"Latin" music

[Harry]

I have a question about what I'm terming "Latin" music. Being located in Florida, I find myself in a number of either public places or within earshot of someone playing recorded music with Spanish lyrics. We have workmen in the neighborhood who bring music with them, I sometimes go to a barber shop where the barbers are all Hispanic, and the music playing is always what I would term "Latin". We have a number of Spanish radio stations and TV stations that I pass by in searching stations.

Now I know that there are regional differences in Spanish/Latin music. Some of it emanates from the Islands, some from Mexico, some from South America, and even Spain. But my question has to do with the gender of the singers. It seems to me that nearly 100% of the time, I'm hearing male vocals when I hear this music out in public. And I ask this question because of my own fondness for female vocals. Just in the A&M world alone I've gravitated toward Lani Hall of course, Maria Conchita Alonso, and Lunna. I've also heard Vikki Carr and Linda Ronstadt do some stuff in Spanish, and I generally like a lot of it. I don't know very many words in Spanish, so I'm basing all of my likes on the sound of the recordings, the chord structures, the instrumentation and arrangements, I like much of what I've heard.

So why is it that every time I pass by a radio station or a construction site or a barber shop, I'm always - always hearing male vocals? Anyone got a clue?

 

[GDBY2LV]

Good question. I think much of it depends on what part of Latin America, from Mexico to South America the local Latino/Hispanic population came from. In Florida I would guess the majority are from Cuba, and Island communities in the Caribbean. Maybe some northern parts of South America. Here in California, it’s Mexico. There are tons of different types of music too. Tejano, Norteño, Banda, Cuban, Salsa,Tropical, Tex-Mex, and many more regional variations. The male performers command huge dollars for live concerts, and there are so many more of them. Superstars! There are a few women that have that status too, but they are out numbered by the men. I worked last at Wherehouse Music, when Blockbuster sold out in 1998. I had one of the larger superstores, at a little over 15,000 sq. ft. We had a separate classical room with 8 listening stations in there too. We converted the room into a Tu’ Música mini store shortly after the buyout. Wherehouse had separate stores under that name all over S. California. Latin music was, and still is huge here. About 60% of the counties population is Hispanic. It doubled the sales of our Spanish language music with the conversion. I was lucky to have a couple of employees that were into that burgeoning market at the time. It was hard at first because we had to divide the room into regional types and genres, Just like the separation of rock, rap, country, and jazz. The concert tickets for the artists that were established legends, were very expensive. Most concerts at the time were $40-$100 ea. through Ticketmaster, which we also had. The Latin concerts could be up to $500 for the major artists. I thought it wasn’t fair that the audience that could least afford those prices, were taken advantage of. Their loyalty to the artists was huge though, and the shows always sold out. I also worked selling concert tickets at our local county fair for 14 years, 1990-2004. We always had Latin acts of both Saturdays or Sundays of the run. They were also very expensive. We had a near riot when they had to cancel the Celia Cruz show right before it was to start. She couldn’t get into the country for whatever reason that night. Also the popularity of Latin dance music is big. We’ve gone from Cumbias, and salsa, to Bachatas here. The extreme popularity of acts like Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, and Shakira propelled the popularity of the market too. Now it’s Bad Bunny. But in the end the Latin world is dominated by male artists. We just had a Latin rapper that played here last weekend, and he set a venue record for highest grossing concert ever at our Mechanics Bank Arena. I’ve never heard of him. High annoying voice to me. Anyway he sold it out fast, and popular with the young people. The arena holds about 12,000 people. I think we have about 10 local Spanish format stations here, and each one had its own niche. There is a variety of music played. At least 5 Spanish tv stations too. Telemundo is the most popular, probably followed by Univision. I haven’t kept up with them much since the retail music world died in 2004.
Maybe Rudy or someone else, like Michael can explain it even more. That’s just my personal experience from retail music. My store was located in East Bakersfield, which is about 75% Hispanic.
It’s the area where I grew up.

 

[Rudy]

I'm not sure what defines Latin American music, other than it coming from Central and South America, Cuba, and other nearby origins. And don't overlook Puerto Rico, which has had a large influence on Latin music in general. Latin music does embrace a lot of different genres as @GDBY2LV says. Even in jazz, there are different types--Latin jazz, Afro-Cuban jazz, etc.

Does it include all the different types of music from Brazil, though? I never hear samba, bossa nova, etc. referred to as Latin (or Latino) music unlike all the other genres from the region. It could be that Brazil has such a distinctive identity that their music tends to differ from the other areas, not to mention Portuguese being the language vs. Central/South American Spanish. (And just like the music, the Spanish language is full of regional dialects.) I've seen exceptions to this, however.

