For the month of October in honoring Hispanic Heritage Month PBS has already premiered its first half of a four-hour documentary series. Now its premiered the second and final two episodes. This is how Latin music has shaped popular music in many genres in the United States throughout the decades. You’ll be taken on a musical journey with a mix of fascinating music and intriguing interviews with various journalists, musicians, record producers, and performers. In the second and final airing Part Three is devoted to the Mexican-American artists and their fellow neighbors south of the border who have contributed greatly to mainstream music, especially in the early days of rock and roll. Part Four is focused on the young Latin music vocalists and groups who have successfully crossed over to the English-speaking market making a huge impact on pop music and other contemporary genres.
Episode Three
An introduction of this program takes you to Los Angeles, California where you go inside East Los Angles with its huge population of Mexican-Americans. One of the first pioneering Chicano musical artists to successfully crossover into mainstream rock and roll was a young teen from Pacoima, in LA’s San Fernando Valley, Ritchie Valenzuela. In mid 1958 Bob Keane, owner of Del-Fi Records, heard Ritchie play based on word of mouth. He liked what he heard and recorded the 17- year old at a recording studio in his home. In order to get his record out it was necessary to change his name to Ritchie Valens for the mainstream audience, which was predominately white at the time.
While on a drive to a gig in San Francisco Bob Keane and Ritchie Valens heard a song on the car radio in Spanish called “La Bamba”, which is a Mexican folk song. Even though Ritchie had to change his name due to it being too ethnic, ironically his biggest hit song was sung entirely in Spanish. With two songs on the Billboard charts for Valens it was in early 1959 he was invited to tour with Buddy Holly and “The Big Bopper”, J.P. Richardson. This was called the “Winter Dance Party”. On February 3, 1959 was “The Day the Music Died”. Ritchie Valens, along with Buddy Holly and J.P. Richardson, were killed in a plane crash while en route to their next gig. Four months after Valens death the film “Go Johnny Go!” was released featuring Valens singing in a diner scene to some female patrons. In his short-lived career of only 8 months Ritchie Valens had 4 hit songs, a feat that has never been duplicated.
After Ritchie Valens death many more Mexican-American bands went by non-Latin names in the early to mid 1960’s such as Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs with their hit song “Wooly Bully”, ? & The Mysterians with “96 Tears”, and Little Joe and the Latinairs. By the late 1960’s Brown Pride was taking hold for Chicanos who wanted their voice heard, thanks to its leader, Cesar Chavez. This inspired Little Joe to change his name to Little Joe and La Familia. When Little Joe heard an accordion play while listening to conjunto, which is a version of tejano music that comprises of a traditional harmonic blend of Mexican and a cross culture of immigrants in Texas sound, his direction in music changed. Little Joe made Tejano music popular by the 1970’s later paving the way for future Tejano artists such as El Chicano, Tierra, and Selena Quintanilla.
Freddy Fender, born Baldemar Huerta, had moderate success in the late 50’s as El Bebop Kid in some Latin American countries. Later he changed his name to Freddy Fender after the Fender guitar. In 1959 he initially recorded “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” that became popular until his arrest on possession of marijuana in 1960, where he served a three year prison sentence in Louisiana. Afterwards, times were hard on him, his wife, and children living in extreme poverty inside an enclosed chicken coop. Luck would change for Fender in the early to mid 70’s when he recorded “Before the Next Teardrop Falls”. It later became the #1 song on both the Billboard country and pop charts. Subsequently, he had more successful genre-crossing hits including his remake of “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights”. Freddy Fender was the recipient of many country music awards whom they were reluctant to give him at first. From 1974 to 1983 Fender had a total of 21 hits, some of which were sung entirely in Spanish, a feat unheard of before in the staunchly traditional country music genre.
In the 1980’s from East LA comes a group known as Los Lobos (the Wolves) who combine rock and tejano music by using many of the traditional instruments played, including the accordion, along with the standard rock guitars and percussion. Their biggest mainstream #1 hit was the remake of “:La Bamba” for the 1987 film based on the life of Ritchie Valens. Afterwards, they returned to Tejano and Chicano rock.
Linda Ronstadt wanted to record a Spanish lyric album during the extreme height of her immensely popular rock/pop music career in the 1970’s. Record executives were completely against it, but she stated “these songs were screaming in my head to be sung”. During her youth her father, who is Mexican-American with some German and English ancestry, would gather the family to sing songs in Spanish. Her wish came true with the 1987 album “Canciones de Mi Padre” (My Father’s Songs) a collection of traditional Mexican folk songs. This double platinum album of Ms. Ronstadt’s is the best-selling album in Spanish to date. However, like all good things in life, Mexican influenced music reached its zenith in the late 1980’s.
