Latin music in the United States
Encyclopedia
Latin music has long influenced American popular music, jazz
, rhythm and blues
, and even country music
. For an early example (1914), the bridge to "St. Louis Blues"--"Saint Louie woman, with her diamond rings"--has a habanera beat, prompting Jelly Roll Morton
to comment, "You've got to have that Spanish tinge
". Many an American band has added a conga
player, maracas, or other Latin percussion
for just that reason.
The Argentine
tango
was a worldwide success in the 1930s. Tango dancers and records could be found from Los Angeles
to Beijing
. In more recent times, artists such as Carmen Miranda
, Desi Arnaz
, Xavier Cugat
, and Pérez Prado
("The Mambo King") were popular with audiences of all cultures. Judy Garland
's first hit, as a member of the "Gumm Sisters", was "La Cucaracha
", right down to the line about marijuana
.
It was common in dance halls in the 30s and 40s for a Latin orchestra, such as that of Vincent López
, to alternate with a big band
because dancers insisted on it. Latin music was extremely popular with dancers, not only the samba
, paso doble, rumba
, and mambo, but even the conga
. In the 50s, Perez Prado made the Cha-cha-cha
famous, and the Afro-Cuban jazz
of Dizzy Gillespie
opened many ears to the harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic possibilities of Latin music and is still influential in salsa.
The "Spanish tinge" was also a common feature of rhythm and blues
in the 50s. The monster hit "Little Darling" was driven by the clave
beat and Chuck Berry
's "Havana Moon" was a great success. Ritchie Valens
, born Ricardo Valenzuela, blew the roof off the hit parade
with "La Bamba
", originally a Mexican
wedding song
.
Likewise, Tex-Mex and Tejano
style featured the conjunto
sound, resulting in such important music as "Tequila" by The Champs
, "96 Tears" by Question Mark and the Mysterians, Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs, Thee Midniters
, and the many combinations led by Doug Sahm
, including the Sir Douglas Quintet
and the Texas Tornadoes. The Texas Tornadoes featured Freddy Fender
, who brought Latin soul to country music
. And the Tornadoes' Flaco Jiménez
is a genuine conjunto hero, a third-generation accordion
ist whose grandfather learned the instrument from German
settlers in Texas
. Johnny Rodriguez
is another Latin country star.
In the modern rock and roll
era, Carlos Santana
featured a full-blown Latin approach. Joe King Carrasco y las Coronas play punk rock
Tex-Mex style. See also rock en español
.
Starting in the mid-1980s , Billboard
introduced the Top Latin Albums and Hot Latin Tracks charts for Latin music albums and singles.
During the second part of the decade of the 1990s, Latin music exploded into the mainstream thanks to popular only after the untimely death of the popular Tex Mex
singer Selena
. And today's music of Tejano have carried to other artists.
By the mid-nineties sales of Spanish language albums in the US by such acts as Luis Miguel
, Enrique Iglesias
and Ricky Martin
had increased to compete with English language acts. To reflect the growing interest in Latin acts the American Music Awards
insitituted a category for Latin recording artists.
Ricky Martin's performance of the Spanglish version of La Copa de la Vida at the 41st Grammy Awards in 1999 earned him a standing ovation and much press attention. Sony Music quickly released Martin's first ever English album. The first single Livin' la Vida Loca
contained many Latin music elements and became a smash #1 single.
Martin was seen as the forerunner of a trend in pop music of Latin sounds which the press dubbed a "Latin Pop
explosion" or "Latin Invasion. Martin's labelmate Jennifer Lopez who won acclaim as an actress with her breakthrough role as Selena in the biographical movie of the same name released her debut album which too contained some Latin elements. Lopez's future husband Marc Anthony
who had long been recording in Spanish in seized the opportunity of recording an English album Latin and salsa elememts.
Pop singer Enrique Iglesias who like Martin and Anthony had been a star of the Latin charts had been planning an English language career. After seeing one of concerts Will Smith asked Iglesias to cotribute to soundtrack of the Wild, Wild, West. The pop song Bailamos
was a then departure for the singer as it used Spanish guitar and a flamenco sound became a smash hit. A similar production would remain throughout most of Iglesias's first English album which he released later in the year.
