| 1980s.1990s in Latin music.2000s |
This article includes an overview of trends inLatin music in the 1990s, namely inIbero-America (including Spain and Portugal). This includes the rise and fall of various subgenres in Latin music from 1990 to 1999.
According to theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Latin music sales grew by almost 25% from 1996 to $490 million in 1997 ($909.818 million in 2022). There were 44.1 million Latin albums shipped in the United States. According to the RIAA, the increase in Latin music during this period is due to major record companies forming joint ventures with specialty indie labels familiar with the market, an increase of Latin artists on major labels providing them greater exposure, as well as an increase in radio stations playing Latin music which provided an expansion in Latin music awareness.[2]
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Like the previous two decades, Latin pop was mainly dominated bybaladas. Unlike the Latin balladeers of the 1970s and 1980s however, Latin crooners in the 1990s such asLuis Miguel,Cristian Castro,Ricky Martin,Enrique Iglesias, andAlejandro Fernández, were much younger (being in their 20s) and appealed to a more youthful audience.[3] Luis Miguel, whose early recordings consisted ofsoft rock andpop ballad tunes,[4] releasedRomance, a collection ofbolero covers, in 1991. The album's popularity led to a renewed interested in the genre in the Latin pop field.[5]
Baladas were not the only popular form of Latin pop music in the 1990s. Martin, despite the positive reactions of his first two ballad-laden albums, his 1991self-titled album andMe Amaras (1993), experimented with the sounds of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean for his third studio albumA Medio Vivir (1995), despite the reluctance of his record labelSony Discos.[6] The album spawned the hit single, "María", which made the artist's popularity expand outside of Latin America, particularly in Europe. The song captured the attention ofFIFA, who requested Martin to record the theme for the1998 World Cup. This led to the single "La Copa de la Vida".[7]Ricky Martin's performance of the song at the41st Annual Grammy Awards on February 24, 1999, was said to be a "game-changer for Latin music worldwide" according toBillboard'sLeila Cobo.[8] The popularity of Martin's performance was followed by the release of his song, "Livin' la Vida Loca", became an international success, and was credited with for the starting "Latin Pop Explosion" in 1999.[9]
Other artists who became famous in the mid-1990s with the rhythmic take of Latin pop included Mexican singerFey and formerTimbiriche memberThalía.[10][11] Around the same time, artists from Italy such asEros Ramazzotti,Laura Pausini, andNek successfullycrossed over to the Latin music field by recording Spanish-language versions hits of their songs.[12]
Mexican rock in the 1990s was a period of growth with several Mexican bands suchCafé Tacuba,El Gran Silencio, andPlastilina Mosh fusing rock music other genres such aspunk andalternative as well as other Latin rhythms. According to Janet Sturman's book,The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture (2019): "The decade resulted in such a wide variety of styles that it became complicated to categorize all of them just as rock".[13] Maná became one of the most well-known Latin rock band internationally due to their "prosaic but remarkably popular strain of Latin-influenced rock music".[14]
Elsewhere, particularly in South America, rock en español remained popular in Argentina.Fito Páez'sEl amor después del amor (1992) became one of the best-selling albums in Argentina having been certified diamond byCAPIF.[15][16] Colombian rock en español bands tended to sell more outside of their native country. WhenShakira releasedPies Descalzos in 1995, she became the firstrockera in the country to achieve success within and outside Colombia.[17] Shakira was dubbed the "LatinaAlanis Morissette" in the 1990s.[18]
Guatemala'sRicardo Arjona became known, not only for hispop rock sound, but as well as his political and social commentaries in his albums.[19] In the late 1990s,Latin alternative bands emerged into popularity such asAterciopelados,Gustavo Cerati,Illya Kuryaki,King Changó, andLos Amigos Invisibles.[20]
