Contemporary Latin América(s)

(or, free format programming focused on Latin America)

Oftentimes, when I’ve played music from Latin America, I go back to the 70s and 80s to some of the OG salseros, soneros, a bit of música popular brasileira and trópicalia, and ensembles from the moment Latin music blew up around the world. A lot of it is what I grew up listening to growing up that deserves more time on the airwaves, especially to a multilingual audience like WPRB. But there’s sooooo much more out there that is happening right now in scenes across Latin America that is worth cherishing. “Latin music” is a strange category; imagine trying to define any other genre of music based on the nationality of its musicmakers. Today, I’m trying to offer a sample of contemporary music by Latin American and Latinx performers, in genres ranging from rock (especially metal from Brazil), neoperreo (or, the beautiful thing that happens reggaetón meets hyperpop), salsa, electronica, and so much more.