Even Anglophone acts such as Geri Halliwell
, 98 Degrees
, and Christina Aguilera
incorporated Latin elements into some of their hits. The trend reached it's peak in 2000 with the launch of first annual Latin Grammy Award show and introduction of the "Los Discos de Oro y Platino" by the RIAA.
Though the trend faded it did not stop Latinos from having hits in the mainstream market. Iglesias scored an even more successful era in 2001 with the pop album Escape
and Columbian singer Shakira
also scored a successful crossover with her first English album Laundry Service
.
By the mid 2000s urban Latin music increased in popularity with Reggaetón
Gasolina
by Daddy Yankee
became and Shakira's La Tortura
were top 40 hits.
Today latin music has become a term for music performed by Latinos regardless of whether it has a Latin element or now. Acts such as Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Enrique Iglesias and Pitbull
are prominent on the pop charts. Iglesias who hold the record for most #1s on Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks released a bilingual album, inspired by urban acts released music releases two completely different songs to Latin and pop formats at the same time. It's also become more likely that English language songs crossover to Spanish radio and vice versa.
Jon Secada, Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, Christina Aguilera and Jennifer Lopez do not sing Tejano Music.!
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
, and even country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
. For an early example (1914), the bridge to "St. Louis Blues"--"Saint Louie woman, with her diamond rings"--has a habanera beat, prompting Jelly Roll Morton
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....
to comment, "You've got to have that Spanish tinge
Spanish Tinge
The phrase Spanish Tinge is a reference to the belief that a Latin American touch offers a reliable method of spicing the more conventional 4/4 rhythms commonly used in jazz and pop music. The phrase is a quotation from Jelly Roll Morton...
". Many an American band has added a conga
Conga
The conga, or more properly the tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum with African antecedents. It is thought to be derived from the Makuta drums or similar drums associated with Afro-Cubans of Central African descent. A person who plays conga is called a conguero...
player, maracas, or other Latin percussion
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
for just that reason.
The Argentine
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
tango
Tango (dance)
Tango dance originated in the area of the Rio de la Plata , and spread to the rest of the world soon after....
was a worldwide success in the 1930s. Tango dancers and records could be found from Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
to Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. In more recent times, artists such as Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda, GCIH was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, Broadway actress and Hollywood film star popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was, by some accounts, the highest-earning woman in the United States and noted for her signature fruit hat outfit she wore in the 1943 movie The Gang's...
, Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz was a Cuban-born American musician, actor and television producer. While he gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, he is probably best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to...
, Xavier Cugat
Xavier Cugat
Xavier Cugat was a Spanish-American bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a key personality in the spread of Latin music in United States popular music. He was also a cartoonist and a successful businessman...
, and Pérez Prado
Perez Prado
Dámaso Pérez Prado was a Cuban bandleader, musician , and composer. He is often referred to as the 'King of the Mambo'.His orchestra was the most popular in mambo...
("The Mambo King") were popular with audiences of all cultures. Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
's first hit, as a member of the "Gumm Sisters", was "La Cucaracha
La Cucaracha
"La Cucaracha" is a traditional Spanish folk corrido that became popular in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. It has additionally become a verse played on car horns.-Origins:...
", right down to the line about marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
.
It was common in dance halls in the 30s and 40s for a Latin orchestra, such as that of Vincent López
Vincent Lopez
Vincent Lopez was an American bandleader and pianist.Vincent Lopez was born of Portuguese immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York and was leading his own dance band in New York City by 1917...
, to alternate with a big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
because dancers insisted on it. Latin music was extremely popular with dancers, not only the samba
Samba
Samba is a Brazilian dance and musical genre originating in Bahia and with its roots in Brazil and Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions. It is recognized around the world as a symbol of Brazil and the Brazilian Carnival...
, paso doble, rumba
Cuban Rumba
In Cuban music, Rumba is a generic term covering a variety of musical rhythms and associated dances. The rumba has its influences in the music brought to Cuba by Africans brought to Cuba as slaves as well as Spanish colonizers...
, and mambo, but even the conga
Conga
The conga, or more properly the tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum with African antecedents. It is thought to be derived from the Makuta drums or similar drums associated with Afro-Cubans of Central African descent. A person who plays conga is called a conguero...
