Word: latinate
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...record labels, eager for a hot new sound, have started to court Latin pop stars. The death of Tejano star Selena in 1995 and the sales boom in her music that followed got many label suits thinking: If Selena can sell millions of CDs posthumously, how much money could we make with a Latin pop star who can still tour? Says Maria Zenoz, CEO of Caliente Entertainment, a New York City-based record company: "The untimely death of Selena caused the mainstream labels to take a look...
...perhaps appropriate that the Latin female singer who is best positioned to grab hold of a Selena-proportioned success is the woman who portrayed her on film. Gregory Nava, director of the 1997 biopic Selena, cast Jennifer Lopez in the lead. The finished film used Selena's real voice for the musical sequences, but, Nava says, Lopez would sing through her scenes during the filming. The experience inspired Lopez to launch a singing career. "I did a demo in Spanish after Selena and submitted it to the Work label," says Lopez. "They said, 'We like it, but we want...
Still, some longtime aficionados fear that the new pop Latin wave could wash away important cultural connections. Esmerelda Santiago, author of the memoir When I Was Puerto Rican, says the current crop of singers being pushed by the major labels could use some skin-tone diversity. She feels the artists who are being promoted to superstardom mostly look Anglo, leaving the darker performers behind. "It's fascinating to me, and a little upsetting, that this is still the white face of the Caribbean," says Santiago. "I'm sure that there are equally talented and gifted artists out there whose facial...
...wary of media stories lumping them into a single group. "I don't know what they're talking about with this Latino crossover thing," he says. "I could see it if I was doing a salsa album in English. But you know what? We're not doing Latin music on our English stuff. Latin-tinged...
Anthony says there are still many stereotypes in the media about Latin performers. The other day, he recalls, he was watching 25 Lame (an MTV show about bad videos), and one of the hosts kept putting on a sombrero when a video by a Latin artist came on. Anthony also feels there's not enough effort put into promoting more traditional forms of Latin music...