From Salsa to Tejano to Banda: The New Latin Crossover Hits

Imagine that the same Mariah Carey single simultaneously tops the pop, country, rap, alternative rock and dance charts, in each case with a remix geared to the specific genre.

Impossible?

Not in Spanish.

One-time salsa group Son by Four has the No. 1 Latin single in the U.S. with “A Puro Dolor,” thanks to a handful of clever remixes aimed at the nation’s distinct Latin music markets.

In Miami, Puerto Rico and New York, the song was released as a funky salsa/R&B; hybrid. In Los Angeles, the Midwest, Southwest and South, it was released as a sugary pop ballad.

And now the same song has even shown up at No. 13 on the nation’s mainstream pop singles chart, with a straight R&B; version sung partly in English.

This isn’t an isolated incident. In the last year, all five of the major Latin labels in the U.S. have begun to release multiple versions of the same single, tailored to fit each of the distinct U.S. Latin markets.

The result of this new marketing strategy has been greater cross-genre radio exposure for artists, leading to increased sales.

To understand why this is happening, you have to understand a little bit about the U.S. Latin music market, which is broken into distinct geographical regions, each with its own favorite genres that have little to do with one another beyond language.

In the Northeast, southern Florida and Puerto Rico, merengue, bachata and salsa (collectively known as “tropical”) still dominate. In Texas, tejano is still king. And in California, Arizona, New Mexico, the Midwest and the South, the favored genres are cumbia, norteno, banda and other “Mexican regional” or Mexican country styles.

In the recent past, each of these genres and regions had its own superstars, and few fans of the other genres had ever heard of them.

But in an industry facing shrinking Spanish radio format options (less tropical, more Mexican regional and pop) and under increasing pressure from parent companies to turn profits, that is quickly changing, as songs are electronically stripped and re-outfitted to suit the different markets.

Son by Four had an anemic chart presence as a salsa act on its previous recordings but is now the nation’s strongest Latin group, with the No. 1 Latin single in the nation for more than two months. (The group headlines tonight at the House of Blues.)

According to Rogelio Macin, general manager of BMG Latin, this new trend is the real “crossover” in today’s Latin music market, one in which acts are sold in new musical genres, rather than in a new language.

Macin’s label is marketing Puerto Rican merengue singer Gisselle as a pop balladeer in the parts of the country outside the merengue strongholds. The campaign helped Gisselle debut at No. 30 on the Latin charts early this month with her single “Jurame.”

Billboard’s director of Latin charts, Ricardo Companioni, says he noticed the trend toward multiple-genre single releases last year, when Puerto Rican tropi-pop singer Millie suddenly appeared on the Mexican regional charts with “De Hoy en Adelante.”

“I wondered what was going on, then realized the song that was charting was actually a cumbia remix of the single, made especially for the Mexican regional market,” Companioni says.

According to George Zamora, president of the WEA Latina label, the majority of the acts releasing alternate versions of their singles are tropical acts who must seek new markets if they are to survive.

Even though much of the mainstream English media continues to associate Latin music with stereotypic, percussion-heavy tropical genres such as mambo and salsa, tropical music is actually losing ground commercially, with pop, rock and Mexican regional genres taking over the Latin marketplace.

The shift reflects immigration patterns that have seen Mexicans and Central Americans become the largest and most geographically widespread bloc of Latinos in the U.S.

Now, for a Spanish-language act to be a major seller in the U.S., Zamora and others say, it can’t appeal to only the dwindling tropical market but must catch on in the Latin pop, English pop or Mexican regional markets--preferably all three.

“You have to have the right artist and the right song to do this,” Zamora says, “but when you find that, it’s great.”

Other tropical artists who have strengthened their careers by releasing remixes of singles aimed at the romantic pop and Mexican regional markets are salsa singers Jerry Rivera and Frankie Negron and merengue singer Olga Tanon.

Merengue singer Elvis Crespo also saw enormous crossover success in 1998 and ’99 with a dance remix of his hit “Suavemente,” which held on the Billboard dance charts for a record 99 weeks, outpacing even Cher’s “Believe,” which held for 84 weeks.

But the trend is not strictly limited to tropical artists crossing over into other genres. Occasionally, it can go the other way, as with the new Alejandro Fernandez single, “Quiereme,” which is a pop ballad for most of the nation but has an Afro-Caribbean percussion feel in the New York and Miami versions.

Supporters of this new marketing strategy cite the positive effect of exposing listeners to new genres and artists they would not have thought about otherwise. Critics, though, say labels are deceiving listeners by presenting artists in contexts that don’t represent the performer’s primary musical style. They worry that fans will become suspicious if there’s a constant discrepancy between a hit single and the album the original song comes from. The 14-track Son by Four album, for example, includes the pop and salsa versions of the hit single, one pop ballad, one pop song and 10 other salsa songs--maybe a disappointment for pop fans who think the group is pure pop thanks to the radio single.

Some artists agree privately this type of marketing can be deceptive but will not say so on the record.

Label heads do not deny the practice of releasing specialized mixes might be misleading, but defend the practice by saying most record stores have listening booths where customers can “test drive” albums before buying them. Label executives also say this type of marketing is necessary for their survival in the fragmented marketplace.

“There are things you have to do to develop an artist in this marketplace, which is not like any other Spanish-speaking market on earth,” Macin says.

“This is not an original market. . . . This is the U.S. Latin population, and we are immigrants from all over the world. We might have the same language, but we don’t have the same tastes. To unify the market, we have to give the songs and artists to people the way they like to hear it.”

But do the labels worry this may ultimately alienate listeners who buy an album assuming it is pop only to find it is merengue or salsa?

“Sure, with some acts, some people may be disappointed” when they buy the album, Zamora says. “But we don’t do it for album sales. We do it for radio exposure and single sales. We have to.”