What is the Impact of Latin Music in the Music Industry?

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

Over the last couple of years, Latin music has slowly stepped out of the shadows to captivate the world’s attention and seduce people with its unique sounds and styles.

But what impact has this recognition truly done for the Latin music scene?

Originally Latin American countries have always followed trends established by the US and music is not an exception. This once led local musicians to struggle to find a way to the spotlight within their own country and to introduce their sound into the music industry, but 2018 has turned these musician’s luck around with artists like JBalvin, Maluma and Luis Fonsi finding their way to the top of international music charts, showing a bit of what South America has to offer.

Reggaeton has slowly but surely paved the way for Latino artists to jump into the mainstream media and given smaller artists a stronger sense of hope to pursue their careers in the music industry. Given that just these last two years songs like I Like It by Cardi B and featuring JBalvin and Bad Bunny and Despacito by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee have reached the #1 spot on the charts,  smaller artist like Bomba Estereo and Rawayana have been part of world-renowned festivals like Glastonbury, SXSW, and Lollapalooza, show how much the music industry is hungry for new sounds and opening its doors to South America to show its potential.

Though this is just the beginning of this music revolution in which Latin America is front and center, it has been quite limited to certain genres which tend to be more mainstream, but expect to see more and to see the array of sounds the Latin music market has to offer.