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).
