THE SOUND OF CHANGE YOUNG ARTISTS ARE GETTING THEIR SHOT AT THE LATINO MUSIC MARKET.Byline: Sandra Barrera Music Writer On a Sunday morning Sunday Morning may refer to:
NBC Studios and serenades Emilio Estefan with a wistful song about Cuba. ``I know this sounds crazy, but I think I saw a glimmer in his eyes,'' she says following her 30-second performance of ``Mi Tierra.'' That ``glimmer'' could be from the fact that the song she sang was written by his wife, singer Gloria Estefan. Or it could be dollar signs. Cano is auditioning for ``Nuevas Voces de America,'' a sort of ``American Idol'' en Espanol that premieres on the Telemundo network in February. The series is at the crest of a new wave of music programming aimed at and employing Latino teens and 20-somethings. Although Cano is older than the target age of 14 to 24, she is emblematic of the emerging diversity of niches in the U.S. entertainment ecosystem now blooming: reggaeton, urban regional, bilingual music channels like LATV and Mun n. 1. The mouth. One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns, Butter them and sugar them and put them in your muns. - Old Rhyme. 2, and big-budget variety shows like ``Nuevas Voces de America.'' To a lot of people who control the purse strings purse strings or purse·strings pl.n. Financial support or resources, or control over them: the politicians who control federal purse strings; tightened the corporate purse strings. in the industry, this is the future. In recent years, more impresarios like Estefan and a growing army of marketing whizzes have been trying to appeal to this demographic through programs such as ``Nuevas Voces.'' The series was created as a promotional vehicle to help drive the lackluster record industry back to somewhere near relevant. ``I don't see a lot of record companies releasing a lot of new artists, and I think that's a problem,'' Estefan says, referring to the tendency for labels to stick with tried-and-true talent, even if they no longer are selling what they used to. ``By creating this show, they have to release new faces, because this is going to be a big show ... and it's going to be very young, very MTV MTV in full Music Television U.S. cable television network, established in 1980 to present videos of musicians and singers performing new rock music. MTV won a wide following among rock-music fans worldwide and greatly affected the popular-music business. , very cutting-edge.'' Estefan's series will spotlight 20 pop-star hopefuls that he has yet to handpick hand·pick tr.v. hand·picked, hand·pick·ing, hand·picks 1. To gather or pick by hand. 2. To select personally. hand from auditions held throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (pwār`tō rē`kō), island (2005 est. pop. 3,917,000), 3,508 sq mi (9,086 sq km), West Indies, c.1,000 mi (1,610 km) SE of Miami, Fla. . Finalists compete for a $250,000 record contract with a label - also yet to be named - while undergoing boot camp Software from Apple that enables an Intel x86-based Macintosh to host the Windows XP operating system. Boot Camp is used to divide the hard disk into Windows and Mac partitions, to install the necessary drivers and to create a dual boot environment. in preparation for an image-obsessed American audience. The interest in the young Latino market has already spawned a handful of new programs and promises more, which is good news for the would-be artists. ``I think it's great that there's so many opportunities for Latin pop This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the for details. This article has been tagged since September 2007. singers trying to make it in the world,'' says Elizabeth Cano, the 19-year-old sister of Gina Cano. She recently came from auditions for another talent search called ``Objectivo: Fama,'' set to air on Univision. On that show, winners get a deal with the TV network's own record label. However, not all of these new, reality-based music shows are competitions. Elsewhere on television there's ``La Familia This article is about the Polish political party. For other uses, see Familia (disambiguation). Familia ("The Family," from the Romain familia Perfecta per·fec·ta n. See exacta. [From American Spanish (quiniela) perfecta, perfect (quinella), feminine of perfecto, perfect, from Latin perfectus; see perfect. ,'' a documentary about a day in the life of five recording artists in the making. The series premieres on the Mun2 network in March. ``I hate calling this a reality series, because there's very few reality series that are this real,'' says Yolanda Foster, vice president of programming for Mun2, the Telemundo cable network for young bilingual Latinos launched in 2001. That network, one of the pioneers in tapping the market, provides a variety of programming, from music to shows about car culture, extreme sports extreme sports Sports events characterized by high speed or high risk. Such sports include