I was never much of a Weezer fan, but I heard "Island in the Sun" a little while ago and fell in love with it. It's very happy yet dreamy. But when I think of some tropical island, I don't think of an alternative band playing on the beach. I think of dudes with colorful shirts and outrageous accents performing. So I figured it would be good to play it Latin style. This was my first Latin style musical arrangement. I also added a few photos from my travels to islands in the sun, for some imagery :)
A cha-cha, originally a Cuban style, seemed to fit well (even though it's a rather old-school genre). In American pop/rock music, all the emphasis is on the beat (1-2-3-4). But in cha-cha (as in other Latin music), not all instruments play on the beat. First you break up a measure into 8 sub-beats (1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and). Then, you have each instrument play notes only on certain sub-beats, and you spread it across all 8. The result of this "syncopation" is that each instrument has its own mini-spotlight in each measure. For example, in the chorus, the melody played by the horns ends right as the "cha cha cha" of the congas begins. And at the final beat of the "cha cha cha," the chorus begins again. A great foil!
Cha-cha is fun to dance to as well (even though I'm not very good at it hehe). The syncopation is cool. When you dance cha-cha, your first step is actually on the 2nd sub-beat ("1-and"). The signature "cha cha cha" shuffle step happens on "4-and-1" - so the last step of the dance is the first beat of the measure. This counterbalance between music and dance is really dynamic.
Sorry if I got too technical. Enjoy! :)
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