On January 10, 1990,EMI Latin boughtBob Grever's Cara Records, beginning the golden age ofTejano music.[21][22] Tejano music's growth exploded,[23] as journalist Ramiro Burr put it as "a stubborn brushfire spread over the horizon", the genre converted radio stations into playing Tejano music.[24] This garnered the attention of record labels across the United States who were eager to expand their current rosters.[23] In 1991,Warner Nashville createdWarner Discos specifically for Tejano artistscrossing over into country music whileArista Nashville erectedArtista Texas with the same objective.[25] Other labels such asPolyGram Latino and WEA Latina began deliberations on opening operations to exclusively sign Tejano acts, whileFonovisa began signing Tejano musicians.[26] These incentives helped expanded performers' fanbases beyond Texas and the southwest,[27] it also brought the genre to territories unfamiliar with the genre.[24] The golden age is generally considered by journalists to have ended on March 31, 1995, whenSelena wasshot and killed.[27][28] Tejano music posted a five consecutive year sales and concert attendance record beginning in 1990.[21] Mario Tarradell ofThe Dallas Morning News wrote that the singles fromAmor Prohibido elevated Selena to success on Latin radio whose promoters had not previously taken the singer seriously.[29] As a result of Selena's commercial success, female representation in Tejano music increased as record companies began investing heavily in that market, which historically had been inescapably male-dominated.[30] By 1994, Tejano acts were effortlessly selling 100,000 units of their albums, whileLa Mafia and Selena were the two most commercially successful Tejano artists.[24] Selena's music led the genre's 1990s revival and made it marketable for the first time.[31][32][33][34] Tejano music is believed byJose Behar to have hit Mexico "like anatomic bomb" by 1994.[24] While Tejano singerEmilio Navaira decided on a crossover into American country music, preparations began for Selena's crossover into American pop music.[35] The singer was fatally wounded after a confrontation with a former associate of her fan club, andboutiques.[36] Selena's unfinished crossover album,Dreaming of You (1995), became the first mostly-Spanish album to debut and peak at number one on the USBillboard 200 chart.[37] Tejano music suffered and its popularity waned following Selena's death, and record labels began abandoning their Tejano artists.[38]
By the mid-1990s, Tejano music was replaced byLatin pop as the dominant Latin music genre in the United States,[39] while radio stations in the US switched from Tejano to Regional Mexican music.[38] Regional Mexican music radio stations began dominating the airways in California and in Chicago. Almost half of all reporting stations in the US forBillboard magazine were from regional Mexican music stations.[40] By 1996, regional Mexican music genres such asbanda,norteño, andranchera, began experiencing explosive growth in the US and Mexico. Largely ignored by major record companies, regional Mexican music indie labels began joint ventures with major US and Mexican record companies interested in growing their footprint in the market. According toCamelot Music, its chain of stores saw an increase in purchases of regional Mexican music by consumers throughout the country, including in states such as Ohio and Georgia, areas where regional Mexican music traditionally was not selling. According to Henry Cardenas, a music promoter based in Chicago, the rise in popularity of regional Mexican music was the artists' flexibility and overall positive attitudes compared to their Latin pop counterparts. Latin music artists such as salsa singerOlga Tanon and Tejano artists La Mafia, Navaira, and before her death Selena, began experimenting with regional Mexican music genres in their repertoires.[41] As a result of an increase in immigration from Mexico into the US,DISA saw an increase of 40% year-over-year by 1998 from their regional Mexican music artists.Vicente Fernandez, who was inducted into theBillboard Latin Music Hall of Fame, filled seven stadiums to their capacity in Colombia, as well as one in Los Angeles. His son,Alejandro Fernandez scaled to the top of theBillboard album charts within a few years span, and he became the first act to simultaneously peak atop theLatin Pop Albums andRegional Mexican Albums charts withMe Estoy Enamorando (1997) andMuy Dentro de Mi Corazon (1996), respectively.[42]
Elsewhere in Mexico, theMexican cumbia andgrupera continued to remain relevant in the Region Mexican field as they did in the 1980s, but by the late 1990s, both genres moved to a slower-paced rhythm. Grupera and Mexican cumbia artists such asGrupo Limite,Grupo Bronco, and Los Mier dominated the grupera genre in the 1990s.[43]
Thesalsa romántica movement, which dominated the late 1980s and continued to do so in the early 1990s.[44] Artists who were backing vocalists such asJerry Rivera andVíctor Manuelle gained attention as soloists and adapted their form of Puerto Ricansalsa romántica.[45] Rivera's albumCuenta Conmigo (1992) became the best-selling salsa album sinceSiembra (1978) byWillie Colón andRubén Blades.[46] The New York style of salsa music, which was dormant in the 1980s due to the decline ofFania Records' popularity, saw a revival in the 1990s. Having founded the self-titledRMM in 1987,Ralph Mercado recruitedSergio George.[44] Mercado, who had established himself a business promoter for salsa music, had recruited many salsa veterans from the Fania Records-era to his label includingCelia Cruz,Tito Puente, andOscar D'Leon.[47] Newer salsa acts such as such asMarc Anthony andLa India worked with George to fuse salsa with the sounds ofR&B,soul, andhip hop.[48] Anthony would later become the best-selling tropical/salsa artist of all time.[49] George further experimented with salsa and hip hip and formedDark Latin Groove with frontmanHuey Dunbar.[50]
