By Veronica Salde Beily
You say Argentina…and any tourist would probably bring to his/her mind different icons that have made my country world famous.
Tango, football, and the beef among the most renowned things we Argentineans are famous for…maybe unconsciously the way we want to be known all over the world.
This time I’d like to talk about tango, the typical music from Argentina.

Tango developed around 1850 and 1880 along with the formation of dwelling conglomerates –conventillos- around the young city of Buenos Aires. At the beginning it had a bad reputation among the higher classes in Argentina as it was considered music for the poor. Those who lived in those typical conventillos, peasants from inland, European immigrants and porteños -locals from Buenos Aires- made up a new social class.
The “badoneon”- like a large accordion - was the first instrument through which tango started to be played.
The young of those times made tango their music and it began to be heard on bars. It was a particular melody ideally invented to be enjoyed and danced. Then, tango began to be played and heard almost in every corner of Buenos Aires, little by little it stopped being regarded as music of the lower classes.

Tango spread worldwide early in the 1900s when wealthy sons of the Argentine society families made their way to Europe to study and introduced this unique and original type of music into the high European society. Around 1920, the tango had become an international phenomenon in the most important world capitals: New York, London and Paris.

Most tango lyrics talk about the typical nostalgia experienced by immigrants of those times, the loneliness of the porteño, the lost love, the lack of luck and money among the most mentioned.
Tango started to call the attention of different sectors of society. Finally, as in every dance you can find the dancers. Tango dancers’ attitude is appealing; the twists and slides they make while dancing. Dancers never loose eye contact. They seduce each other at the same time they seduce the audience…but that’ll be another post.