Music of Puerto Rico centers. After the island was taken over by Spain, the music and dance of Puerto Rico consisted of a combination of the harmonious musical styles that are borrowed from Spanish, African, and other European cultures, creating Puerto Rico's signature style of Latin dance. Salsa is a Spanish word that means sauce. It refers to the mixture of different rhythms composed of different Latin, African and Caribbean dances. Salsa is said to be first created around the 1960s and became popular to the non-Latino world drastically. The salsa dance is similar to the mambo dance. Salsa dancing is structured in six
Salsa music string section of violins, viola, and cello. The claves and güiro are played by the singers. Bongos are not typically used in charanga bands. Típica 73 and Orquesta Broadway were two popular New York salsa bands in the charanga format. New York based Machito's Afro-Cubans was the first band to make the triumvirate of congas, bongo, and timbales the standard battery of percussion in Cuban-based dance music. The three drums are used together in most salsa bands and function in ways similar to a traditional folkloric drum ensemble. The timbales play the bell pattern, the congas play the supportive drum