaking world to designate various music styles. Some of the best known as son cubano (Cuba), son jarocho (Mexico).
Son cubano - one of the most important Cuban music styles. It is the result of combining Spanish and African influences. Cuba son originated in the province of Oriente and was played by small bands, using guitar or tres, maracas, güiro, claves, bongo, a marímbula and a botija.
Soneos - Improvised lyrics and melody sung during a Cuban montuno.
Songo - A popular musical style created in Cuba, featuring drum set and many new rhythms.
Soniou - light Breton songs of love and adventure (France).
Son jarocho - a style found in the Veracruz Gulf Coast region of Mexico. It is a blending of instrumental music traditions featuring Spanish and Afro-Caribbean influences, oral poetry and dance. The ensemble that plays this style of music usually consists of a harp, jarana (five string guitar), and requinto (small four string guitar).
Soukous - a Congolese musical style that grew out of 1950s Cuban rumba combined with the kwassa kwassa dance rhythm.
Stev - Norwegian short songs.
Suantraí - lullaby. One of three ancient types of Irish Celtic music.
Sufi - devotional Muslim music.
Sygyt - throat-singing style from Tuva.
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