Is Salsa Music Losing Fans to Hip Hop?

[Pass It On]

According to an Associated Press article, Hip Hop is the music of choice among the younger generation in Latin countries, while Salsa is for "geezers". I'll bet the younger dudes don't meet as many chicks doing Hip Hop.
Salsa loses tang to hip-hop

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For many young Latin Americans, salsa is for geezers. Weened on MTV, they go nuts for Nelly and sing the praises of P. Diddy. But traditional music roots don't fade away so easily, and a growing number of DJs and musicians are developing a hybrid sound that takes hip-hop and reggae beats to create a sub-genre that is catching fire from San Juan to LA, writes Ricardo Zuniga

Bobbing to hip-hop and reggae beats, Latinos in baggy jeans and oversized shirts pack a San Juan outdoor disco in Puerto Rico, hungry for the newest grooves.

"This is our music, the music of our generation!" shouts 24-year-old Julio Gonzalez over sonic booms emitted by stacks of huge speakers.

Read the Full Story (http://english.eastday.com/epublish/gb/paper1/871/class000100006/hwz127957.htm)

Your thoughts?

[salsarhythms]

Just want to mention two things:

Salsa music has really never been that big among the younger generations.

I myself remember HATING it along with any other latin beat,
like Merengue, Bachata, Cha-Cha, anything like that.

So yeah, I too was a lot more into hip-hop than anything else.

But to me that's just a temporary thing. When you're younger I don't
think you want to be associated to music your parents like!

That really doesn't surprise me at all.

However, another growing trend is the fact that younger generations of
non-latin ethnicity are actually growing more and more fond of Salsa
music.

The second point is this:

The comment mentions a club in Puerto Rico. Let me tell you, in PR
they hardly play salsa music. It's more Merengue, Cha-Cha, Bachata
Hip-Hop and others.

Of course you can find clubs that do, but the majority of the music
that is played is not so much salsa.

[SDsalsaguy]

Fernando makes good points.

Salsa (actually mambo at the time) emerged, after all, among the Puerto Rican contingent in New York -- not in Puerta Rico.

Also, even though salsa may not be the music "of choice" for many younger kids, most are still exposed to it at a variety of family functions, etc., and it is often later on that this familiaritry and comfort comes to have personal salience.

[Spitfire]

Funny, I just read a post from a Lindy Hop discussion board stating concern for the lindy scene losing out to Salsa. :o

[DancingMommy]

Bumping this one up for some more discussion by some newer members....

[aimerrouge]

My initial reaction is a questions of my own. Is this question targetted towards anyone in particular? Is this about partner-dancing?

"Losing fans" to another genre of music? This is not just limited to salsa. I don't think that actually happens.

I've found certain genres of music or even just songs speak to me depending on what is taking place in that time of my life.

Have I ever completely abandoned a genre? I think not. However, my tastes have expanded. I like more and different types of music now.

[Matrix]

How about losing fans to Disco or Reggaeton!?

Man, there's this promotion company in my city that's called Back To Disco (backtodisco.com), and they always manage to have the most amazing looking women all over the club when they have an event. Well, at least 5-10 in the night are just like "wow"... Reggaeton is also a big market here in Los Angeles, people want it more and more...

Salsa music is not so club-friendly... Dancers don't drink, they usually look for guest lists, they don't support the clubs... Many clubs close down or shift music after a while.

[djpatricio]

I have a lot to say about this.

As far as salsa “losing ground” to hip-hop and reggaeton, my first reaction is, well, of course it is! I mean, what do you expect, given the effects of globalization and the homogenation of worldwide media? The 23-year old Venezuelan kid quoted in the article said it best, “I think it's because of the influence of TV. I watch a lot of MTV, and it's the same for many young kids." Not much you can do about that.

Still, at the same time, I can play an old school salsa tune and these kids that weren’t even born yet when the song came out will sing all the words. So, I don’t think that salsa is in any danger of being forgotten, by any means. I think it is hack journalism to assert that salsa is somehow “in danger” of being lost, as many similar articles have asserted in the past. I just think that things are changing, as happens with any genre of music, but salsa as a genre won’t ever disappear. It’s too cool for that, too timeless for that to happen.

The world is plagued by the mistaken belief that if something sells well, it must be good. Sales of salsa music will always be overshadowed by sales of reggaeton/hip-hop and pop music, but that doesn’t mean that that’s because those forms of music are now “better” than salsa. It just means that the market is changing, tastes are changing, and that the masses have bad taste in general because they can’t think for themselves, and need to be led around by the nose like cattle and told what is good and what to consume. Salsa is sophisticated, it’s not as easy to understand as some of the other types of music that appeal to the lowest common denominator, so for that reason, it will never be on top, busting the popular charts, but who cares?