. In the 50s, Perez Prado made the Cha-cha-cha
Cha-cha-cha (music)
The Cha-cha-chá is a style of Cuban music. It is popular dance music which developed from the danzón in the early 1950s.- Origin :As a dance music genre, cha-cha-chá is unusual in that its creation can be attributed to a single composer, Enrique Jorrín, then violinist and songwriter with the...
famous, and the Afro-Cuban jazz
Afro-Cuban jazz
Afro-Cuban jazz is an early form of Latin jazz that mixes Afro-Cuban rhythms with harmonies and musical timbre typical of Bebop. It was developed in the early 1940s by both Cuban musicians and Jazz musicians, with Dizzy Gillespie, Mario Bauza, Machito and Stan Kenton among some of the most notable...
of Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
opened many ears to the harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic possibilities of Latin music and is still influential in salsa.
The "Spanish tinge" was also a common feature of rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
in the 50s. The monster hit "Little Darling" was driven by the clave
Clave (rhythm)
The clave rhythmic pattern is used as a tool for temporal organization in Afro-Cuban music, such as rumba, conga de comparsa, son, son montuno, mambo, salsa, Latin jazz, songo and timba. The five-stroke clave pattern represents the structural core of many Afro-Cuban rhythms...
beat and Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
's "Havana Moon" was a great success. Ritchie Valens
Ritchie Valens
Ritchie Valens was a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and guitarist....
, born Ricardo Valenzuela, blew the roof off the hit parade
Hit parade
A hit parade is a ranked list of the most popular recordings at a given point in time, usually determined by sales and/or airplay. The term originated in the 1930s; Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade on January 4, 1936...
with "La Bamba
La Bamba (song)
"La Bamba" is a Mexican folk song, originally from the state of Veracruz, best known from a 1958 adaptation by Ritchie Valens, a top 40 hit in the U.S. charts and one of early rock and roll's best-known songs...
", originally a Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
wedding song
Wedding song
Wedding song may refer to* "The Wedding Song ", a song by Paul Stookey, of Peter, Paul, and Mary fame.* "Wedding Song", a song by The Psychedelic Furs.* Wedding Song, a novel by Naguib Mahfouz....
.
Tejano music
Tejano music or Tex-Mex music is the name given to various forms of folk and popular music originating among the Mexican-American populations of Central and Southern Texas...
style featured the conjunto
Conjunto
Conjunto literally translates as "group," and is regionally accepted in Texas as defining a genre of music that was born out of south Texas at the end of the 19th Century, after German settlers introduced the button accordion. The bajo sexto has come to accompany the button accordion and is...
sound, resulting in such important music as "Tequila" by The Champs
The Champs
The Champs were an American rock and roll band, most famous for their Latin-tinged instrumental "Tequila". Formed by studio executives at Gene Autry's Challenge Records to record a B-Side for the Dave Burgess single, the intended throwaway track became more famous than its A-Side, "Train to...
, "96 Tears" by Question Mark and the Mysterians, Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs, Thee Midniters
Thee Midniters
Thee Midniters were an American group, amongst the first Chicano rock bands to have a major hit in the United States. Also they were and one of the best known acts to come out of East Los Angeles in the 1960s, with a cover of "Land of a Thousand Dances", and the instrumental track, "Whittier...
, and the many combinations led by Doug Sahm
Doug Sahm
Douglas Wayne Sahm , was an American musician from Texas. Born in San Antonio, Texas, he was a child prodigy in country music, but became a significant figure in blues rock and other genres. Today Sahm is considered one of the most important figures in what is identified as Tejano music...
, including the Sir Douglas Quintet
Sir Douglas Quintet
Sir Douglas Quintet was a rock band active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Despite their British sounding name, they came out of San Antonio, Texas. Their career was established when they began working with Texas record-producer Huey P. Meaux, after which the band relocated to the West Coast...
and the Texas Tornadoes. The Texas Tornadoes featured Freddy Fender
Freddy Fender
Freddy Fender , born Baldemar Garza Huerta in San Benito, Texas, United States, was a Mexican-American Tejano, country and rock and roll musician, known for his work as a solo artist and in the groups Los Super Seven and the Texas Tornados...
