Introduction to Latin Pop

In most cases, the introduction of something new doesn't always come with good reviews. The crossing over of Latin music was not new, but it seemed to be one of those cases that with the right people it would be incredible. In the 1930s, Latino musicians had made their way to mainstream and looked into there acceptance in the U.S. which seemed logical for any new kind of cultural acceptance. Being accepted by an unknown place, one can say can cause good self esteem. In the beginning, Latin Pop started of with the “king of rhumba,” known as Xavier Cugat. He was one of the pioneers on to Latin Music as a genre and boy are we glad he did it. Through out the years, Latin Pop continued success and made it's mark in New York dance halls to hear Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri, who in our opinions are two of the greatest in Latin music. They made dance halls bump to their beats and continued on to making Latin pop much more known. Ritchie Valens also added on to the sucess of Latino's and helped pave the way with his Spanish-language rock-and-roll hit with “La Bamba,” which everyone seems to know the chorus too with out even trying. In the 1960s the group Santana helped make Latino music more interesting by infusing their propulsive rock with Latin rhythms to make other styles of Latin music and help increase the hype into what Latin music was really about. Finally, who could forget about the Cuban-born singer Gloria Estefan who in the 1980's made her mark on the Latin music scene and broke through with Latin-flavoured pop hits. Without any of these elements and contributions Latino Music would seize to exist as we know it. (Wallenfeldt, 2013)

Definition of Latin Pop

"Latin pop music generally is identified as pop music which has a Latin American influence. It has become popular form of music in the United States of America during the ’80s and ’90s and still keeps its influence everywhere. In other words, the influence of Latin pop is not really restricted just to Americans; it has attracted the interest of production techniques as well as other styles of music. Tejano music, for instance, favored in Texas and Mexico, had started introducing synthesizers, slicker production, and urban sensibility to previous styles such as norteño and conjunto. ‘Pop Latino’ may be identified by its brand Latin instrumentation and rhythms which might be incorporated into the tracks. In geographical terms, Latin popular music has a strong Latin American influence which is sung by a many of Latin American singers. This genre of music is mostly sung in Spanish, Italian, French or Portuguese, though English has become more common these days."(hwgtsmagazine.com, 2012)

Looking at so many definitions of Latin Pop, this one really sums it all up. So many different types of music coming together to make one amazing genre. Latin pop is just like a melting pot of people's different ideas and different types of sounds as one. Luckily, their sounds mix and make what Latin pop truly is. Latin pop has so many different flavors that help create such a broad type of sound. That is what makes it so unique. Looking at all the countries and different places that helped incorporate it to create such a unique sound, it is crazy to think that Latin pop didn't become much bigger sooner then it did. It wasn't widely recognized from other parts of the world but they helped incorporate to make what we now listen to and enjoy with such different styles. If it weren't for so many different influences Latin pop would sound just like every other genre of music. 

La historia - Pop Latino

As many people do know, Latin Pop is known as a musical genre consisting of artists from nations of Latin roots. Others don't know that the Carribean and other places around the world that aren't Spanish speaking also incorporated the unique sound Latin Pop has created. Meaning, that various artists in the genre came from different backgrounds making the music super diverse. Originally, Latin pop came from the American Pop version, that was only in English. Latin Pop used some features of "American" Pop but not everything. I guess, it's safe to say Latin Pop looks up to "American" Pop. In earlier years, American pop was created and known as the only Pop that existed in the United States, but Latin Pop slowly but surely showed it's face in the United States as well. Around the time Latin pop was beginning to escalate, Immigration had become a very big problem. Thinking that it might be a problem with the movement of Latin pop in reality it just helped with the creation of Latin Pop. 

When Mexican immigrants along with other immigrants from other places came to the United States they brought their culture with them including the music. I guess Latin Pop crossed the border with them. With all the good there, must be some bad. When the cultures blended together Latin Pop originated. Unfortunately, even after all the moving from place to place and gaining recognition Latin Pop was still known to be music for the uneducated because it wasn't the type of music people were listening to at the time. Meaning, that Latin Pop would not become as popular as other genres until years after. Looking on the bright side of things, in the United states there were so many Hispanic people. "Hispanics were on their way to becoming the largest ethnic minority in the United States by the first decades of the 21st century, but their music was already tops in 1999."  (Wallenfeldt, 2013)


I guess you could say news travels fast, especially with so many people wanting to spread their culture. With the spread of Latin Pop through Hispanics, also came Gloria Estefan. She became the first ever main stream crossover artist. Gloria Estefan can definitely be seen as a leader in the pack. Gloria made it much easier for the new Latin Pop to make it on it's own. Artists such as Enrique Iglesias, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony, Selena, and Shakira also helped with the expansion of Latin Pop. They identify with different Latino nations that had never been introduced to Latin Pop so it made it much easier to get the word out. It can definitely be said that their music was unlike any other, it was exotic and desirable, and used different forms of the Pop music. At the same time, they helped  popularizing their assimilation into the culture of the United States. Although most of these artists previously recorded albums in Spanish, the majority of their success came from their English or even Spanglish records. Which sounds like a big deal to us. (Wiseman, 2010)