The Dominican Republicmerengue also continued rival salsa in popularity.[51]Wilfrido Vargas andJohnny Ventura were attributed to its success and began being accepted in Puerto Rico. However, due to the boycott of merengue orchestras by the Federation of Puerto Rican music in the island, several Puerto Rican merengue acts began to emerge.[52] These includedGrupo Manía, Los Sabrosos del Merengue, andLimi-T 21.[53] Former Grupo Manía memberElvis Crespo's song "Suavemente" became an international success and pushed the genre's popularity outside of Latin America.[52] In the early-to-mid 1990s, Dominicans living in New York City fused the sounds of merengue and hip hop to createmerenhouse.Proyecto Uno's "Tiburón" became the most well-known song in the merenrap field.[52] As with Puerto Rico, Venezuelan adopted their form of merengue called technomerengue. The trend started in the late 1980s and continued in the early 1990s with acts as Los Fantasmas del Cariba, Karolina, and Los Melodicos.[54]
Also from the Dominican Republic isbachata. This was generally regarded as lower-class music in the Dominican Republic and was ignored by the media. When Dominican Republic singer-songwriterJuan Luis Guerra releasedBachata Rosa in 1990, led bachata to become a mainstream genre in the country.[55] AfterBachata Rosa, many other Dominican Republic artists have been recognized as important to the growth of the genre in the 1990s includingLuis Vargas,Antony Santos,Raulín Rodríguez, andElvis Martínez.[56]
Cuban music saw of resurgence of popularity in the decade. In 1993,Gloria Estefan (whoseMiami Sound Machine band had popularized Latin pop sound to the Anglo market in the 1980s) releasedMi Tierra, her first album in Spanish. The record draws from the music of Cuban during the 1940s and 1950s includingson andboleros and sold over a million copies in the United States alone.[7][57] Four years later, American musicianRy Cooder collaborated with Cuban musical groupBuena Vista Social Club to release theirself-titled album. Despite the lack of promotion on radio stations the musicians being elderly, and the music in Spanish,[57] the album found international success and sold over 12 million copies.[58]
In a similar vein to Miguel'sRomance, in 1993 Colombian singerCarlos Vives releasedClásicos de la Provincia, a collection of classic vallenatos. The record exposed the genre to a wider audience outside of its native country as Vives gave the tracks an updated take.[59] Thecumbia villera developed in the slums of Argentina in the mid-1990s. Although cumbia always had a following in the country, utilized keyboards and electric drums with the lyrics emphasizing on drugs, crime, and provocative sexual content.[13]
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The success ofhip hop in the Western world resonated with the poor working class of Latin America, especially within theAfro-Latino community. Artists such asVico C andEl General experimented the sounds of hip hop with the sounds of Latin America. This would later give birth a new genre known asreggaeton which became prevalent in the 2000s.[60]
A new form of Afro-Brazilian music, known asaxé, from the Bahía region, began to emerge in the late 1980s and continued into the early 1990s.Daniela Mercury, a white Bahian singer, expanded the genre's popularity outside of the Afro-Brazilian community.[61] A form ofsamba music known aspagode was also very commercially success in the country during the 1990s with bands such asSó Pra Contrariar.[62]
In 1999,Sony Discos was named the most successful record label of the 1990s on theTop Latin Albums chart. Below are the 10 best-selling albums of the decade from the record label according toBillboard.[63]
In 1999, Sony Discos was named the most successful record label of the 1990s on theHot Latin Songs chart. Below are the 10 best-performing songs of the decade from the record label according toBillboard.[63]
..y el más reciente El amor después del amor ( 92 ) , una de las discografías de mayor peso dentro del rock en español .
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)Arjona sings about political and social matters with pop - rock guitars laying the background
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)Estos hechos hizo de 'Cuenta Conmigo' el disco de salsa de más venta desde el legendario 'Siembra:' de Willie Colón y Rubén Blades, manteniéndose en el primer lugar de los rankings de ventas de la mundialmente famosa revista Bilboard por más de tres meses.
En la década de 1990 , la mejor época para el merengue en función de la difusión en Puerto Rico, acapararon la atención de los medios grupos puertorriqueños como : Los Sabrosos del merengue, Grupo Manía, Límite 21...