, who brought Latin soul to country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
. And the Tornadoes' Flaco Jiménez
Flaco Jiménez
Leonardo "Flaco" Jiménez is a Tejano music accordionist from San Antonio, Texas. Jiménez's father, Santiago Jiménez Sr. was a pioneer of conjunto music. He began performing with his father at age seven and recording at age fifteen, as a member of Los Caporales...
is a genuine conjunto hero, a third-generation accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
ist whose grandfather learned the instrument from German
Ethnic German
Ethnic Germans historically also ), also collectively referred to as the German diaspora, refers to people who are of German ethnicity. Many are not born in Europe or in the modern-day state of Germany or hold German citizenship...
settlers in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. Johnny Rodriguez
Johnny Rodriguez
Johnny Rodriguez is an American country music singer. He was the first famous Latin American country music singer, infusing his music with Latin sounds, and even singing verses of songs in Spanish....
is another Latin country star.
In the modern rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
era, Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
featured a full-blown Latin approach. Joe King Carrasco y las Coronas play punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
Tex-Mex style. See also rock en español
Rock en Español
Rock en español is the Spanish-language rock music. While the term is used widely in English, it is used in Spanish mainly to distinguish such music from "Anglo rock." It is a style of rock music that developed in Latin American countries and Latino communities, along with other genres like...
.
Starting in the mid-1980s , Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
introduced the Top Latin Albums and Hot Latin Tracks charts for Latin music albums and singles.
During the second part of the decade of the 1990s, Latin music exploded into the mainstream thanks to popular only after the untimely death of the popular Tex Mex
Tejano music
Tejano music or Tex-Mex music is the name given to various forms of folk and popular music originating among the Mexican-American populations of Central and Southern Texas...
singer Selena
Selena
Selena Quintanilla-Pérez , known simply as Selena, was a Mexican American singer-songwriter. She was named the "top Latin artist of the '90s" and "Best selling Latin artist of the decade" by Billboard for her fourteen top-ten singles in the Top Latin Songs chart, including seven number-one hits...
. And today's music of Tejano have carried to other artists.
By the mid-nineties sales of Spanish language albums in the US by such acts as Luis Miguel
Luis Miguel
Luis Miguel Gallego Basteri is a Mexican singer. He is widely known only by the name Luis Miguel and is often referred to as "El Sol de México"...
, Enrique Iglesias
Enrique Iglesias
Enrique Iglesias is a Spanish pop music singer, a son of singer Julio Iglesias.Enrique started his musical career on Mexican label Fonovisa...
and Ricky Martin
Ricky Martin
Enrique "Ricky" Martín Morales , better known as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican and Spanish pop singer and actor who achieved prominence, first as a member of the Latin boy band Menudo, then as a solo artist since 1991.During his career he has sold more than 60 million album copies worldwide...
had increased to compete with English language acts. To reflect the growing interest in Latin acts the American Music Awards
American Music Awards
-Conception:The AMAs were created by Dick Clark in 1973 to compete with the Grammys after the move of that year's show to Nashville, Tennessee led to CBS picking up the Grammy telecasts after its first two in 1971 and 1972 were broadcast on ABC...
insitituted a category for Latin recording artists.
Ricky Martin's performance of the Spanglish version of La Copa de la Vida at the 41st Grammy Awards in 1999 earned him a standing ovation and much press attention. Sony Music quickly released Martin's first ever English album. The first single Livin' la Vida Loca
Livin' la Vida Loca
"Livin' la Vida Loca" is a song by Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin. It was released on March 23, 1999 from Martin's self-titled debut English album. The song was composed by Desmond Child and Draco Rosa and topped the charts during 1999...
contained many Latin music elements and became a smash #1 single.
Martin was seen as the forerunner of a trend in pop music of Latin sounds which the press dubbed a "Latin Pop
Latin pop
Latin pop generally refers to pop music that has what may be perceived a Latin American influence...
explosion" or "Latin Invasion. Martin's labelmate Jennifer Lopez who won acclaim as an actress with her breakthrough role as Selena in the biographical movie of the same name released her debut album which too contained some Latin elements. Lopez's future husband Marc Anthony
Marc Anthony
Marc Anthony is an American singer-songwriter, actor and producer. Anthony is the top selling tropical salsa artist of all time. The two-time Grammy and three-time Latin Grammy–winner has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. He is best known for his Latin salsa numbers and ballads...
who had long been recording in Spanish in seized the opportunity of recording an English album Latin and salsa elememts.