Influences on Latin Pop

In the 1980s and 1990s, Latin Pop became a popular form of Latin music in the United States and it achieved a booming record for having so many non-Latino listeners during this time. Latin Pop was greatly affected by different styles of music and dances that originated in the United States. Everyone knows New York and Miami for their Latin club scenes full of life and tropical music. During the 1980s, the rise of Latin freestyle music began which came with a club-oriented dance that relied on different musical instruments and different sounds to move your body to. After Latin freestyle prospered it influenced the rise of Latin Pop, which had some similarities except Latin pop was more up beat and relied more on Pop for it’s musical flavor.
In our opinion, Latin pop was universal to everyone and influenced many other genres as well. Artists who began singing just American music heavily influenced this genre of music in the end. Later, many of them switched into Latin pop and sung their songs in a variety of languages but now stick to Spanish and English. Latin pop is a very fun genre and is played worldwide in all the clubs and parties to engage people in dancing and moving around to enjoy the beat. Latin pop has come a long way and is still very popular in the 21^st century thanks to artists and devoted fans that enjoy this type of music (All Music, 2011.)

Mainstream Market

Many Latin artists have spilled over into both the U.S. and international mainstream markets in recent decades. But there’re a few who stand out from the pack that have opened the doors for many others to follow in their footsteps. 

“Conga,” Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine - The Latin sounds of the '80s would not have been the same without this infectious song.

“Don’t Say GoodBye,” Paulina Rubio - The Mexican songstress also jumped onto the Latin crossover bandwagon with this tune.

“Hips Don’t Lie,” Shakira - The sexy Colombian singer-songwriter burst onto the non-Latin scene with this upbeat eclectic song joined by Wyclef Jean.

“I Need to Know,” Marc Anthony - Broke through ethnic barriers with this powerful pop song.

 “Livin’ la vida loca,” Ricky Martin - The hip-swiveling mega star rattled the pop universe in 1999 with his up-tempo, multi-rhythmic track penned by Robi 'Draco" Rosa.

(Malinow,2008)

Latin Pop Crossover Artists

The first full exposure of many genres comes to play when they expose various other genres and compete for an award. In the 1999 Grammys, Latin pop was already recognized in Latin America for years because it was played in clubs and in the streets of neighborhoods. Many people grew up listening to different kinds of music especially in Latino neighborhoods where they saw artists prosper such as Jennifer Lopez who comes from a "barrio," and now is very successful in her musical career as well as always being a fan. Latin Pop is almost equal to English Pop because of the dance rhythms which integrates different styles of Latin music. Except in our opinion, Latin pop has more of a fun feel and always has you moving no matter where you are. There are many recognized Latin pop artists that have crossed over into the mainstream market, including Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, and Enrique Iglesias. They each have a different story to how they became who they are now and how their passion started and ended in a different genre. We have analyzed each of their biographies and describe them a little and their journeys! (Piccoli, 1997).

(Este es un reportaje sobre la gran influencia que ha tenido la musica latina en los Estados Unidos. En este video encontraremos artistas   mencionados en el  paseje anterior. Desde el S. XX hasta los artistas recientes. 100 años de musica latina en los Estados Unidos y este super especial es de PBS.)

Ricky Martin is a Puerto Rican pop singer who achieved his importance beginning as a member of a boy band called Menudo and as a solo artist later in his life. He is known for his vocals and his dance movements as well as after his single “Livin’ La Vida Loca”which struck on the radio and made him very popular in Latin Pop. He started as being in a band and progressed to dropping a single and becoming one of Latin Pop’s greatest male Pop singers. As an addition to the rest of his success he was also blessed with good lucks and a good voice to match. He became very popular to listen to because he continued to make his music in both English and Spanish, which led more people to fall in love with his music (BIO, 1971).

Jennifer Lopez is a Puerto Rican Pop singer as well as many other things. She began her career as a dancer who appeared on stage and in various music videos. She was connected to other Hip Hop artists where she began her music and music videos in English and in her hometown, which is the Bronx, New York. Her musical career began to take off when she released her album of Latin Pop that had her success single, “If You Had My Love,” that flew off the charts within two weeks of it being heard. Jennifer was a role model to many young children and was a Latina that was successful, which was also a plus in many of Hispanics point of views. She, along with Ricky Martin was one of the most influential examples of the growing Latin cultural influence in Pop music (AceShowbiz, 1969)

Shakira is a Colombian singer. She began her music career in Spanish and with a complete different look then that of her character now in Latin Pop. She emerged in the music industry of Colombia and rose to her best albums in Latin America that sold over millions of copies worldwide. Shakira wanted to take an extra step and began to become a more “American image” which included dressing a different way and dying her hair a different color to be more appealing to the American music market. Her third album had her first English single “Whenever, Wherever” that became the best selling single of 2002. After all her progress in the music industry, she is well known to everyone and admired by many as well. She is now one of the world’s most successful performers; and one of Latin Pop’s biggest female crossover artists (Starpulse,1977)

Enrique Iglesias is a Spanish-American singer whose career started in the mid 1990s on an American/Spanish Language record label that made him one of the biggest stars in Latin America and in the Hispanic market in the United States. His record label named Fonovisa became the biggest seller of Spanish-language albums of that decade. He was also very successful and crossed over into the mainstream market by singing a deal with a music group to use his Spanish albums and English albums that had so much potential. Enrique Iglesias is still very popular and his music now still has English/Spanish lyrics and has many dancers and sexy lyrics such as his most recent song “Tonight, I’m Loving You” that came out in 2011 (AceShowbiz,1975).