The history of tango is the history of Argentina and the many ethnologies that contribute to its unique and rich cultural landscape. Immigrants from different European countries and African slaves congregated in the ports, the tenement houses and the bordellos of Buenos Aires and from here, the merging of their different cultures and backgrounds introduced the dance that would make Argentina world famous.

Africans, Spanish, British, Polish, and Italians who entertained themselves at night by soulfully singing and dancing along to street buskers, or similar musicians employed at the brothels, contributed some steps and accents to the dance that is tango, which evolved from a solo dance to couple dancing with improvised, sometimes "surprise" movements. With the shortage of women in Argentina, compared to the leagues of male immigrants that arrived in Buenos Aires at the end of the 19th century, competition for the companionship of prostitutes forced the men to learn the tango. Knowing how to dance this sensuous dance allowed men more female contact. So even if a gaucho could not afford to pay for time with a prostitute, he could much better afford time with a milonguera, or a dancer-for-hire.

According to the history of tango, the word 'tango' was derived from combining the name of an African god with 'tambor,' which means 'drum' in Spanish. Other sources say that on board ships, Africans misheard the Portuguese refer to sensual couple dancing as tango, when they could have actually said, "tanguere" or "to touch." In Spain, the Tango Andaluza was becoming popular and the Spanish immigrants could have attested to the similarities of their tango and this new dance and musical form in Argentina.

Tango music is performed by a trio composed of a harp, a violin and a flute. An accordion, and later the bandoneon, was also used, when available. The music used to be a continuous flow of sound until the dance began to require abrupt, yet exciting stops in the music now and then. Later, these groups would grow in number, currently eleven in a group is the standard, and be called orchestras. Very little percussion was used for tango music, and none of the early tango songs had drums or percussions in them. Singers were always present, singing usually songs of homesickness and lamentation, although there are a lot of lyrics for tango music that are quite obnoxious and arrogant as well.

Roberto Firpo is an important musician in the history of tango, as he was the one responsible for building up the tango music trio into larger groups. He also wrote several memorable tangos, as well as introduced the now legendary "La Cumparsita."

As tango became more acceptable to native Argentinians, Carlos Gardel skyrocketed to fame as one of the most memorable singers in the history of tango. He is so popular as the people's tango singer, that truckloads of flowers are dedicated to his grave on the anniversary of his death, similar to the mania given to such special personages as Elvis Presley.

The man responsible for reinstating the tango's popularity all over the world is Astor Piazzolla, a bandoneonist who merged tango with jazz to produce Nuevo Tango, which revived the world's interest in tango and rejuvenated Argentinian passion for their favorite dance form.