An aside--I once got into a tiff with someone on a jazz forum who was ignorant about "Latin" meaning Latin America, and complained that everyone was misusing the term "Latin" since it had nothing to do with the Latin language. Yeah, whatever.

Given how many people came over from Cuba in the pre-Castro era, and those who have followed since, Florida does have a large concentration of Cubans. Some Cubans, like Perez Prado, ended up in Mexico City instead, before coming to the US. So the influence is spread around quite a bit. A lot of the dance crazes from the 50s--cha-cha, mambo, etc. were a result of all that cross-pollenation.

 

[Harry]

Meanwhile, if I listen to a Top-40 radio station, it seems to be almost all female with the likes of Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo, Pink - and most of them have similar voices and styles, generally the "little girl"-type sounds.

Just something I've noticed.

 

[Rudy]

When the voice are all run through autotune and synthesizers, they all tend to sound alike...just like all the synthesized drum-machined music that accompanies them.

 

[Harry]

Well that's true, and I suspect that's exactly what the producers/record companies are looking for. If they all sound exactly like Taylor Swift, then that's the goal.

 

[Rudy]

Yep, and that's what sells on the Top 40 these days. Probably because it's cheap to produce.

Back when I would tune in Top 40 radio back in the early to mid 80s, there was so much more musical diversity. And real musicians who were well-known. Nowadays it's all the same type of sound and music.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Good question. I think much of it depends on what part of Latin America, from Mexico to South America the local Latino/Hispanic population came from. In Florida I would guess the majority are from Cuba, and Island communities in the Caribbean. Maybe some northern parts of South America. Here in California, it’s Mexico. There are tons of different types of music too. Tejano, Norteño, Banda, Cuban, Salsa,Tropical, Tex-Mex, and many more regional variations. The male performers command huge dollars for live concerts, and there are so many more of them. Superstars! There are a few women that have that status too, but they are out numbered by the men. I worked last at Wherehouse Music, when Blockbuster sold out in 1998. I had one of the larger superstores, at a little over 15,000 sq. ft. We had a separate classical room with 8 listening stations in there too. We converted the room into a Tu’ Música mini store shortly after the buyout. Wherehouse had separate stores under that name all over S. California. Latin music was, and still is huge here. About 60% of the counties population is Hispanic. It doubled the sales of our Spanish language music with the conversion. I was lucky to have a couple of employees that were into that burgeoning market at the time. It was hard at first because we had to divide the room into regional types and genres, Just like the separation of rock, rap, country, and jazz. The concert tickets for the artists that were established legends, were very expensive. Most concerts at the time were $40-$100 ea. through Ticketmaster, which we also had. The Latin concerts could be up to $500 for the major artists. I thought it wasn’t fair that the audience that could least afford those prices, were taken advantage of. Their loyalty to the artists was huge though, and the shows always sold out. I also worked selling concert tickets at our local county fair for 14 years, 1990-2004. We always had Latin acts of both Saturdays or Sundays of the run. They were also very expensive. We had a near riot when they had to cancel the Celia Cruz show right before it was to start. She couldn’t get into the country for whatever reason that night. Also the popularity of Latin dance music is big. We’ve gone from Cumbias, and salsa, to Bachatas here. The extreme popularity of acts like Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, and Shakira propelled the popularity of the market too. Now it’s Bad Bunny. But in the end the Latin world is dominated by male artists. We just had a Latin rapper that played here last weekend, and he set a venue record for highest grossing concert ever at our Mechanics Bank Arena. I’ve never heard of him. High annoying voice to me. Anyway he sold it out fast, and popular with the young people. The arena holds about 12,000 people. I think we have about 10 local Spanish format stations here, and each one had its own niche. There is a variety of music played. At least 5 Spanish tv stations too. Telemundo is the most popular, probably followed by Univision. I haven’t kept up with them much since the retail music world died in 2004.
Maybe Rudy or someone else, like Michael can explain it even more. That’s just my personal experience from retail music. My store was located in East Bakersfield, which is about 75% Hispanic.
It’s the area where I grew up.

I don't have an explanation, but I know a guy on another board. I'll tap back after I hear from him.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Okay, so I reached out to David Gleason. David is an American who got into radio at a young age, spent most of his career in programming, management and ownership of radio stations in Latin America, then came home in the 1990s and programmed, at different times, both KTNQ and KHJ in Los Angeles, which were Spanish-language stations (KTNQ still is).

Some of you may be familiar with the worldradiohistory.com site---which has an archive of Billboard and other music-and broadcast-related magazines, newspapers and books. That's David's site.

