The tango, a typically Argentinian genre, belongs to the family of folk music forms mainly originating in urban underclasses from the late 19th and early 20th century onwards whose characteristic dances, originally considered too lewd for acceptance by polite society, have advanced to worldwide acceptance and popularity and whose songs tell of solitude and desperation – due to social and racial discrimination – frustrated love and longing. The group includes, in addition to the tango, the American blues, the Greek rebetiko, the Portuguese fado and the Spanish flamenco. Their historic roots are of course different but their inspiration has many similarities. Some extracts from Wikipedia give a brief account of their origins: