The Tango is believed to have begun in the mid 1800s. The "Toma maté, ché," composed and published in 1857, was the first music referred to as Tango music. Though there are records of couples dancing the Tango in Buenos Aires in 1890, it is believed that many were dancing this new style in brothels years earlier. The dance was used as entertainment for those waiting in the brothels. Around 1900, a surge of European immigrants, specifically from Naples, Italy, had a profound impact on the Tango. Their style of violin music was more lyrical than the existing Tango music, which affected both the music and the dance of the Tango, giving it a melodic aspect.
The year 1913 is known as the year of the Tango. During the next few years, the Tango overtook Europe from Paris to London and became the popular and hip dance of the age. Although many disapproved of the new style, the mainstream media took hold and its popularity rose. In 1916 La Cumparsita, the most well-known Tango of all time, was written by Roberto Firpo, a pianist and the leader of a popular Tango band. Firpo, who also created the classic Tango sextet, which consisted of two bandoneones, two violins, piano and double bass, was inspired through a march created by Uruguayan Gerardo Mattos Rodriguez. With this inspiration, he rearranged and transformed the music into the La Cumparsita. This piece has become to many the symbol of the Tango, and it is played by most Tango orchestras.
The dance even impacted the fashion of the age, making popular tulip skirts, which opened at the front and thus were easier to dance in. Corsets and hooped skirts, the previous fashion, were not so easily maneuverable and fell out of favor. Tango stockings, shoes and hats also exploded onto the scene. The feather in women's hats was moved from horizontal, brushing across the face, to vertical, straight up from the forehead, where it would not be in her partner's face.
The decade that followed 1935 became known as the Golden Age of Tango because of the creativity that flowed through the dance. It was this era that the dance evolved into the fusion of sensuality, sexuality and a battle for power or control that it is famous for today. In 1945 the dance and the music became less joined and more separate entities. In the 1950s came another revolution of the dance with the blending of traditional Tango with classical and jazz influences by bandoneonista Astor Piazzolla. This new twist to the Tango caused outrage in some, but ultimately led to looser and freer rhythms that appealed to many musicians and dancers.
In the 1980s, the Tango experienced yet another rebirth with the premier of the TV show Tango Argentino among other Tango-oriented programs, as well as a 24-hour Tango radio station, FM Tango and the re-release of many classic Tango arrangements on cassette and later CD. The revival of the dancing of the Tango was imminent as well.