Autumn Freund
I think the chapter of American Sabor: Latinos and Latinas in Popular Music greatly explains the importance of Latin Music to Latin communities in the United States. I think the point that popular Latin artists are normally on such a large level that it somewhat leaves behind the small communities is important in our modern era. You have famous artists like Shakira with hits like “Hips Don’t Lie” and Ricky Martin with hits like “Livin’ La Vida Loca” that gain large success while being Latinx, however once they get mainstream appeal which is often required in order to be successful in our mostly capitalist world, they often leave behind the world that they came from including the people and communities that supported them. That being said music is still important in communities of minorities in the United States and Latin communities are no exception. I think this essay is a perfect place to end our class. Our class is all about how important music is to communities and its creators. It gives a space for oppressed groups like women, people of color, the LGBTQ+, etc. to create music and spread in order to fight against oppression. That being said I think because of this it is important to talk about what is going on in the world regarding police brutality and the protests against it.
There is so much hurt in the world now as people watched the police, who are supposed to be there to protect and serve people, as they took the lives of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Because of that people are taking to the streets in order to demand justice be served as well as to push solutions to existing problems in the police. I think the entire class has been leading up to this moment as we have all quarter been learning about the power music has as protest. As we watch things like Beyoncé’s lemonade we learned how music is used as a way to bring people together to fight existing injustices in our society. And just as music spawned through civil rights protest in 1960s and police brutality in the 1990s and onward, as well as many other eras in our history, music will certainly spawn from the current Black Lives Matter protests in order to help bring people together, as well as grow the community. I think this class was at the most important time it could possibly be and helped me understand how great music is.
Sources
“Commercial Stars and Artivistas” in American Sabor: Latinos and Latinas in US Popular Music.
Music Videos
“Livin’ La Vida Loca”- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p47fEXGabaY
