If I were going to rearrange a popular rock song into a jazz song, I would use jazz-appropriate rhythms and more complex chords (7ths, 9ths, add 13, add flat 9, etc.) in order to make it sound like a traditional jazz song. In this way, lyrics may be another way to recognize a song as being in the tango genre.Īnd to answer your side question, rearranging a song in any genre is simply using the musical elements from that genre to alter the original melody. The Harvard Dictionary of Music also says that originally the songs were often about urban or social issues, originating in urban areas of Argentina. I recognize that tango music is usually just associated with dancing, but there is also a common lyrical thread. However, simple repeating syncopated rhythms (8th-dotted, 16th, 8th, 8th) are very commonly heard. As Tango progresses throughout the musical time periods, the syncopation becomes more and more complex. Most often seen written in 2/4, it is characterized by being in a duple meter (2/4 or 4/4 commonly).
The musical element that really sets tango apart from other song types is syncopation. This structure is very important to early and modern tango styles. The Harvard Dictionary of Music defines the tango as being a song in two equal repeating sections the first section being in one key and the second being in either the key of the dominant or relative minor of the original key. Klezmer and Fado come to my mind, but Gothic / Metal musicians do tip their toes as well. To more knowledgable people than me, it may be a helpful hint that there are particular genres that are "close" to Tango, in that composers and performers from those genres regularly cross over into Tango, or fuse the styles. Modern Electro-Tango music uses a lot of synthetic base drums, where traditional Argentinian Tango doesn't have percussion at all. And while there's instruments that are traditionally used in Tango music (bandoneon and violin), there's plenty of songs that don't use them (there's many classic recordings from the 1930s with just guitar and vocals). Wikipedia tells us that Tango is set in 2/4 or 4/8 time, but that is true for other genres, too. Astor Piazzolla and Osvaldo Pugliese tend to fall into this category. Also, there's famous and popular Tango pieces that are not very popular to dance to. As a Tango dancer, I can confirm that this song is quite "tangoable", but I'm pretty sure it's not actually part of the Tango genre.
At Milongas (Tango dance events), the DJs sometimes play non-tango music, a good example being "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica. Note that I don't mean "suitable for dancing Tango to".
I also have heard musicians refer to songs being "rearranged" as a Tango, and I wonder what that means. Songs that to me seem to have some Tango in it include: