By 1975, music market analysts predicted an 8 to 10% growth of Latin music internationally. This growth also expanded into the United States which led to record labels of promoting Latin artists in the country. According to
Billboards Marv Fisher, " international labels are increasingly involved throughout Latin America".
Latin pop Latin America went through the
balada craze with balladeers from both the region and Spain having a huge Latin audience. Artists include
José José,
Roberto Carlos,
Juan Gabriel, and
Julio Iglesias. The latter artist would later become the best-selling male Latin artist of all time.
Regional Mexican Mariachi music in 1970s, while still popular in the Regional Mexican music field, was named "the last great decade for mariachi music" according to the
Los Angeles Times critic Augustin Gurza. The Mexican farmworkers movement since the 1960s led to the popularity
corridos which dealt with their impoverished lives. Most notably,
norteño group
Los Tigres del Norte emerged having performed songs that deal with social commentary. Another emerging genre in the Regional Mexican field was
Tejano.
Rigo Tovar modernized the Mexican style of
cumbia by combining it with
rock including utilizing an
electric guitar and a
synthesizer.
Tropical/salsa Salsa music was the dominant genre in the tropical field in the 1970s.
Fania Records was the prime record label for popularizing and defining salsa music with artists such as
Celia Cruz,
Rubén Blades,
Héctor Lavoe, and
Willie Colón. The Colombian
vallenato remains popular in the country with artists such as
Diomedes Diaz. Likewise, the country's
cumbia expanded its popularity outside of country into other Latin American nations including Mexico. Like its Mexican counterpart, the Colombia cumbia saw changes in the genre with the use of a
bass guitar,
organ, and less emphasis on
brass instruments.
Nueva canción During the 1970s in
Latin America, the 1960s music influence remained strong and two styles developed from it one that followed the European and North American trends and
Nueva Canción that focused on the renewal of
folklore including
Andean music and
cueca. Some bands such as
Los Jaivas from Chile mixed both streams and created a syncretism between folklore and
progressive rock. The Nueva Canción movement got an even more marked protest association after all countries in the
Southern Cone became (or were already) military dictatorships in the 1970s. In Chile, the Nueva canción styles developed through the 1970s would remain popular until the
return to democracy in 1990.
Laitn rock/rock en español In the 1970s,
rock en Español began to emerge (especially in Argentina), and as imitation bands became fewer, rock music started to develop more independently from the outside, although many rock bands still preferred to sing in English. The Argentine defeat in the
Falklands War in 1982 followed by the fall of the military junta that year diminished need of Nueva Canción as protest music there in favour of other styles.
Santana and
Malo pioneered the
Latin rock movement by mixing rock music with Afro-Latino Caribbean music.
Brazilian/Portuguese Jorge Ben's
Fôrça Brutas fusion of
Trio Mocotó's groove and Ben's more rockish guitar proved to be a distinctive feature of what critics and musicians later called
samba rock. The 1970s also saw the rise of
Música popular brasileira, a form of protest songs against the Brazilian military dictatorship. Among the key musicians in the genre was
Chico Buarque who was exiled from the country. ==1970==