aggressive inline skating, wakeboarding, street luge, skateboarding, and freestyle bicycle events (wherein tricks such as back flips are performed on a bicycle). and celebrities, as well as documentary series. ``La Familia Perfecta'' turns its cameras on banda rapper Don Abusivo as he heads out for another long night at the studio, leaving behind his wife and two daughters. Viewers also meet a Boston-based singer of bachata Bachata, a form of music and dance that originated in the countryside and the rural marginal neighborhoods of Dominican Republic. Its subjects are often romantic; especially prevalent are tales of heartbreak and sadness. , Dominican dance music, and a woman from Puerto Rico who travels to the States in hopes of making it big with her brand of reggaeton. Puerto Rican-dancehall-meets-Latino-hip-hop is so big now that even Toyota is now using it on commercials for its new Scion sci·on n. 1. A descendant or heir. 2. also ci·on A detached shoot or twig containing buds from a woody plant, used in grafting. line of automobiles. Reggaeton is popular with all Latinos, from Nuyoricans (the Puerto Rican community in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of ) to Chicanos to recent arrivals like Raymundo Gutierrez, a 23-year-old Mexican immigrant living in Van Nuys who is shopping for new music on a Friday night. With his head strapped into thick headphones Head-mounted speakers. Headphones have a strap that rests on top of the head, positioning a pair of speakers over both ears. For listening to music or monitoring live performances and audio tracks, both left and right channels are required. at a listening station inside the Van Nuys location of Ritmo Latino, he bobs his head to the latest releases, from reggaeton star Daddy Yankee to Detroit rapper Eminem. ``I like Spanish hip-hop, too,'' he says, explaining ``one of my favorites is Jae-P, because he talks about how hard it is when someone first comes here from Mexico with the American dream - and how hard it is to find work and learn a new language. I can relate to that.'' Jae-P comes from South Los Angeles South Los Angeles is the official name for a large geographic and cultural area lying to the southwest and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California. The area was formerly called South Central Los Angeles, and is still sometimes called South Central. . And like most kids of Mexican immigrant parents, he was drawn to the oompah-oompah beats of regional music from an early age. His love of rap came later. Nowadays. Jae-P is a banda rap star, dropping rhymes that frown at violence and encourage tolerance of people from different cultures. ``Culture is a big thing in life, because it's what makes you who you are,'' he says. ``When you appreciate culture, you appreciate life.'' Jae-P is on the lengthening roster of artists now signed to Univision Records and its subsidiary label Fonovisa. The label leads the industry as one of the most aggressive majors in pursuit of the bilingual and Spanish-language youth market. It includes the Chicago-based pop singer Betzaida, the late banda star Adan ``Chalino'' Sanchez and Grammy Award-winning urban regional rap duo Akwid, which has given rise to even more Latin hip-hop artists such as Jae-P. But Tomas Cookman, who manages many of today's top Latin alternative acts, says the mainstream record labels are also getting into the game. ``It's still going through a learning curve, but I think the first important step is that for the last two years, more labels have realized that 'OK, I need to be in this space,' and 'I need to learn more about this,' '' Cookman says. ``And so you're starting to see more and more of the Anglo labels getting involved, listening, going to shows more often and being an option for some of these other artists to go to.'' When the hit-making Miami-based artist Pitbull, who likes to rap in Spanish, was shopping for a deal, he decided on TVT Records. Why? ``Because TVT Records was more in touch with his reality,'' Cookman says, explaining that Pitbull ``comes from the whole crunk, Lil' John world, so it makes a heck of a lot more sense, even though he's singing raps about how Cuba is only 90 miles away from Miami, that he feels more in touch with an English-language label.'' Sandra Barrera, (818) 713-3728 sandra.barrera(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- cover -- color) LATIM MUSIC'S NEW FACE Record companies creating sounds for bilingual youths Music fan Raymundo Gutierrez listens to the new CDs at the Ritmo Latino store in Van Nuys. Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer (2) Elizabeth Cano, left, sister Gina Cano and friend Adrianna Navarro wait at NBC Studios in Burbank to audition for ``Nuevas Voces de America,'' the Telemundo network's version of ``American Idol.'' Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer |
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