Think of one song or genre your family plays at home. Where did it come from? What city, neighborhood, or country birthed that sound? Write 1–2 sentences in your notebook. Be ready to share.
What does music tell you about the place and people who made it?
I can identify how salsa music – born in the barrios of New York City and the Bronx – became a form of social commentary about identity, migration, and community pride.
For 10 weeks we’ve studied music as social commentary – protest songs, "This Is America," your own lyrics, group singing. Today we close the marking period with the music YOUR borough invented. Salsa wasn’t just a dance – it was Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Dominicans in NYC barrios saying who they were, where they came from, and that they were not going anywhere. The Bronx is in this music. Watch and listen for how.
Listen for the clave (the 3–2 pattern we learned this week), congas, timbales, piano montunos, brass section, and Spanish lead vocals.
Watch for NYC barrios – East Harlem ("El Barrio"), the South Bronx, Spanish Harlem. This is where salsa was born – on these blocks.
Listen for what the artists are saying: pride in being Boricua, struggle in the barrio, the immigrant experience, identity, joy, defiance.
The exit ticket at the end of class asks you to identify all three. Watch closely. No notes required – just pay attention.
As you watch, ask: WHY did salsa become so important to Puerto Ricans and Cubans in the Bronx and East Harlem in the 1970s? What was happening in those neighborhoods?
Name two NYC neighborhoods where salsa music was born, and two communities of people who made it.
Sentence starter: "Salsa was born in __________ and __________. The people who made it included __________ and __________."
1 pt = Two correct neighborhoods • 1 pt = Two correct communities
Name one instrument you saw in the documentary and describe what it added to the sound. (Possible answers: clave, congas, timbales, piano, trombone, bongos, cowbell, lead vocal.)
Sentence starter: "I noticed the __________. It made the music sound __________."
1 pt = Names a real instrument from the doc • 1 pt = Specific description of its effect
How was salsa a form of social commentary? What were the artists saying through this music that words alone could not?
Sentence starter: "Salsa was social commentary because __________. Through the music, the artists were saying __________."
1 pt = Names what they were saying • 1 pt = Reason rooted in the doc • 1 pt = Specific evidence
Compare salsa to one other artist or movement we studied in Unit 5 (e.g., protest music, "This Is America," Lift Every Voice and Sing). What is similar? What is different?
Sentence starter: "Salsa is similar to __________ because __________. It is different because __________."
1 pt = Names a Unit 5 artist/movement • 1 pt = One similarity • 1 pt = One difference