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BBC Latin Series Part 2
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IanB
IanB
4525 posts

Edited Feb 09, 2010, 16:49
Re: BBC Latin Series Part 2
Feb 09, 2010, 16:41
zphage wrote:
Latin music infused rock in the early 70's with Santana's arrival: Blues Image, Crabby Appleton's 1st, Malo, Harlem River Drive, Paladin's 2nd, Stoneground, etc.


Absolutely. Doesn't mean that rock fans are/were ready to embrace the whole culture though. At least twenty JA reggae acts got absorbed into the mainstream in the 70s and got sales to match

Marley, Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Third World, Burning Spear, Junior Murvin, I Roy, U Roy, Lee Perry, Big Youth, Toots, John Holt, Johnny Clarke, Culture, Mighty Diamonds, Tapper Zukie, Prince Far I, Max Romeo, Heptones, Black Uhuru, Dennis Brown, Gregory Issacs, Gladiators spring quickly to mind and I am sure there are loads more if I thought about it for another ten minutes. Maybe it was the Island / Virgin thing.

How many core Fania style artists had the same luck with rock audiences in the 70s? Not that many. Ruben Blades in the 80s. Not too many others spring to mind. Latin kind of got stuck in the World Music grab-bag. At least it did over here. Reggae was considered to be a socially / politically and musically vital.

Which is bizarre when you think of the political aspect of Latin music and what an important role the Latin countries played (for one reason or another) in western leftist politics of the 70s and 80s. Not to mention how many great records there were coming out of the Fania stable and well before the Kid Creole / Savannah Band thing started up. African and Indian artists also had an easier time crossing over to rock audiences.
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