Entertainment and performing arts
In addition to such annual festivals like Calle Ocho Festival and
Carnaval Miami, Miami is home to many entertainment venues, theaters,
museums, parks and performing arts centers. The newest addition to the
Miami arts scene is the
Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, the second-largest performing arts center in the United States after the
Lincoln Center in New York City, and is the home of the
Florida Grand Opera.
Within it are the Ziff Ballet Opera House, the center's largest venue,
the Knight Concert Hall, the Carnival Studio Theater and the Peacock
Rehearsal Studio. The center attracts many large-scale operas, ballets,
concerts, and musicals from around the world and is Florida's grandest
performing arts center. Other performing arts venues in Miami include
the
Gusman Center for the Performing Arts,
Coconut Grove Playhouse, Colony Theatre, Lincoln Theatre,
New World Center, Actor's Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre,
Jackie Gleason Theatre,
Manuel Artime Theater,
Ring Theatre, Playground Theatre,
Wertheim Performing Arts Center, the
Fair Expo Center and the
Bayfront Park Amphitheater for outdoor music events.
The city attracts a large number of musicians, singers, actors,
dancers, and orchestral players. Miami has numerous orchestras,
symphonies and performing art conservatories. Some of these include the
Florida Grand Opera, FIU School of Music,
Frost School of Music,
Miami City Ballet,
Miami Conservatory,
Miami Wind Symphony,
New World School of the Arts,
New World Symphony Orchestra, as well as the music, theater and art schools of the city's many universities and schools.
Miami is also a major fashion center, home to models and some of the
top modeling agencies in the world. Miami is also host to many fashion
shows and events, including the annual
Miami Fashion Week and the
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Miami held in the
Wynwood Art District.
[88]
Museums and art
The city is home to numerous museums as well, many of which are in
Downtown. These include the
Frost Art Museum,
HistoryMiami,
Miami Art Museum,
Miami Children's Museum,
Miami Science Museum,
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, and the Miami-Dade Cultural Center, home of the
Miami Main Library. Miami is also the home of the world's largest art exhibition, dubbed the "Olympics of Art",
Art Basel Miami. The event is held annually in December, and attracts thousands of visitors from around the world.
Music
The city is a major music production city and attracts many annual music festivals, such as
Ultra Music Festival
Miami music is varied.
Cubans brought the
conga[89] and
rumba, while
Haitians and the rest of the
French West Indies have brought
kompa and
zouk to Miami from their homelands instantly popularizing them in
American culture.
Dominicans brought
bachata, and
merengue, while
Colombians brought
vallenato and
cumbia, and Brazilians brought
samba.
West Indians and
Caribbean people have brought,
reggae,
soca,
calypso, and
steel pan to the area as well.
[90]
In the early 1970s, the Miami
disco sound came to life with
TK Records,
[91] featuring the music of
KC and the Sunshine Band, with such hits as "Get Down Tonight", "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty" and "That's the Way (I Like It)";
[92] and the Latin-American disco group,
Foxy (band), with their hit singles "Get Off" and "Hot Number".
[93] Miami-area natives
George McCrae[94] and
Teri DeSario[95] were also popular music artists during the 1970s disco era. The
Bee Gees moved to Miami in 1975 and have lived here ever since then.
[96] Miami-influenced,
Gloria Estefan and the
Miami Sound Machine, hit the popular music scene with their Cuban-oriented sound and had hits in the 1980s with "Conga" and "Bad Boys".
[97]
Miami is also considered a "hot spot" for
dance music,
[98][99] Freestyle, a style of dance music popular in the 1980s and 90s was heavily influenced by
Electro, hip-hop, and disco.
[100] Many popular Freestyle acts such as Pretty Tony,
Debbie Deb,
[101] Stevie B,
[102] and
Exposé,
[103] originated in Miami.
Indie/
folk acts
Cat Power and
Iron & Wine are based in the city,
[104] while
alternative hip hop artist
Sage Francis,
electro artist
Uffie, and the
electroclash duo
Avenue D were born in Miami, but musically based elsewhere. Also,
ska punk band
Against All Authority is from Miami, and rock/
metal bands
Nonpoint and
Marilyn Manson each formed in neighboring
Fort Lauderdale.
[105][106] Cuban American female recording artist,
Ana Cristina, was born in Miami in 1985.
[107]
The 1980s and '90s also brought the genre of high energy
Miami Bass to dance floors and car subwoofers throughout the country.
[108] Miami Bass spawned artists like 2 Live Crew (featuring Uncle Luke),
[108] 95 South,
[109] Tag Team,
[110] 69 Boyz,
[111]
Quad City DJ's, and Freak Nasty. Examples of these songs are "Whoomp!
