Latin music is the new currency of the globalized pop scene. First, rapper Bad Bunny from Puerto Rico achieves the feat of becoming the winner of the world annual evaluation of the streaming top dog Spotify for the third time in a row. At the same time, the US magazine "Rolling Stone", better known as the bible for alt-rockers, calls the singer Rosalia the "most unconventional superstar in the pop world". The Latin wave is surging parallel to the impressive successes of the South Korean K-pop scene. The decades-long dominance of Western-influenced rock and pop seems to have been broken.
If you add the booming sound designs from Africa, young pop music in particular comes with a lot of pressure from the Global South. In the 2022 call-up list, Bad Bunny from Puerto Rico leads with an impressive 20.4 billion tracks played on Spotify alone.
Rauw Alejandro, who is only known among connoisseurs in this country, also makes it into the top ten with 5.86 billion views. Even Olivia Rodrigo with her 3.49 billion views lands ahead of the remaining Britsoul heroine Adele, who has 3.31 billion clicks. Taylor Swift can just about keep up. Otherwise, the disdainful streaming numbers mark a new world order in the hit scene.
The multiple genre traded under "Latin" is not a new phenomenon. The documentary film "Nueva York" by director Sergio G. Mondelo, which is well worth seeing, follows the former hub function of the Big Apple for Hispanic waves of migrants from Puerto Rico, Colombia or the Dominican Republic over many decades.
The musical biographies of old masters such as Tito Puente or Ray Barretto in "Nueva York – The New York of the Latinos" also show how music developed in the diaspora and what social power it was able to unfold. Until she finally became part of international pop culture, with superstars like Gloria Estefan, Jennifer "J Lo" Lopez or Shakira.
Now a new massive sound wave is piling up, in which a music industry melting pot like New York has become obsolete. The global marketing channels have long been more diverse. This became clear at the last Latin Grammys, celebrated with great cinnabar in Miami in mid-November 2022.
Here, singer Rosalia won in four categories. Including the award for "Best Album". To which some purists raised their eyebrows: Why does a Spaniard use the rhythms of the Dominican Republic on "Motomami"? To do this, she uses Caribbean slang expressions and mixes them with traditions from flamenco. A case of commercial-cultural appropriation in the Latin scene? Rosalia herself can only shrug her shoulders, as she moves confidently in a milieu that already breaks boundaries. She has blended her own roots in the music of Andalusia with a push of electro for the Tiktok generation. Purism doesn't get you very far today.
The 30-year-old songwriter was on a world tour with "Motomami" last December. Dressed in a tight red stage outfit, she played in front of a sold-out velodrome in Berlin. After all, around 12,000 fans; Multicultural, young and chic. As with its predecessor "El Mal Querer", their current songs are a wild ride. Between twerks, love songs and rap numbers, the modern, often contradictory woman wades through emotional ups and downs. And it can also be completely silly.
One can argue about whether it is the emphatically sensual display of physicality that catches on with a wide audience as an antidote to the woke debates in Western pop culture.
Finally, digital modernity meets a sometimes mild rhythm carpet that is already laid out in the dance school groove of the Lambada in the early 1990s. A rather conservative revolution that allows the down-to-earth to grow and flourish. "In my music production, a big part of it is how we feel joy when we do things we like, when we are with the person we love, when we eat something we enjoy or watch something entertaining," says Manuel Turizo. "My album "Dopamine" is a dopamine release in the truest sense of the word. It made everyone feel good. I am now developing this approach further with '2000'."