A discussion of Latin music

Borgman, D. (1999). A discussion of Latin music. S. Hamilton, MA: Center for Youth Studies.

OVERVIEW

After the era of Grunge and an intermission, the 1990s gave way to a Latin craze. It spread from the Latino community to dancing among club and college crowds. Ricky Martin’s smile and dynamism took young girls and fans of all ages by storm. Martin’s bilingual "Livin’ La Vida Loca" caught the cross-cultural style of the Latin movement. Actress Jennifer Lopez brought pop soul and dance together with her debut "On the Six." Vocalist Marc Anthony is perhaps most artistic of the new leaders of Latin music. Others include: Enrique Iglesias (son of Julio), and Shakira (protégé of Gloria and Emelio Estefan).

Time Magazine’s Christopher John Farley describes this wave of popularity (1999, May 24, p. 76):

With Hispanics poised to become America’s largest minority group within the next few years, this music could be the sound of your future. Latin-tinged pop is blowing up because it fits the musical times: it has a bit of the street edge of hip-hop (Lopez worked with rapper Sean "Puffy" Combs), some of the bouncy joy of dance-pop (Martin is hunker than all the Backstreet Boys put together) and the fizzy fresh feel of that ever sought-for thing in modern pop, the Next Big Thing.

Latinos comprised about 7% of the U.S. population in 1980, are estimated at 13% in 2000, and near 17% of the population in 2020. Their buying power has gone from just over $100 billion in 1980, to close to $13 billion in 2000, and more than $500 billion in 2020. Just between 1997 and 1998, music sales of Latin music increased from $490.6 to $570.9.

Speaking for his wife and "cross-over trailblazer," Gloria Estefan, husband and manager Emilio Estefan says:

None of this (Latin craze) could have happened 15 years ago. Gloria and I went through the hardest part. A dozen years ago, a label through me out when I tried to use congas on a recording. They said, "Get rid of that, and take out the horns and the timbales too." Now people are buying (that kind of music). The younger generation is now reacting to Latin music. (ibid., 76)

It has indeed been a difficult endeavor for Latin music to reach the top. In the 1930s Xavier Cugat was known as the "King of the Rumba." His "La Cucaracha" (the Cockroach) was a popular breakthrough song. Brought up in Spanish Harlem and trained musically at famed Julliard School of Music, Tito Puente fronted his Latin jazz band and performed songs like "Abaniquito" in the late 1940s. Before being killed in a plane crash at the age of 17, Ritchie Valens, brought "La Bamba’ to the charts. It transformed a traditional Mexican wedding song into emerging rock ‘n’ roll. Carlos Santana’s "Evil Ways" reached the top of the charts in 1969. Crooner Julio Iglesias was a superstar in the 1970s remembered for "To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before" (1984). Cuban-born Gloria Estefan’s Miami Sound Machine combined salsa, pop and jazz in songs like "Conga" (1985). Teenage frenzy drew intense loyalty to the fans of the loved "queen of Tejano music" as she sang "Dreaming of You" in 1995. Unfortunately she only drew Anglo fans on a wide scale after her untimely death.

The Latin craze seemed to be at a peak in 1999. Its summer frenzy was set off by a prolonged presentation of Puerto Rican Ricky Martin on the Today Show as he rocked for millions of fans on New York Streets.

Lesser known but popular stars are the Puertorican New Yorker, Elvis Crespo, with his combined merengue and dance beats; the Buena Vista Social Club bringing together guitarist Ry Cooder with old, retired or unemployed Cuban musicians; and The Latin Playboys, whom the Globe’s Joan Anderman describes as "an ambient/spoken word/Mexican folk-rock offshoot of Los Lobos."

If much Latin music leans toward lite pop or easy-listening jazz (all of which are danceable), there are rowdier Latin rockers. Bloque and their recent concert are described as follows (Anderman, J. [1999, june 29]. Rowdy rock of bloque takes latin craze to the edge. The Boston Globe, p. E3):

Has the Latin craze forgotten the audience that prefers its music loud, late-night, and a whole lot edgier than what’s offered by either the mainstream megastars or the revivalists who target an older, academically inclined listener? Enter Bloque, an eight-piece band from Colombia that hot-wires tropical rhythms, Latin folk, aggressive funk, and classic rock into a sound that’s as hard as it is exotic, as modern as it is deeply traditional.

‘I sometimes say our music is like cannibal music, because we ate everything,’ said lead vocalist and songwriter Ivan Benavides earlier this year...the band’s hour-long set-featuring music from its self-titled debut CD-was saturated with the supremely twisted collision of squalling guitar and airy gaitas, a Colombian flute. Timbales, congas, and drums erupted in churning rhythms while the shaved-head, charismatic Benavides spewed politically charged, Spanish-language punk poetry about his government, his heartaches, and his broken-down bathroom.

This burgeoning genre is loosely referred to as rock en Espanol—it makes you want to simultaneously swivel your hips and bang your head. Bloque skewers salsa with feedback, merengue with muscle, and makes the ebullient rhythms of its homeland roil with rock’s audacious intensity. Latin craze, indeed.

Drawing from various cultures, Latin pop may be bringing, not only different Latin cultures, but people generally together. Columbian-born Shakira ("Donde Estan los Ladrones?") says it well ([1999, May 24]. Time, p. 76):

Latino people have a golden key in their hands, a common treasure. That treasure is fusion. The fusion of rhythms, the fusion of ideas. We Latinos are a race of fusion, and that is the music we make. And so at the dawn of a new millennium, when everything is said and done, what could possibly happen besides a fusion?

Latin music, then, is coming through in many forms. Whether in audio only or video format, two Ricky Martin songs stand out as anthems of Latin pop: "La Copa de la Vida" (sung in 1998 at the soccer World Cup) and his "La Vida Loca" (whether the title is taken from the traditional description of life in the barrio or the craziness of life on the road with the Latin singing group, Menudo, as it traveled all over the world). These anthems are highly singable and almost spontaneously danceable.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. What was the first popular Latin song and who the Latin singer you remember?
2. How much do you like Latin music? In what form?
3. What is your favorite group or your favorite star? Just what do you like about this group or person?
4. Do you think Latin music is bringing people together and good for the Latinos who live outside of Latin America?

IMPLICATIONS

• For decades Hispanic Americans have been an ignored and lesser minority. That is changing as they find popular heroes and traditional music in the mainstream.
• If the new prominence of Hispanic music and culture can bring people together, it brings a promising hope for many cultures.
• For some time popular music has needed to be enjoyed, to be fun, and a positive emphasis.
• Like all music and culture, Latin pop music and its context need to be interpreted and critiqued. There will be dangers of commercialism and excess.

Dean Borgman cCYS