Asking as someone who's listens to Spanish radio in NY but sometimes streams Caribbean Tropical stations, why's it so different in the Caribbean compared to here? I'm going to use Telemicro's "Independencia F.M." and "KeBuena" in D.R. as examples. "Independencia" and "KeBuena" in D.R. are mostly Bachata, Perico Ripiao (Merengue Cibaeño) and Merengue. They're pretty successful from what I've seen. Let's compare them to Spanish Tropical stations in America and the difference is HUGE. Univision's "X96" and SBS' "Mega 97.9" in New York mostly play Salsa & Modern Latin Pop while SBS' "Amor" in New York mostly plays late 90's/early 2000's Bachata along with Modern Latin Pop. Now, I'm going to compare that to iHeart's "Rumba 100" in Orlando and SBS' "El Zol" in Tampa. "Rumba" is pretty much all Modern Latin Pop with a little bit of Salsa and Bachata. In Tampa, SBS' "El Zol 97" in nearly ALL Modern Latin Pop from what I've seen. Why's it so different from the Caribbean?
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Why is Tropical so different in the U.S. compared to Latin America?
- Thread starter 101.9 La Kalle
- Start date
15% of Americans speak Spanish. 100% of Dominicans speak Spanish.
With a more limited audience from the get-go, not to mention one that will tend to be rather young, you have to go with the hot music in Spanish.
While I'd wager that the two stations mentioned serve just Dominicans, Spanish speakers in the US have heritage from different countries, and -- including Puerto Rico -- territories. I'm sure that has something to do with it. And then some native-born Americans of those heritages who may like Tropical might have different tastes than their grandparents or parents did back in the old country.
The tastes in "tropical" music are very different from country to country. In the case of Puerto Rico, a tiny bit of bachata goes a long way and merengue on the radio is limited to the station in San Juan that targets Dominican immigrants.
In Colombia, cumbia is nearly dead, salsa is appealing mostly to those over 40 to 45, and the genre that has been prevalent for several decades is vallenato. In Perú, it is tecnocumbia but also that now appeals to older listeners.
And so on, nation by nation.
In New York, stations have to appeal to the immigrant population from a number of countries, playing what will be acceptable to a variety of national origins.
Years ago, when I programmed Z-101 in Santo Domingo, I found the station mixing salsa and merengue. I immediately got rid of the salsa and ratings improved. But when you program a station with music that any other station can duplicate easily, you are vulnerable... so I brought in two personalities, Willy and Marino, to do a talk show that we named El Gobierno de la Mañana and eventually moved away from music.
My point is that "tropical" is so competitive that none of them is particularly distinctive and none is vastly superior in ratings... so using Santo Domingo stations as reference is not appropriate. In particular, people who migrate don't always have the same musical culture, education and taste as those who remain in a nation.
The Puerto Rican community in New York has not seen significant inbound migration for 55 years. So those who came in the huge migration of the 50's and 60's are now too old to be an advertising and radio target audience. Second generation tends to move to English language music and radio stations.
U.S. born second and later generation Hispanics represent a very small part of the listening to Spanish language radio.
The target of U.S. Spanish language stations is almost totally first generation immigrants.
That is because the Dominican migration to the U.S. began relatively recently, so most are first generation native Spanish speakers. Their children will generally be bilingual, and most will listen to English language radio station.
Several years ago on the Grammys I think I am correct that two nominated groups performed music classified as "Tropical", one before the commercial break and one after. While I don't know the specific genres, I do know I enjoyed both performances.
The funny (funny peculiar, not funny haha) thing is that none of those genres we've mentioned is called "tropical" in their countries of origin.
Like "regional Mexican" this term is an American construct to define non-local music forms not understood by non-Hispanic retailers.
I remember listening to this style of merengue as a kid.
I also listened to Eladio Romero Santos as a kid (a more traditional style).
I used to hear to Eladio's songs in my grandparents' house often, along with slightly more modern Perico Ripiao like the variant of "La Chiflera" recorded by Los Toros Band and music by Fefita La Grande. I believe they were streaming a radio station out of R.D., KeBuena if I remember correctly.
I like the second one better. First one starts well but gets kind of repetitive.
Since when are you Dominican?
Since when are you?
Since we're on the topic of Perico Ripiao (aka Merengue Cibaeño and mostly referred to as Merengue Tipico in the U.S.), I'd like to mention how every couple of years, there's a brand new artist in the genre who's apparently gonna "revolutionize the genre" or "repopularize Merengue" that always ends up being forgotten by everyone. First it was Omega El Fuerte, then it was Ala Jaza, and last year it was El Rubio Acordeón. He popped off in the summertime with "Mariela" and "Las Indias De Bani," ending off the year with a performance on SBS' "Mega Bash" concert in NY. Now he hardly gets played on the radio. What's up with that?
Since I set up and programmed the station that is still overwhelmingly #1 back about 40 years ago. I've lived there and worked with some of the most talented talk hosts in the world there!Since when are you?
As the Facundo Cabral song goes,
I'm not from here and not from there.
I have no age, nor future.
Just being content is my color
...of identity.
(No soy de aquí, ni soy de allá
No tengo edad, ni porvenir
Y ser feliz es mi color
De identidad)
The "reinvention" of merengue goes back to Juan Luis Guerra and then Monchy & Alexandra and then... well, another one very couple of years. We are talking about the merengue being restyled going back to the 1980's in some form or another.
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