(There It Is)" by Tag Team in 1993, "Tootsee Roll" by 69 Boyz in 1994,
and "C'mon N' Ride It (The Train)" by the Quad City DJ's in 1996.
[112]
This was also a period of alternatives to nightclubs, the warehouse party,
acid house,
rave and outdoor festival scenes of the late 1980s and early 1990s were havens for the latest trends in
electronic dance music,
[113] especially house and its ever-more hypnotic, synthetic offspring
techno and
trance, in clubs like the infamous
Warsaw Ballroom better known as
Warsaw and
The Mix where DJs like
David Padilla
(who was the resident DJ for both) and radio. The new sound fed back
into mainstream clubs across the country. The scene in SoBe, along with a
bustling secondhand market for electronic instruments and turntables,
had a strong democratizing effect, offering amateur, "bedroom" DJs the
opportunity to become proficient and popular as both music players and
producers, regardless of the whims of the professional music and club
industries. Some of these notable DJs are John Benetiz (better known as
JellyBean Benetiz),
Danny Tenaglia, and
David Padilla.
[114]
Miami is also home to a vibrant techno and dance scene and hosts the
Winter Music Conference, the largest dance event in the world,
Ultra Music Festival and many
electronica music-themed celebrations and festivals.
There are also several
rap and
hip hop artists out of Miami. They include
Trick Daddy,
Trina,
Pitbull,
Pretty Ricky, and the Miami Bass group
2 Live Crew.
Cuisine
A
cortadito
is a popular espresso beverage found in cafeterias around Miami. It is
particularly popular for breakfast or in the afternoon with a
pastelito.
The cuisine of Miami is a reflection of its diverse population, with a heavy influence especially from
Caribbean cuisine and from
Latin American cuisine. By combining the two with
American cuisine, it has spawned a unique South Florida style of cooking known as
Floribbean cuisine. Floribbean cuisine is widely available throughout Miami and South Florida, and can be found in restaurant chains such as
Pollo Tropical.
Cuban immigrants in the 1960s brought the
Cuban sandwich,
medianoche,
Cuban espresso, and
croquetas,
all of which have grown in popularity to all Miamians, and have become
symbols of the city's varied cuisine. Today, these are part of the local
culture, and can be found throughout the city in window cafés,
particularly outside of supermarkets and restaurants.
[115][116] Restaurants such as
Versailles restaurant in
Little Havana are landmark eateries of Miami. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, and with a long history as a
seaport, Miami is also known for its seafood, with many seafood restaurants located along the
Miami River, and in and around
Biscayne Bay.
[117] Miami is also the home of restaurant chains such as
Burger King,
Tony Roma's and
Benihana.
Dialect
The Miami area has a unique dialect, (commonly called the "Miami
accent") which is widely spoken. The dialect developed among second- or
third-generation
Hispanics, including
Cuban-Americans, whose first language was English (though some
non-Hispanic white,
black, and
other races who were born and raised the Miami area tend to adopt it as well.)
[118] It is based on a fairly
standard American accent but with some changes very similar to dialects in the
Mid-Atlantic (especially the
New York area dialect,
Northern New Jersey English, and
New York Latino English.) Unlike
Virginia Piedmont, Coastal Southern American, and Northeast American dialects and Florida Cracker dialect (see section below), "Miami accent" is
rhotic; it also incorporates a rhythm and pronunciation heavily influenced by Spanish (wherein rhythm is
syllable-timed).
[119] However, this is a native dialect of English, not learner English or
interlanguage; it is possible to differentiate this variety from an
interlanguage spoken by second-language speakers in that "Miami accent" does
not generally display the following features: there is no
addition of
/ɛ/ before initial consonant clusters with
/s/, speakers do not confuse of
/dʒ/ with
/j/, (e.g.,
Yale with
jail), and /r/ and /rr/ are pronounced as
alveolar approximant [ɹ] instead of
alveolar tap [
ɾ] or
alveolar trill [r] in Spanish.
[120][121][122][123]
In popular culture
View of the
"Moon over Miami", a famous phrase that has inspired many pop culture items, including a
movie,
TV series, and
song.
The video game
Scarface: The World Is Yours takes place in Miami. The game is based on and is a quasi-
sequel to the 1983
motion picture Scarface starring
Al Pacino reprising his role as
Tony Montana, with
André Sogliuzzo
providing Montana's voice. The game begins in the film's final scene,
with Tony Montana's mansion being raided by Alejandro Sosa's (
Robert Davi) assassins.
[124]
