Posted by Joe
During the 1980s, Fania’s classic salsa style was waning in popularity. This gave way to a softer and more commercial style of Salsa called Salsa Romantica.
Very much like Latin Pop and Rock, Salsa Romantica removed some of the traditional elements of Classic salsa like the musical improvisation. It softened the punch of the orchestra and focused primarily on ballads set to a slowed down salsa rhythm and social commentary was replaced by love songs.
The most famous early salsa romantica artists included Eddie Santiago, Frankie Ruiz, Lalo Rodriguez and Luis Enrique. With time, some of today’s most famous salsa artists took up the style including Gilberto Santa Rosa, Marc Anthony, India and Tito Nieves.
Detractors of salsa romantica have named the style salsa monga, or ‘limp’ salsa. But the straight salsa romantica style, having run its 20-year course, also started losing its commercial appeal.
Today, some salsa romantica artists have started heating up their ballad-based salsa style. Gilberto Santa Rosa’s 2005 Autentico featured an orchestra with a much stronger punch, a brass section that clamored for attention and brought back improvisation. Marc Anthony’s Libre was a personal and unique blend of ballad and classic salsa.
Still other salsa romantica artists are paying attention to the popularity of reggaeton. India’s 2006 Soy Diferente incorporated both salsa romantica and reggaeton-fused numbers while Andy Montanez did the same with Salsa con Reggaeton the same year.
Leave a Reply