Pop singer Enrique Iglesias who like Martin and Anthony had been a star of the Latin charts had been planning an English language career. After seeing one of concerts Will Smith asked Iglesias to cotribute to soundtrack of the Wild, Wild, West. The pop song Bailamos
Bailamos
"Bailamos" is a Latin pop song from singer Enrique Iglesias, sung in English and Spanish. It was the debut single of Iglesias in the English-language market, and attained immense success, reaching the #1 spot in the Billboard Hot 100....
was a then departure for the singer as it used Spanish guitar and a flamenco sound became a smash hit. A similar production would remain throughout most of Iglesias's first English album which he released later in the year.
Even Anglophone acts such as Geri Halliwell
Geri Halliwell
Geraldine Estelle "Geri" Halliwell is an English pop singer-songwriter, author and actress. After coming to international prominence in the late 1990s as Ginger Spice, a member of the girl group the Spice Girls, Halliwell launched her solo career in 1998 and released her album Schizophonic...
, 98 Degrees
98 Degrees
98 Degrees is an American adult contemporary boy band consisting of four vocalists: brothers Nick and Drew Lachey, Justin Jeffre, and Jeff Timmons. The group was formed by Timmons in Los Angeles, California....
, and Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...
incorporated Latin elements into some of their hits. The trend reached it's peak in 2000 with the launch of first annual Latin Grammy Award show and introduction of the "Los Discos de Oro y Platino" by the RIAA.
Though the trend faded it did not stop Latinos from having hits in the mainstream market. Iglesias scored an even more successful era in 2001 with the pop album Escape
Escape (Enrique Iglesias album)
Escape is an Enrique Iglesias album recorded in English in 2001.In late 2002, a special edition of the album was released with three extra songs, "Hero" , "Maybe" and "To Love a Woman", a duet with Lionel Richie....
and Columbian singer Shakira
Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll , known professionally as Shakira , is a Colombian singer who emerged in the music scene of Colombia and Latin America in the early 1990s...
also scored a successful crossover with her first English album Laundry Service
Laundry Service
Some critics criticized the effectiveness of Shakira's lyrics, claiming that her English skills were too weak for her to write in that language, but nearly all agreed on her unique poetic imagery...
.
By the mid 2000s urban Latin music increased in popularity with Reggaetón
Reggaeton
Reggaeton is a form of Puerto Rican and Latin American urban and Caribbean music. After its mainstream exposure in 2004, it spread to North American, European and Asian audiences. Reggaeton originated in Puerto Rico but is also has roots from Reggae en Español from Panama and Puerto Rico and...
Gasolina
Gasolina
"Gasolina" , is a reggaetón song written by Daddy Yankee and Eddie Dee for Daddy Yankee's 2004 album Barrio Fino. It features Glory, who sings the line "dame más gasolina"...
by Daddy Yankee
Daddy Yankee
Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez , known artistically as Daddy Yankee, is a Latin Grammy Award winning Puerto Rican Reggaeton recording artist. Ayala was born in Río Piedras, the largest district of San Juan, where he became interested in music at a young age. In his youth he was interested in baseball,...
became and Shakira's La Tortura
La Tortura
"" is a Latin pop-reggaeton song performed by singers Shakira and Alejandro Sanz. It was recorded for Shakira's sixth studio album , released on June 7, 2005...
were top 40 hits.
Today latin music has become a term for music performed by Latinos regardless of whether it has a Latin element or now. Acts such as Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Enrique Iglesias and Pitbull
Pitbull (rapper)
Armando Christian Pérez , better known by his stage name Pitbull, is an American rapper, singer-songwriter and record producer. His first recorded performance was from the Lil Jon album Kings of Crunk in 2002, after which he released his debut album in 2004 titled M.I.A.M.I. under TVT Records...
are prominent on the pop charts. Iglesias who hold the record for most #1s on Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks released a bilingual album, inspired by urban acts released music releases two completely different songs to Latin and pop formats at the same time. It's also become more likely that English language songs crossover to Spanish radio and vice versa.
See also
- Hispanic culture
- Hot Latin Tracks
Jon Secada, Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, Christina Aguilera and Jennifer Lopez do not sing Tejano Music.!