Driven by the success of “Despacito” and with the base of more than two decades of work, Latin urban music has become popular all over the world, a trend that is benefiting all Hispanics, according to record executives.
In that successful route, without doubt the platforms of online reproduction (“streaming”) and in general the digitalization of the consumption of music have exerted of unbeatable trampoline.
“Despacito”, for example, the world-famous theme of Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, reached a sort of Everest on Friday becoming the most reproduced video in the history of YouTube, after accumulating 2,993,786,682 reproductions in this platform and being very Close to overcoming the barrier of 3 billion visits.
Another trend meter, the online music service Spotify, this week crowned the song “Mi Gente” by the Colombian J Balvin, along with the producer and dj French Willy William, at the top of his list “Global 50” .
As if that were not enough, in the second position is located “Despacito” in its version “remix” with Justin Bieber, while other five Latin artists are among the top 25 of this list that brings together the most listened to the platform .
“Streaming consumption is fundamental to the awareness of the numbers that Latin songs are reaching around the world. There are two great examples, ‘Despacito’ and ‘Mi Gente’,” Jesús López, president of Efe And executive director of Universal Music for Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula.
“Since (the song) ‘Gasolina’ (2004) has been working and ‘Despacito’ has solidified bringing Spanish music to the whole world,” said Puerto Rican Daddy Yankee, author of the song. Lever “of digital platforms.
“Having a platform like YouTube has allowed us to reach all corners of the planet,” adds the Puerto Rican Fonsi.
Although for the new arrivals the urban genre, as it has been called to the umbrella that embraces rhythms like reggaeton, the Latin American trap and other styles, is a recent phenomenon the truth is that its birth dates back to the mid 90’s in Puerto Rico .
Songs like “Gasolina” were important because they gained popularity beyond the borders of reggaeton, but it was not until 2010 when much of the planet was given to the genre thanks to “Danza Kuduro”, the duet signed by Don Omar and Franco-Lusitanian Luzenzo.
The following steps were put by the Spanish Enrique Iglesias and the Cuban duo Gente de Zona, who with “Bailando” reigned long on the musical charts, while Pitbull, with his combination of Spanish and English, familiarized the international audience with the language Of Cervantes, this last an increasing tendency in the judgment of Lopez.
“It will be more and more interesting to use the indistinct and mixed use of the two predominant languages, Castilian and English,” said the executive of Universal, the record giant that has both Fonsi and J Balvin in its catalog.
“It will be the most frequent collaboration between Latino and Anglo artists. Our young consumer in the United States is bicultural and bilingual,” he added.
For specialists, just that combination of two cultures is what has finished to catapult the success of “Despacito”.
Adding the data of the original song and the version next to the Canadian Justin Bieber, the subject has reached the 4,600 million reproductions in the main services of music in Internet. In fact, thanks to “Despacito” Bieber surpassed the record that achieved his song “Sorry” with 4,380 million reproductions.
Hurricane “Despacito” seems to be pushing other Latin music artists. “Golden”, Romeo Santos’ third album, debuted this week in tenth position on the Billboard 200 chart and in first place in the Top Latin Albums ranking.
Shortly before, Jennifer Lopez and Gente de Zona presented their song singing in Spanish “Ni tú ni yo” in the celebrations in New York for the 4 of July, the holiday for the Independence Day in the United States, one of the most Views of the country that day.
“I am very grateful to” Despacito. “Yankee and Fonsi have made the eyes and ears of the world focus on Latino artists,” Chyno Miranda, who was part of the Chyno & Nacho duo, told Efe.
According to Lopez, the idea is to take the wave that has generated Latin urban music to “continue investing in new songs and new artists,” in addition to bringing veterans to new to new consumer tastes.
And in this, new technologies will be key.
