Music from Ecuador

Ecuador’s musical landscape ranges from Indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian traditions to pasillo and contemporary popular song. These examples place the country’s signature pasillo tradition alongside performances by Ecuadorian singer-songwriter Juan Fernando Velasco.

The music of Ecuador has a long history. Pasillo is a genre of indigenous Latin music. It is extremely popular in Ecuador, where it is the "national genre of music." Pasillo as a genre is also present in the highland regions of Colombia, and Panama and Venezuela, to a lesser extent.
Today, it has incorporated more European features of classical dance, such as a waltz. As it spread during the Gran Chaco period, pasillo also absorbed the individual characteristics of isolated villages. This gives it an eclectic feel; however, the style, tone, and tempo of the music differ in each village. 

Overview adapted from Wikipedia’s “Music of Ecuador” article

Juan Fernando Velasco represents Ecuadorian popular song in a contemporary Latin pop setting.

“El Alma en los Labios” highlights pasillo, one of Ecuador’s best-known national musical traditions.

A second Juan Fernando Velasco performance shows the continuing place of romantic song in Ecuadorian popular music.

Music from East Timor

East Timor’s music brings together local Timorese traditions, Portuguese influence, and songs shaped by the country’s long independence struggle. The examples below move from contemporary song to traditional dance and a performance associated with the pivotal year of 1999.

East Timor's music reflects its history under the control of both Portugal and Indonesia, who have imported music like gamelan and fado. The most widespread form of native folk music was the likurai dance, performed by women to welcome home men after war. They used a small drum and sometimes carried enemy heads in processions through villages; a modern version of the dance is used by women incourtship.
In the modern era, East Timorese music has been closely associated with the independence movement; for example, the band Dili Allstars released a song that became an anthem in the build-up to thereferendum on independence in 2000, while the United Nations commissioned a song called "Hakotu Ba" (by Lahane) to encourage people to register to vote in the referendum.)

Overview adapted from Wikipedia’s “Music of East Timor” article

“Labarik,” a Tetum word meaning “child,” introduces the sound of contemporary Timorese song.

Tebe Liku Rai from Suai presents a traditional Timorese music-and-dance form.

Dili Allstars’ “Liberdade,” performed in Dili in 1999, connects music with East Timor’s independence era.

Music from the Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic’s musical identity is inseparable from merengue and bachata, but its artists also range across orchestral song, jazz, and rock. These examples connect established cultural figures with internationally known and contemporary performers.

The music of the Dominican Republic is known primarily for merengue, though bachata and other forms are also popular.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia’s “Music of the Dominican Republic” article.

This interpretation connects Dominican popular song with the work of composer Julio Alberto Hernández and singer Sonia Silvestre.

Juan Luis Guerra brought Dominican merengue and bachata to a worldwide audience.

Toque Profundo represents the Dominican Republic’s rock tradition alongside its better-known tropical styles.

Music from Dominica

Dominica’s music is central to the island’s cultural life, where Creole traditions helped shape both cadence-lypso and bouyon. These examples feature WCK, a pioneering bouyon band, and Exile One, the influential group associated with cadence-lypso.

The music of Dominica plays an important role in the social and culture life of the Antillean island of Dominica. The Nature island boasts of Cadence-lypso, a genre developed in Dominica and made popular in the French departments of Martinique and Guadeloupe. It spread through France and was very popular there during the 1970s. Cadence has influenced many other genres including zouk, bouyon (another Dominican creation) and even soca.
Today Dominica's music scene boasts of a variety of genres including all the popular genres of the world. Popular music is widespread, with a number of native Dominican performers gaining national fame in imported genres like calypso, reggae, soca, kompa, zouk and rock and roll. In addition, Dominica's own popular music industry has created a form called bouyon, which combines elements from several styles and has achieved a wide fanbase in Dominica, especially the group WCK (Windward Caribbean Kulture) and KKK (Triple k International). Native musicians in various forms, like reggae (Nasio Fontaine, Lazo), Brother Matthew Luke), soca (Derick St. Rose-De Hunter, Young Bull), zouk (Ophelia Marie, Michele Henderson), Cadence-Lypso (Exile One),(Grammacks) and calypso (The Wizzard), Levi "Super L" Loblack, have also become stars at home and abroad. Overview adapted from Wikipedia’s “Music of Dominica” article.

WCK represents bouyon, a modern Dominican style rooted in the island’s dance-music traditions.

Exile One helped establish cadence-lypso as one of Dominica’s most influential musical exports.