Salsa Romántica
Located in 3 routes
A softer, sleeker offshoot of salsa that keeps the clave, tumbao and montuno foundation but slows the aggression, foregrounds a crooning romantic lead and pushes tender, sensual lyrics of love and desire over lush, radio-polished arrangements. Brass is used for warm cushions and hooks rather than the hard mambo assault, keyboards and strings sweeten the texture, and the sonero's improvisation is reined in around melodic choruses. Tempos sit in a danceable mid-range built for couples, and the vocal style is smooth, pleading and pop-aware. In its raciest 'salsa erótica' variant the come-ons turn explicit while the groove stays glossy.
History
Salsa romántica emerged in the mid-1980s as producers like Louie Ramírez sought a smoother, more commercial sound to counter salsa's commercial dip, with the 1984 concept of adapting pop ballads into salsa arrangements pointing the way. Puerto Rican singers Frankie Ruiz and Eddie Santiago defined the style's sultry early wave, Lalo Rodríguez's 1988 smash 'Devórame Otra Vez' pushed it to the top of the charts, and a stable of romantic soneros — Jerry Rivera, Tito Nieves, Rey Ruiz and later Marc Anthony, La India and Gilberto Santa Rosa — carried it through the 1990s across Puerto Rico, New York, Colombia and Venezuela. It became the dominant commercial face of salsa for over a decade, drew purist criticism for taming the genre, and its romantic template still anchors contemporary tropical radio.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- César Miguel Rondón, The Book of Salsa (2008)
- Ed Morales, The Latin Beat (2003)
- Peter Manuel, Caribbean Currents (1995)