David is still valued as a consultant in the Spanish-language field in this country and others. He is thorough. And as such, he asked me to tell you that this information was "was done extemporaneously "on short notice" and not meant to be totally inclusive or "academic" in scope.... just based on 60 years working in radio in Latin America and the US Hispanic market."

'Tween you and me, David's disclaimers are better than most lifetime guarantees.

Anyway, here's what David has to say about the preponderance of male vocals in "Latin" music:





You are correct.

Particularly in "home country music" such as norteña, ranchera, cumbia, salsa, merengue, vallenato, tango, cueca, and other types of "national music" we have very few female stars.

But where one arrises, like Lola Beltrán, Lucha Villa, Flor Silvestre, Amalia Mendoza in ranchera in Mexican ranchera, La Jilguerillas in Norteña and Flans and Pandora in Pop. Rosy War is and was a star tecno cumbia in Perú and Gilda in música villera in Argentina and who is "santified by the working class and even has a chapel where she died in an auto crash. They are or were huge. But they were very few.

In pop, we have more, going back to Rocío Durcal in the 60's and 70's (along with Angelica María, Mayté Gaos, Lupita de Alessio, Ella Laboriel in Mexico) and lots of duos / trios like Los TNT in Argentina where two brothers and a sister were very famous all over South America. And in the 70's in Puerto Rico, Lucecita, Sophy, Yolandita Monge, Lunna, Nydia Caro, Ednita Nazario, Olga Tañón, and many others had huge hits.

And we have Shakira in pop and Celia Cruz in Salsa... so huge they are both totally international and loved everywhere. But they are huge exceptions. And, in a smaller area, Selena in Tejano.

Rising enormously now, Anitta from Brasil.

My wife, who was creator of the Recuerdo format and national PD for over a decade, and I started going through nations and music genres. In an example, we could easily name dozens of guys or guy groups in pop but could only come up with one or two big female names in each decade. And in many cases, it was the female lead singer of mostly male groups like Mocedades (Eres Tú) or Oreja de Van Gogh or Ana Toroja of Mecano and not pure solists.

Of all places, Puerto Rico had a huge number of pop/ballad female hit artists. However, that was mostly in the 70's and almost all due to one radio station that forced a percentage of female artists onto the playlist because its target was 18-49 women. That one was 11-Q, WQII.

That experience in Puerto Rico leads me to believe that "machísmo" in the music and radio industries had a lot to do with the shortage of female stars.

We did not name everyone. What we discovered is that in any genre, region or era, it was a big task to come up with a couple of female superstars while we could pull, without the aid of a web search, dozens of men.

Here is an article about today's female music stars. 9 of them.

Estas son las cantantes latinas con más influencia en la música​

Cantantes latinas exitosas en la industria musical. La música de estas artistas se escucha en todo el mundo

www.hola.com

If we did "men" we would get well over 50 or 60 current or "recurrent" international stars and hundreds of stars in specific genres and regions. In some genres, like salsa, there is and has been only one superstar woman: Celia Cruz. She went back to the 60's and is still a star after her death. But she is alone as the grand dame of salsa.

 

[lj]

For me, autotune plus synthesizers plus drum machines equals trash heap. What is produced are sounds not music. Thankfully, traditional Latin music still adheres to the basic musical elements of melody, harmony and rhythm.

 

[Rudy]

Pop music elements (synths, etc.) that we have here are all over the charts in Mexico and other Latin American countries. We just don't hear it in the US or Canada. I've sampled some Internet radio stations in the past and what's popular to their own Top 40 crowds isn't all that different from what we have here. I guess we should be grateful that we only get the better exports from all those places.

 

[lj]

Rudy, your point is well taken. As I see it, pop music Top 40 is the same all over the world, that is, bland and insipid. My above reference to traditional Latin pop music refers to the good stuff such as salsa, son, ranchera, cumbia, norteno, banda, meringue, bossa nova, samba, forro, choro and the likes.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

P I've sampled some Internet radio stations in the past and what's popular to their own Top 40 crowds isn't all that different from what we have here.

I noticed the same when we were in France last year. It's very comparable to what is heard on contemporary US radio, just in French. The only real throwbacks I heard there, apart from passing touristy places that keep Django Reinhardt playing for atmosphere, were almost entirely dance music---going all the way back to 70s disco staples. They LOVE it!

 

[Harry]

Thanks for answering my initial question - and it turns out that my perceptions were not mistaken - the "Latin" sounds are mostly male-dominated. And it was nice to see A&M's "Lunna" mentioned as one of the Puerto Rican female stars.