If you were someone from outside of Latin America that had no real knowledge about the reason, you'd think that Brazilians love salsa music.
And it's true!
If you come to Brazil, you will hear salsa everywhere you go.
Go to the carnival in Rio de Janeiro to know what I'm talking about!
Here's a video.
And, as you can see and hear, plenty of salsa music in that video!
I remember one time I was in Brazil and I met a beautiful young model that told me "baby! I love Americans! They have bigger dicks than any Brazilian man! And they're so handsome and rich and tall and are the best men in the world!"
She then invited me into her home where her family was.
All the aunts and uncles and grandparents and everyone else.
They asked me "what music you like, gringo?"
And, me being a dumb and ignorant American, I assumed that they must like samba or bossa nova.
This is Brazil, right?
Then the aunt smacked me in the face and said "no, gringo! In Brazil we party with the salsa music because we are Latin!"
Then the most famous Brazilian salsa band ever -- Grupo Niche -- came out of the bathroom and began playing live music for us.
And we all began dancing.
Eating good tacos and pupusas.
Typical Brazilian food.
Even enjoying some classic Brazilian wine such as Malbec.
With other Brazilian drinks like pulque for everyone to enjoy.
There was a TV playing in the room showing some of Brazil's best football stars playing in the last World Cup.
Players such as Messi for example.
And there were even some Frida Kahlo paintings in the room.
One of Brazil's finest painters.
With, as I said, some of the best Brazilian salsa music playing.
....Brazilian salsa music?
The Anger at Brazilian Salsa
For anyone actually familiar with Latin America, you might've guessed that such a party didn't happen.
Frida Kahlo is Mexican.
Tacos and pulque are Mexican.
Pupusas are from El Salvador.
Messi and Malbec are from Argentina.
Grupo Niche is Colombian.
And salsa is not Brazilian.
Having said that, you would be surprised though at the amount of people who associate Brazil with salsa music.
Or some other type of Latin music such as cumbia, merengue, etc.
Of course, that isn't to say that some Brazilians don't listen to any of this music.
I'm not even Latin American and I listen to it.
In the same way that, when I was in Brazil one time, I did hear reggaeton playing in some bars or nightclubs of São Paulo years ago.
But, like I said, I'm under no confusion that music like salsa is actually Brazilian.
It's still a misconception though with strangers on the internet asking if Brazilians like salsa such as you can see here.
And, more importantly, it's easy to understand why people get confused about this when you have no shortage of examples online of salsa or other types of Latin music being played over content that has something to do with Brazil.
Here are some examples I found online quickly so you all can see what I mean.
In the first case, it happens to be some gamer dude that I found from someone sharing it on a "expats in Brazil" page recently to bitch about salsa music.
And where this dude is playing music that has nothing to do with Brazil while the video being in part about Brazil.
Then the other two videos being about these Brazilian women that are dating an American dude and they play Latin American music that again has nothing to do with Brazil.
At least with the gamer dude, it's kinda understandable. Maybe he was just ignorant or whatever about it.
Perhaps he wasn't able to find some Brazilian music that wasn't copyrighted that he could play.
With the two videos though of the Brazilian women, it makes less sense.
You'd think a company worth millions of dollars could do enough research as to what music Brazilians like to then play for the video.
Maybe something like this here.
Mas que Nada -- Sergio Mendes
Sounds sexy enough, doesn't it?
Because, at least for those two women, you'd think that is part of what they are doing, right?
If we're going to play a clip of some sexy Brazilian women, we need music that works well for that.
Which at least adds some logic to the whole thing about playing salsa.
But I'm sure we could find something that kinda works for Brazil.
Something that sounds "exotic" for lack of a better term.
But, for whatever reason, it just doesn't happen.
Content creators from outside of Latin America seem to consistently play salsa music or whatever type of Latin music when Brazil is mentioned.
Especially American content creators more than anything.
Some might say that it's because Americans are more ignorant.
I'm not disagreeing that we have plenty of ignorant people but there's no shortage of ignorance in people of other countries that I've met and I've been to 30 countries as of this writing.
In the same way I've met plenty of Latin Americans who are just as ignorant as some of the people they bitch about in the US but nobody cares about ignorant Latin Americans or ignorant German people or ignorant people of most countries because nobody cares about their countries as much and it's not as edgy to shit on them to feel better about yourself in the same it is about Americans.
And it's also more suitable for low IQ people to just ride pre-established talking points that they heard elsewhere but don't question much in the same way that people might associate salsa with Brazil because they've seen too many clips of Brazil being shown with salsa music in the background.
On top of that, I honestly think that part of the reason for why Americans are more likely to play the music (including salsa) is because American content creators (be it professional shows or anything independent) are just more likely to play music or sound effects more excessively that are meant to tell you how to feel with the scene you are watching.
Outside of anything Latin American, you can see just that in Kitchen Nightmares when comparing the American to the British version as you can see here.
One involves dramatic sound effects and an angry Gordan that has to scream at everyone like a drunk sailor and the other involves a calm Gordan who dishes out tough advice but isn't coming across like he's about to chop your body up and throw it into a pool of acid.
In the end, Americans love their drama and, as it relates to this article, they seemingly prefer having the right music with the scene to dictate how you should feel when watching it (even if the people choosing the music are too ignorant to know what music to play).
Which isn't to say you can't find elements of either in media production of other countries but that I think it's true that Americans tend to do that more excessively.
Anything to Add?
Anyway, that's all I got to say.
Sometimes you'll find Brazilians getting mad online when their country is associated with salsa or cumbia music.
I get it.
I also wonder how much of this is just "one of those internet topics" that people discuss online but you don't see as much anger in real life.
Would a Brazilian really act like an autistic cunt if he encountered an American who said something like "I love Brazilian music! Salsa is so great!"
Eh, depends on the person, doesn't it?
Like in any country, you'll have people who overreact for reasons and others who can respond appropriately without being an ass.
Above all though, I guess nothing more than this is just a PSA for those who don't know that salsa isn't Brazilian music.
If you got anything to add though, drop a comment below.
And follow my Twitter here.
Thanks for reading.
Best regards,
Matt