Latin pop (in
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
and in
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
: Pop latino) is a
pop music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former descri ...
subgenre that is a fusion of US–style
music production with
Latin music
Latin music ( Portuguese and es, música latina) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America (including Spain and Portugal) and the Latino United States inspired by Latin Amer ...
genres from anywhere in
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
and
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
.
[ Originating in ]Spanish-speaking
Hispanophone and Hispanic refers to anything relating to the Spanish language (the Hispanosphere).
In a cultural, rather than merely linguistic sense, the notion of "Hispanophone" goes further than the above definition. The Hispanic culture is th ...
musicians, Latin pop may also be made by musicians in Portuguese (mainly in Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese (' ), also Portuguese of Brazil (', ) or South American Portuguese (') is the set of varieties of the Portuguese language native to Brazil and the most influential form of Portuguese worldwide. It is spoken by almost all of ...
) and the various Romance Creole languages. Latin pop usually combines upbeat Latin music with American pop music. Latin pop is commonly associated with Spanish-language pop, rock, and dance music.
History
Latin pop is one of the most popular Latin music
Latin music ( Portuguese and es, música latina) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America (including Spain and Portugal) and the Latino United States inspired by Latin Amer ...
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
s today. However, before the arrival of artists like Alejandro Sanz, Thalía
Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda (; born 26 August 1971), known mononymously as Thalía, is a Mexican singer and actress. Referred to as the " Queen of Latin Pop", she is considered one of the most successful and influential Mexican artists. Havi ...
, Luis Miguel, Selena
Selena Quintanilla Pérez (; April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), known mononymously as Selena, was an American Tejano singer. Called the " Queen of Tejano music", her contributions to music and fashion made her one of the most celebrated Mex ...
, Paulina Rubio
Paulina Susana Rubio Dosamantes (; born 17 June 1971) is a Mexican singer. Referred to as " The Golden Girl" and " Queen of Latin Pop", she first achieved recognition as a member of the successful pop group Timbiriche from 1982 through 1991. Af ...
, Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll ( , ; born 2 February 1977), professionally known by the mononym Shakira, is a Colombian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Barranquilla, she has been referred to as the " Queen of Latin Music" and is n ...
, Carlos Vives, Ricky Martin
Enrique Martín Morales (born December 24, 1971), known professionally as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, and actor. He is known for his musical versatility, with his Ricky Martin albums discography, discography spanning ...
, Gloria Trevi
Gloria de los Ángeles Treviño Ruiz (born February 15, 1968), known as Gloria Trevi (), is a Mexican singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, television hostess, music video director and businesswoman known as "The Supreme Diva of Mexican Pop".
...
and Enrique Iglesias, Latin pop first reached a global audience through the work of bandleader Sergio Mendes
Sergio may refer to:
* Sergio (given name), for people with the given name Sergio
* Sergio (carbonado), the largest rough diamond ever found
* ''Sergio'' (album), a 1994 album by Sergio Blass
* ''Sergio'' (2009 film), a documentary film
* ''Se ...
in the mid-1960s;[Latin Pop]
''Rhapsody '', retrieved 8 January 2013. in later decades, it was defined by the romantic ballad
Latin ballad ( es, balada romántica) is a sentimental ballad derived from bolero that originated in the early 1960s in Los Angeles, California and Southern California.
Some of the best known artists of the Latin ballad are Julio Iglesias, Moceda ...
s that legendary artists such as Julio Iglesias
Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva (; born 23 September 1943) is a Spanish singer, songwriter and former professional footballer. Iglesias is recognized as the most commercially successful Spanish singer in the world and one of the top record ...
or Roberto Carlos
Roberto Carlos da Silva Rocha (born 10 April 1973), commonly known as Roberto Carlos, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who now works as a football ambassador. He started his career in Brazil as a forward but spent most of his car ...
produced in the 1970s.[Latin Pop](_blank)
''About- Latin music '', retrieved 8 January 2013.
