"Uno, dos, one, two, tres, cuatro!" (What is US Latinx music?)

Some of the oldest music in the US is Latino. Alabados in New Mexico



Some very old Mexican music was composed in what is now the US, such as the "Corrido of Joaquín Murrieta."


***

Music of the Spanish Caribbean in New Orleans: Jelly Roll Morton's "Spanish Tinge" in "The Crave"



***

So you could say that the US has been obsessed with Latino music since long before this:


For example, with Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball's Cuban bandleader husband.

***

Latinos have also taken on US music in their own ways: Lalo Guerrero's "Chicas Patas Boogie"

***

Sometimes Latinos appeared in the middle of the mainstream, but you wouldn't know unless you paid attention. Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs' "Wooly Bully," a song by Sam (born Domingo Samudio) about his cat.



***

But the Latino influence in US popular music is central. This rock classic, "Louie Louie," by the Kingsmen...



... is deeply indebted to Latino music.



Specifically, René Touzet's "Cha cha cha del loco" (0:00) and Chuck Berry's calypso-influenced "Havana Moon" (3:04) were the inspirations behind the original version of "Louie Louie" (6:10) by Richard Berry, an African-American bandleader with a large black, Mexican-American and Asian-American audience.

***

Once you start looking for them, Latin melodies and Cuban basslines are everywhere in pop, rock, and R&B. The Doors have a lot of good examples, like "Riders on The Storm":

 Stevie Wonders' "Don't You Worry about a Thing," mixes soul with  Cuban son.

***
Hip hop is another example of Latino participation in US popular music. Nuyoricans Big Pun and Fat Joe were important figures in '90s New York Hip Hop.



But Puerto Ricans were present in hip hop from the beginning. From a scene shot live at Club Dixie in the Bronx in the seminal 1983 hip hop movie "Wild Style," members of both the Cold Crush Brothers (Charlie Chase) and the Fabulous Five (Whipper Whip and Rubie Dee) were Puerto Rican.

***
Latinos' musical creations often had a deep political significance. The salsa movement, and Latino life in New York City, captured in the 1972 film "Our Latin Thing."



Much more recently. Mexican-American artists like the LA-based band La Santa Cecilia, have been outspoken about immigration issues, as in their song "El Hielo," the title of which is a bilingual pun on ICE.


***

The music of US Latinos influential both here in the US and in Latin America. New York Dominicans Aventura:


Or the transnational banda and corrido movement, much of which is produced in L.A. Here, for example, the transnational superstar Jenny Rivera of Long Beach, CA, live in Hollywood



And thw acrobatic quebradita dance that can be found throughout Mexico was actually invented by Mexican-Americans here in the US.

And it's even been influential for some Americans like Rhyan Lowery, an African-American from California who ended up becoming a professional ranchera singer:

***
Hybrids:
Mexican-American Carlos Santana's Cuban rock. "Black Magic Woman":



L.A. Mexican-Americans' Akwid's banda-rap. "Jamás Imaginé"



Dominican-American Prince Royce's bilingual version of "Stand by Me"