By the late 80’s to mid 1990’s Selena Quintanilla, better known simply as Selena, was making a name for herself in the tejano music world winning award after award each year at the Tejano Music Awards ceremony. She was fast becoming the “Queen of Tejano music”. This caught the attention of record producer Jose Behar who signed her on with Capitol/EMI. Her foothold on the Spanish-speaking market grew with each album released. It was decided in 1995 Selena was ready for crossing over to the English-speaking market with an all-English language album. She was suppose to be at the recording studio one night, but never showed up. Selena was murdered by her fan club president on March 31, 1995 at the age of 23. After her death Tejano music began to fade, however, Los Tigres del Norte (The Tigers of the North) from Mexico perform norterno or conjunto that is a genre of Mexican music featuring the accordion and bajo sexto as its predominant instruments. With the influx of Mexican immigrants in Texas and California this form of music has taken over Tejano. Los Tigres del Norte are its superstars. They have out-sold all other Latin music artists.
It opens with Ricky Martin performing the opening number at the Grammy Awards in February 1999 where he is suppose to sing only in English, instead breaks out afterwards into Spanish throughout the rest of the song. The live audience in the auditorium and the television viewers are captivated by this extremely good-looking and charismatic singer. Gloria Estefan is the first Latin music superstar featured with a first hand look at Emilio Estefan’s beginnings after leaving Cuba during its exodus. He started his music career with the Miami Latin Boys singing Cuban classics. He decided they needed a female vocalist who could sing both in Spanish and English since they wanted to expand their repertoire. The band decides to hire Gloria Fajardo, whom would later become Mrs. Emilio Estefan.
In the mid 1980’s they formed the group, Miami Sound Machine who would become instrumental with introducing non-Latin markets such as Middle America and the communist Eastern Bloc European countries to Latin Pop. Their first hit “Conga” followed up by “Rhythm is Gonna Get You” as well as some beautiful ballads proved they were not just a dance band, but could crossover successfully to the Adult Contemporary charts too. Tommy Mottola, Chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, signed on Gloria Estefan when she embarked on her solo career starting in 1989. He further developed and nurtured her career by wanting her to remain in Latin Pop. Since then she has legitimized and incorporated Latin music into mainstream pop.
Marc Anthony started out in freestyle, then gravitated to salsa music. It was in the late 90’s while in a Broadway musical Tommy Mottola, the renowned CEO and mentor to the biggest recording stars in the world, saw him perform. Later he was signed to Sony Music. He has thus become the top selling tropical salsa artist of all time. Ricky Martin, like Marc Anthony, are both Puerto Ricans. Ricky started out in the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo. He later acted in the soap opera “General Hospital” and on Broadway. Music was where he wanted to make his mark and began recording an English-speaking album. His first hit single “Livin’ la Vida Loca” was a song Tommy Mottola did not like at first.
Thus was the start of the Latin wave in contemporary music. Jennifer Lopez’s debut album “On the 6” made her the first major Latina superstar. Marc Anthony’s sold-out concert at Madison Square Gardens for his HBO TV special, “Latin Explosion” was an instant sensation. South Beach in Miami became a hot bed for music producers, including Emilio Estefan. One such singer was the Colombian-Lebanese rocker known simply as Shakira. Her alternative rock and folk style sound made her incredibly unique from the countless sultry, sexy Latina artists. Shakira uses her Lebanese roots by performing belly dances at her concerts. Inevitably the Latin Wave would eventually recede. In that time since new music has emerged in the Puerto Rican ghettos called Reggaeton. It originated in Panama and is a mixture of Latin music, Spanish rap, and reggae music. Daddy Yankee is one of its most well-known recording stars of Reggaeton.
Rock en Espanol is simply rock music strictly in Spanish and a new market for this genre in the U.S. One of its most popular artists is Juanes from Colombia. Rap music is featuring Latin rappers such as Pitbull from Miami. The Tony Award winning musical in 2008 “In the Heights” is based on the lives of a New York City Dominican-American neighborhood, Washington Heights written and composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda. He closes with the statement that’s at the crux of what his musical is all about ‘Where is home? Where do I belong?” Some Latin immigrants are indeed conflicted with living in the U.S. trying to make it home or wanting to just belong.
Overview
My favorite episodes out of this four-hour music documentary would be Episode One, which focused on the history of Latin Jazz covering the decades of the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, and the 60’s. These musicians who were showcased: Mario Bauza, Tito Puente, and Carlos Santana were its truest pioneers. The other favorite of mine is Episode Three that was dedicated to the Mexican-Americans, Chicanos, who made remarkable contributions to rock and roll, country, and pop music outside of their musical heritage. However, this was an outstanding PBS series where I learned a great deal about Latin music I was not otherwise aware of. I now have a greater appreciation and understanding for this incredible genre of music.
SOURCES:
The Chicano Wave; Divas and Superstars. Latin Music USA. Narr. Jimmy Smits PBS. WGBH, Boston, 19 Oct. 2009. Television.