Ricky Martin is considered to be the King of Latin Pop.
Influences and development
Latin pop became the most popular form of Latin music in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
during the 1980s and 1990s, with acts such as Puerto Rican boyband Menudo, even achieving massive crossover success among non-Latino listeners during the late 1990s. While not restricted to America by any means, Latin pop was profoundly affected by production techniques and other style
Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to:
* Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable
* Design, the process of creating something
* Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...
s of music — both Latin and otherwise — that originated primarily in the United States. Tejano music
Tejano music ( es, música tejana), also known as Tex-Mex music, is a popular music style fusing Mexican and US influences. Typically, Tejano combines Mexican Spanish vocal styles with dance rhythms from Czech and German genres – particular ...
, centered in Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
and the United States/Mexico border region, had begun to introduce synthesizers, slicker production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stati ...
, and a more urban sensibility to formerly root styles like norteño and conjunto.
Moreover, New York and Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
were home to thriving Latin club scenes, which during the 1980s led to the rise of Latin freestyle
Freestyle music, also called Latin freestyle or Latin hip-hop ''( sic)'' is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in the New York metropolitan area and Philadelphia, primarily among Hispanic Americans and Italian Americans in the 1980s. ...
, a club-oriented dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded da ...
that was rooted in Latin rhythms but relied on synthesizers and drum machines for most of its arrangements
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...
. Both of these sounds influenced the rise of Latin pop, which retained Latin rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular re ...
s in its uptempo
A variety of musical terms are likely to be encountered in printed scores, music reviews, and program notes. Most of the terms are Italian, in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions. Sometimes, the special mus ...
numbers but relied more on mainstream pop for its melodic sense.
Latin pop's first major crossover star was Gloria Estefan, who scored a succession of non-club-oriented dance-pop hits during the mid- to late 1980s, but eventually became known more as an adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
diva with an affinity for sweeping ballads
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
. This blend of Latinized dance-pop and adult contemporary balladeering dominated Latin pop through the 1990s. Most of its artists sang in Spanish for Latino audiences, although Latin pop's similarity to the mainstream helped several performers score crossover hits when they chose to record in English. Jon Secada
Juan Francisco Secada Ramírez (born October 4, 1961), better known as Jon Secada, is a Cuban-born American singer. He has won two Grammy Awards and sold 15 million records, making him one of the best-selling Latin music artists. His music fu ...
landed several pop hits during the mid-1990s, and Tejano pop star Selena
Selena Quintanilla Pérez (; April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), known mononymously as Selena, was an American Tejano singer. Called the " Queen of Tejano music", her contributions to music and fashion made her one of the most celebrated Mex ...
's album '' Dreaming of You'' actually debuted posthumously at number one on the album charts upon its 1995 release.[Latin Pop]
''Allmusic'', retrieved 8 January 2015.
The late '90s and early 2000s saw Latin artists such as Ricky Martin
Enrique Martín Morales (born December 24, 1971), known professionally as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, and actor. He is known for his musical versatility, with his Ricky Martin albums discography, discography spanning ...
, Enrique Iglesias, Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll ( , ; born 2 February 1977), professionally known by the mononym Shakira, is a Colombian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Barranquilla, she has been referred to as the " Queen of Latin Music" and is n ...
, Jennifer Lopez and ex-husband Marc Anthony, Paulina Rubio
Paulina Susana Rubio Dosamantes (; born 17 June 1971) is a Mexican singer. Referred to as " The Golden Girl" and " Queen of Latin Pop", she first achieved recognition as a member of the successful pop group Timbiriche from 1982 through 1991. Af ...
, Jade Esteban Estrada
Jade Esteban Estrada (born September 17, 1975) is an American singer, actor, stand-up comedian, journalist and human rights activist. ''Out Magazine'' called him "the first gay Latin star."
