Music of Puerto Rico
One of the most notable exports of Puerto Rico is its music, which is probably the most listened-Caribbean music in the United States.

Some of the instruments used in the traditional music of Puerto Rico originated with the Taino people. The most prominent instruments are the güicharo or guiro, a hollowed out gourd, which was an adaptation of pre-Columbian times. The musical traditions of the Spanish and Africans can also be heard in the music of Puerto Rico. At least four different instruments were adapted from the six-string Spanish classical guitar: the fife, the bordonúa, four, and triples, each of which produces a unique sound. The most popular of them, and for the greatest number of adaptations and compositions have been written, is the cuatro, an instrument like a guitar with 10 strings (arranged in five different pairs). The name (translated as “the room”) is derived from the earlier instrument with four (or four pairs of) strings, but to late 19th century, around 1875, it was customary to do so with five pairs of strings as we know it day. Usually carved from solid blocks of laurel wood and known resonances and releases different from those produced by his Spanish counterpart, these baroque instruments had a graceful body has been revered for decades as the national instrument of Puerto Rico.

Also prevalent in the island percussion instruments such as drums (hollow trunks of trees covered with animal skin stretched-out), maracas (gourds filled with stones or dried beans and mounted on the handles), and a variety of drums whose original designs were brought from Africa by slaves on the island. All these instruments contribute to the rich variety of popular music with roots in the cultural melting pot traditions of Spanish, African, and Taino on the island.