ABSTRACT

Cuarteto, also called música cuartetera ‘quartet music’, is a pop or dance music from Córdoba, Argentina. Long considered to be low-class music by many Argentines, it is a mass, working-class phenomenon; almost twenty thousand people dance to it every weekend in the city of Córdoba alone, and thousands more dance to it in the province of Córdoba and in neighboring provinces. Upper-class elitists, who look down on it, often hypocritically use it to liven up their own private parties. Weekend dances in the city of Córdoba are most commonly held at large athletic clubs, with an average of fifteen hundred to three thousand people in attendance per evening, whereas dances held on weeknights take place in smaller locales, which hold about eight hundred people. Other common sites, especially outside Córdoba, are gymnasiums, schools, outdoor athletic fields, and renovated movie theaters. Dances, which last four hours, normally run from 12:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. on weekends.