Latin American music includes the music of many countries and comes in many varieties, from the simple, rural conjunto music of northern Mexico to the sophisticated habanera of Cuba, from the symphonies of Heitor Villa-Lobos to the simple and moving Andean flute. Music has played an important part in Latin America's turbulent recent history, for example the nueva canción movement. Latin music is very diverse, with the only truly unifying thread being the use of the Spanish language, or the Portuguese language, in Brazil.

Latin America can be divided into several musical areas:

- Andean music includes the countries of western South America, typically Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile and Venezuela

- Central American music includes El Salvador, Belize, Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica

- Caribbean music includes many Spanish and French-speaking islands in the Caribbean Sea, including Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Martinique and Guadeloupe (although the Francophone islands are often not considered Latin)

- Brazil constitutes its own musical area, both because of its large size and incredible diversity as well as its unique history as a Portuguese colony.

Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American music strongly cross-fertilised each other, but Latin music also absorbed influences from English and American music, and particularly, African music.