Flamenco (Intro, just from Wikipedia)

Flamenco is a genre of music, song and dance from the Spanish region of Andalusia, noted for its energetic, staccato style. It grew fromAndalusian music, song and dance styles and the song and dance of the local Romani people.

Its origins are in Andalucía in the XVIII cnetury. It is controversial the precisa starting, but it seems clear that it aroused as a fortunate mixture of four cultural traditions: Gipsy, Muslim, Cristian and Jew.

The cante (singing), toque (guitar playing), dance and palmas (handclaps) are the principal facets of flamenco.
In recent years flamenco has become popular all over the world and is taught in many countries; in Japan flamenco is so popular there are more academies there than in Spain. On November 16, 2010, UNESCO declared Flamenco one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
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Flamenco music styles are called palos (liteally would be "sticks"). Songs are classified into palos based on criteria such as basic rhythmic pattern, mode, chord progression, form of the stanza, and geographic origin. There are over 50 different palos flamenco, although some are rarely performed. For a complete explanation, see the main Wikipedia entry on Palo (flamenco).

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Source: wikipedia (in English) with small aditions from the Spanish version.