Latin Alternative is an umbrella genre for many different styles of Spanish-language modern day music across a vast array of sounds, countries and musical subgenres. Anything from rock music like pop-rock, alt. rock, rap and club music like reggaeton, 3bal, ruidoson, and other EDM variations, and even as far as Spanish reggae could fall under the meta-genre that is Latin Alternative.The name Latin Alternative usually is used in the United States to refer to all these different genres, although each sub-genre sounds very different from the next.
Personally, my favorite genre of music is alt. rock, and the case is no different when it comes to Latin Alternative. Here’s an example, with a song from one of my favorite bands, Libido:
Notice the mellowed out intro and harmonious vocals, abruptly turning up the intensity at the pre chorus to an emotional ballad-like tone. Definitely an alt. rock feel. Libido is a Peruvian band that started in the late 90’s and remained active and very popular through the 2000s.
I have a soft spot for Shakira’s early stuff as well, when she sounded more badass and less like the Top 40. Here’s one of my favorites of her olden days:
Here you hear palm muting guitars, and basslines matching with acoustic and electric guitar melodies. Also, the video is pretty trippy, bro.
Moving onto another realm under the Latin Alternative banner is Spanish reggae. My personal fave is Manu Chao, a socially aware Spanish reggae musician who sings in English and French sometimes as well as Spanish:
The smooth, wavy sounds and ska-like rhythms are reggae signatures, mixed in with Spanish lyrics and guitar melodies. Very cool stuff.
A very interesting side of Latin Alternative music are 3bal and ruidoson, two genres of EDM mixed with traditional Central American rhythms, often fused with cries against political corruption and economic imbalances in Mexico. Here’s an article I wrote about these two developing musical genres.
Some artists and bands to check out are Juanes, Mana, Ataque 77, Rata Blanca, and a little something by yours truly (and please forgive the bad Spanish):
Peace – RSM
Rubén Sebastián Muñiz | ∞ 