Latin Pop

All of it based on the music and dance cultures that were here in the Americas, four or five centuries ago before the arrival of the first illegal aliens.

“The belief that there is only one truth, and that oneself is in possession of it,

is the root of all evil in the world”

Most of the Latin music and dance elements interact in different ways and very often a combination of only two or three of these elements is enough to place a given production into the Latin music genre. A Japanese band singing Salsa in Japanese language would be missing most of the elements needed except for the most important one: The music style, which would be enough to place their music into the Latin music genre.

"La Media Luz" por Julio Iglesias

Latin music encompasses hundreds of styles and rhythms including mainstream genres such as Salsa, Tango, Merengue and Brazilian music, as well as traditional rhythms like Andean music, Puerto Rican Bomba, Cuban Son and Musica Llanera.

"Abrazame" por Alejandro Fernandez

Latin Pop is one of the most popular Latin music genres today. However, before the arrival of artists like Shakira and Ricky Martin, Latin Pop first reached a global audience through the work of bandleader Sergio Mendes in the mid-1960s; In later decades, was defined by the romantic ballads that legendary artists such as Julio Iglesias or Roberto Carlos produced back in the 1970s. Latin Pop became the most popular form of Latin music in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s, even achieving massive crossover success among non-Latino listeners during the late 1990s.

:Contigo A La Distancia por Christina Aguilar

Cuban songwriter, Cesar Portillo de la Cruz, whose Contigo en la Distancia (In the Distance, With You) became a huge success in the entire Latin Section of the Americas. He was the king of the Latin romantic song style called "filin" (derived from "feeling" and the ballad.

While not restricted to America by any means, Latin pop was profoundly affected by production techniques and other styles of music—both Latin and otherwise—that originated primarily in the United States. Tejano music, centered in Texas and the U.S./Mexico border region, had begun to introduce synthesizers, slicker production, and a more urban sensibility to formerly rootsy styles like norteño and conjunto.

"Frenesi" por Linda Ronstadt

Moreover, New York with Puerto Ricans and Miami with Cubans were home to athriving Latin club scenes, This music and dance, which during the 1980s,  led to the rise of Latin freestyle, a club-oriented dance music that was rooted in Latin rhythms but relied on synthesizers and drum machines for most of its arrangements. Both of these sounds influenced the rise of Latin pop, which retained Latin rhythms in its uptempo 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 who eventually became known more as an adult contemporary diva with an affinity for sweeping ballads.

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 landed several pop hits during the mid-1990s, and Tejano pop star Selena's album Dreaming of You actually debuted posthumously at number one on the album charts upon its 1995 release.

 "Contigo A La Distancia por Luis Miguel

In 1946 a housepainter and amateur songwriter named César Portillo de la Luz, who passed away recently. with the romantic song Contigo en la Distancia. Heartfelt and passionate, the lyrics ("There can't be a beautiful melody, unless you're in it/ and I don't want to hear it, unless you're listening too") poured out rapidly like all the young man's compositions. Still being performed all over the world as a classic.

"Detalles" por Roberto Carlos

Within a few years the song would be recognized as the first great hit of a new genre of Latin romantic song and the composer became one of the style's greatest stars. The son of a cigar-roller, Portillo taught himself the guitar in his teens while devouring North American jazz on the radio and coveting the Ella Fitzgerald and Glenn Miller records brought over by the crews on American ships stopping at Havana docks.