Biography
Born to David Gonzales Estrada and Aurora ( ...
, Thalía
Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda (; born 26 August 1971), known mononymously as Thalía, is a Mexican singer and actress. Referred to as the " Queen of Latin Pop", she is considered one of the most successful and influential Mexican artists. Havi ...
, among others, achieve crossover mainstream success. Other traditionally pop artists also made forays into Latin pop either finding success experimenting with the sound, such as Debelah Morgan
Debelah Laksh Morgan (born September 29, 1977) is an American singer and songwriter. Morgan is best known for her hit single " Dance with Me" off of her third studio album, which reached No. 8 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.
Early life and educ ...
and 98 Degrees
98 Degrees (stylized as 98°) is an American pop and R&B vocal group consisting of four vocalists: the group's founding member Jeff Timmons, brothers Nick and Drew Lachey, and Justin Jeffre. The group was formed by Timmons in Los Angeles, C ...
, or recording Spanish versions of their songs or albums, such as Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera (; ; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and television personality. Known for her four-octave vocal range and ability to sustain high notes, she has been referred to as the " Voice of ...
and Jessica Simpson, to name a few.
See also
*Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album
The Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for releasing albums in the Latin pop genre. Honors in ...
*Latin Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Pop Vocal Album
The Latin Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album (awarded as Best Contemporary Pop Vocal Album until 2019) is an award presented by the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. It began to be presented at the 2012 ceremony. The awards replaced ...
*Lo Nuestro Award for Pop Song of the Year
The Lo Nuestro Award for Pop Song of the Year is an honor presented annually by American television network Univision at the Lo Nuestro Awards. The accolade was established to recognize the most talented performers of Latin music. The nominees and ...
*Billboard Latin Music Awards
The ''Billboard'' Latin Music Awards grew out of the ''Billboard'' Music Awards program from ''Billboard'' magazine, an industry publication charting the sales and radio airplay success of musical recordings. The ''Billboard'' awards are the La ...
*Latin Pop Airplay
Latin Pop Airplay (also referred to as Latin Pop Songs) is a record chart published on ''Billboard'' magazine and a subchart of the Latin Airplay chart. The chart focuses on Latin pop music, namely Spanish-language pop music. It was established ...
*Music of Brazil
The music of Brazil encompasses various regional musical styles influenced by European, American, African and Amerindian forms. Brazilian music developed some unique and original styles such as forró, repente, coco de roda, axé, sertanejo, ...
*Mexican pop music
Mexican pop is a music genre produced in Mexico, particularly intended for teenagers and young adults.
Mexico is the country that exports the most entertainment in Spanish language. Mexican pop was limited to Latin America until the mid-1990s, ...
*Pop music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former descri ...
*Latin ballad
Latin ballad ( es, balada romántica) is a sentimental ballad derived from bolero that originated in the early 1960s in Los Angeles, California and Southern California.
Some of the best known artists of the Latin ballad are Julio Iglesias, Moceda ...
*Latin music
Latin music ( Portuguese and es, música latina) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America (including Spain and Portugal) and the Latino United States inspired by Latin Amer ...
* Music of Latin America
* Music of Spain
*Latin American music in the United States
Latin American music in the United States has long influenced popular music. Within the industry, "Latin music" influenced jazz, rhythm and blues, and country music, even giving rise to unique US styles of music including salsa, New Mexico, Teja ...
* Regional Mexican
*Tropical music
Tropical music ( es, música tropical) is a term in the Latin music industry that refers to music genres deriving from or influenced by the Spanish-speaking areas of the Caribbean. It includes the islands of Cuba, Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republ ...
* Nueva ola
* Music of Colombia
References
External links
Univision musica (Univision musica)
RITMOSON MUSIC NEWS
{{Authority control
Pop
Pop music genres
Spanish music
Spanish-language music
1970s in Latin music
1980s in Latin music
1990s in Latin music
2000s in Latin music
2010s in Latin music