Lucy Ellis
Professor Northrop
12/3/19
WHUM
Love for Latin Pop
Latin Pop music can be described as pop music influenced heavily by Latin artists and their deeply embedded culture. Over time, the subgenre/style of Latin Pop has become the most listened to form of Latin music in the United States. Although most of Latin Pop’s greatest listeners reside in Latin America, in the ’80s Latin Pop music reached high popularity, being listened to by people internationally. It wasn’t until the 90’s that Latin Pop was listened to and enjoyed to a large extent by non-Latino’s as well. Some well known Latin Pop artists are Jennifer Lopez, Shakira and Anuel AA, all of whom have released huge hits, are bilingual, and have been able to connect with audiences all around the globe, working to bring people together through upbeat relatable music and dancing. In an article published on Dallas News, it is written that “The infectious beats from pop and Reggaeton are getting us together to dance, regardless of language barriers.” Being able to connect with people through music, despite language differences has allowed these artists to cater to a much wider audience.
Jennifer Lopez is an American artist who is a child of Puerto Rican parents. One of Jennifer Lopez’s top songs in the ’90s was a song titled “Let’s Get Loud”, released in 1999. Although this song is entirely in English, it is performed by a Puerto- Rican American listened to by people internationally. Jennifer sings, “…If you want to live your life, live it all the way and don’t waste it, every feelin’ every beat, can be so very sweet you gotta taste it…” Just like Pop songs, Latin Pop songs tend to be upbeat and enthusiastic. Jennifer, just like many other Latin Pop artists, dances to all of her songs, after all, it probably wouldn’t be the same without it.
In 2005, Shakira, a Colombian artist released one of her greatest hits, “Hips Don’t Lie”. Without a doubt, this song is meant to get people up and moving. Just like many other Latin Pop songs, this song has some basic Spanish lyrics, getting non-Spanish speakers to sing along too! In this song, Shakira sings, “Oh, baby when you talk like that, you make a woman go mad, so be wise and keep on, reading the signs of my body”. Without a doubt, just like many other Latin Pop artists, Shakira’s lyrics are passionate in the way she describes her body moving and her feelings. Shakira is known for her upbeat songs, incredible dancing skills and being bilingual.
Just this year, a relatively new Latin Pop artist named Anuel AA, from Puerto Rico, released a song titled, “Verte Ir”. Anuel AA is known to release songs in Spanish but throws some English lyrics in his songs every now and then. Anuel AA is bilingual and chooses to incorporate bilingual lyrics into most of his songs. “Verte Ir” translates to “See you go”, where he sings about wanting to get a girl back. Just like the other songs I have discussed, “Verte Ir” is a fun song that makes people want to get up and dance, which is what makes Latin Pop such a special style of music.
Songs are put into subgenre/style categories in order to help listeners narrow their search. For example, if you tend to enjoy listening to a specific style of music, you will likely enjoy other songs in the same subgenre. It can become complicated when individuals don’t agree with the category certain songs have been put into, however, it makes it easier for artists to explain their music, it makes it easier for listeners to describe their likes and allows for clearer differentiation. At the end of the day, it should be up to the artist and producers to decide which categories and subgenres their music falls into.
Being able to see the ways in which Latin Pop music from different artists, have many similarities, makes it easier for listeners to describe why the like certain music. Latin Pop differentiates itself from other music styles, in the way that many songs have both English and Spanish lyrics incorporated in them, the music tends to be uplifting, making the listeners feel happy and want to dance. Latin Pop has become increasingly more popular over the last decade, where bilingualism has played a huge role in that. Having subgenres enhance our enjoyment of popular music because it allows us to prepare for and understand what we are getting into. It would be no fun to walk into a club expecting Latin Pop and it turns out that there is classical music being played.
Citation:
“Latin Pop.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service,
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/latinmusicusa/music/latin-pop/.
“Latin Pop Music Genre Overview.” AllMusic.