In Ned Sublette’s new book, which is amazing, entitled “Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo”, the author gives an answer to a question that he is often asked, which I am often asked and I’m sure a lot of you are asked as well, and that question is, “Why are you so into (Latin) music?” His answer is my answer, “Because I have good taste”. Nuff’ said. Once again, because of the influence of globalization now dictating the tastes and desires of the masses, instead of arising organically from the people, we have moved away from latin music as a movement and a statement of the people towards a different style of music that is more dictated by MTV and big corporations trying to sell you a lot of crap.

I have to temper that last statement with a confession. I own a lot of reggaeton music. There are some reggaeton tunes that really flip my switch. I find that even though the majority of reggaeton artists don’t appeal to me, there are still a lot of artists and songs that do. Good music is good music. Still, for me salsa is king, salsa is everything, good salsa is the most perfect representation of the beauty of humanity and the joy of living, and for that reason I don’t worry much about it’s survival, as there will always be people around who feel the same way, and who have good taste, even if they are never in the majority.

[Houdinni]

Salsa doesn't loose people to hiphop!

But people can listen/dance to several different quinds of music...

Besides salsa is by definitions a mixture. So why couldn't it also be influenced by hiphop, or hiphop by salsa? It already happens... Remember Orishas...?

[dancin/dj]

young people always are into new sounds(good or bad) new music ,which really is recycled forms of grooves already laid down by other bands-musicans etc..the french were rapping a long time ago and other euro peoples.salsa is rooted and planted in many people and will not go away-but will change(as it already has) waltz has been around what 500 years?the young in puerto rico as they get older will do what any young folk do grow into what they like which will most likely be a mix of different music tastes.some people will never like salsa, but the trend of salsa dancing(not the music that people grow up on) the trend of salsa craze over the last say 6 years will and is dying down(the clubs studios etc....) these are facts (all ) dance crazes die down at some point,just like mambo did in new york(now its salsa) or disco or swing,swing just came back 10 years ago from the 30"s 50"s heyday no? ballroom dancin is the only one woldwide that enjoys a steady continuim.

[IsabellaCruella]

I don't think so at all. Salsa is salsa. Hip hop is hip hop. The truth is that you are going to dance to what you are in the mood for. A lot of the hip hop out there- that is so popular is pretty much ****- a lot of it is great(especially the underground stuff)- I think young people will realize that- well, I am hoping they well. I mean I am a young person, and I have always had a taste for salsa- since I was a child. We need to just pass this stuff on- the deep love for the music and culture. I plan to teach my kids salsa and breathe the music in to the lungs so they can understand its beauty and talent.

[brujo]

I don't think so at all. Salsa is salsa. Hip hop is hip hop.

It's hard to draw the line nowdays. I can list off about 20 songs that are a mix of salsa and reggaeton.

Reggaeton seems to have a lot more of the old school Ruben Blades urgency in the lyrics that salsa has been missing for a while.

Personally, I been listening to a lot more reggaeton and timba than pure salsa... it just gets boring after a while...

[HothouseSalsero]

I don't think so at all. Salsa is salsa. Hip hop is hip hop.

It's hard to draw the line nowdays. I can list off about 20 songs that are a mix of salsa and reggaeton.

Reggaeton seems to have a lot more of the old school Ruben Blades urgency in the lyrics that salsa has been missing for a while.

Personally, I been listening to a lot more reggaeton and timba than pure salsa... it just gets boring after a while...

Whereas timba gets boring almost immediately. (Granted, I can't understand the words.) Maybe the spread of reggaeton will at least eliminate the ridiculous rapping that repeatedly turns up on timba tracks.

[HothouseSalsero]

But to respond to the original question: I'm not sure how much it makes sense. I'm not sure salsa has really been so big with young Latinos (let alone others). A lot of people seem to think its been a niche music for a long time, or even that it's always been that.

Hip-hop, or more generally, digital/electronic music containing some type of rapping, has pretty much conquered popular music internationally, in a way that I don't think rock music ever succeeded in doing (and salsa certainly never came close to doing--which is not to deny that salsa has a cult following more or less all over the world). It's more popular, and it's newer than salsa, which makes it easier for young people to turn it into a vehicle to express a sense of generational identity. This all seems pretty obvious to me. (Although I have to admit there are counter-trends: there are revivals of various acoustic types of music throughout Africa, and the old genre of rock music still means a lot to lots of people, including some young people.)

[cocodrilo]

The young latinos that attend my salas parties say that salsa music is pretty depressing(they were referring to the likes of Marc Anthony et al) and actually do prefer hip hop. However, they will come to the parties to meet girls and drink beer, and do eventually end up dancing, so that's fine by me...

[Ms_Sunlight]

Hip-hop, or more generally, digital/electronic music containing some type of rapping, has pretty much conquered popular music internationally

To be pedantic, hip-hop music does not have to contain any rapping (it's all in the beats) although they do tend to go together these days, and rapping far predates hip-hop. But I know what you mean.