Tampa Bay Times: It’s time to stop calling Latin music a ‘crossover’ success
For decades, one of the highest compliments the American music industry could give a Latin artist was that they had “crossed over.”
The term was supposed to signify arrival: a musician who had succeeded within a Latin market had broken through an invisible cultural barrier and entered the mainstream. But it’s time to retire the idea altogether. As the nominees are announced for the 27th Annual Latin Grammy Awards in mid-September, just as National Hispanic Heritage Month begins, we need to understand that Latin music is no longer crossing over; it’s defining where global music is going.
The “crossover” frame was born in an era when the industry’s center of gravity was unmistakably Anglo-American. Desi Arnaz and Ritchie Valens opened doors in the 1950s, Santana electrified Woodstock, and José Feliciano and Gloria Estefan carried Latin sounds into American living rooms throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
Then came the “Latin explosion” of 1999 — Ricky Martin’s Grammy performance, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony — when “crossing over” became the industry’s favorite success story. Each generation widened the door. The difference now is that nobody needs the door.