HIST390

Digital Scavenger Hunt

I chose to do research on boogaloo because I had never heard of this genre before. Once I listened to it reminded me of salsa; they sound familiar, but boogaloo sounds jumpier. Boogaloo is a genre of Latin music and dance which was popular in the United States in the 1960s. It originated in New York City mainly among teenage Latinos and is categorized as soul, rhythm and blues, mambo, son Cubano. Some of the instruments used to create this rhythm are the piano, congas, trumpet, trombone, bass guitar, double bass, electric guitar, bongos, saxophone, güiro, and timbales. I searched it on Google Ngram Viewer and the term was indeed first used in the 1960s. Its highest peak was in the 1970s then decreased in the 1980s and gained its popularity again in 1985, of course losing its popularity as the time passed by and new music was created. One famous boogaloo song is I like it like that by Pete Rodriguez. I found this interesting as today’s top artist Cardi B, remade this song more “modern” but still use its chorus.  This is a perfect example of how music from the past influences todays music.

One of the early references I found was New York Amsterdam News (1962-1993); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]18 June 1966: 22. Boogaloo Spectacular at Apollo in 1966, but it had details about a show that included fashion show with the latest Boogaloo clothes and The Reuben Orchestra which was playing the “modern” Boogaloo hits. Another article from the same newspaper I found was the Vest Pocket Boogaloo Party. A lot of the articles I found were mostly party flyers and not much of back history.