Thread: Music Row looks to Hispanic audience

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061104/ap_ ... ntry_music

By TRAVIS LOLLER, Associated Press Writer
Sat Nov 4, 12:47 PM ET

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - When country music acts started noticing more Hispanic fans at their concerts, it didn't take long for Music Row to start dreaming of its Next Big Audience.


After all, many Hispanics in the U.S. — especially the 64 percent who come from Mexico — already love ranchero, a traditional Mexican sound based in the rural experience of cowboy boots and pickup trucks.

"I do think a huge portion of the Latin American population loves the same themes: meetin', greetin', cheatin' and retreatin,'" said Eddie Wright-Rios, a Vanderbilt University professor who specializes in the cultural history of modern Mexico.

Superficial similarities aside, no one really knows if the nation's largest minority group is ready for fiddles and steel guitars. The phrase "country music" doesn't even have a translation in Spanish.

"If they know it at all, they'll call it 'musica country,'" Wright-Rios said.

The Country Music Association says there are no good studies to show how many Hispanics listen to country already, so the CMA formed its own task force to investigate.

That happened shortly after the only country music station in Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest city with a Hispanic population of 49 percent, abruptly changed formats to urban contemporary one Thursday in August.

"I honestly don't think this is a knee-jerk reaction to that," said Jeff Walker, a CMA board member who chairs the task force. "Some of our artist board members, like John Rich of Big and Rich, have noticed a lot of Hispanics showing up at their shows.

"We want to look at the marketing aspect and how to tap into that," he said.

Country music enjoyed a 17.7 percent increase in album sales in the first half of this year — the largest percentage jump of any genre — but overall U.S. album sales are down, and music executives are always interested in an untapped market.

Hispanics are the youngest, fastest-growing segment of the American population, according to the Census Bureau. They were 14 percent of the population in 2004, but made up nearly half the nation's growth so far this decade.

Eva Melo, of Tennessee-based Latin Market Communications, said the CMA has requested a proposal for a Hispanic market study, but she is skeptical her fellow Hispanics will take to the genre.

"A lot of people confuse regional Mexican music with country because it comes from the ranches and farms, but if you translate a country song into Spanish, it wouldn't sound like regional Mexican music," she said.

"In regional Mexican they sing about their culture and customs, things you don't have in the U.S. I don't know if Hispanics will relate to country music because it doesn't come out of Mexico. It comes out of Nashville."

Also, the Hispanic audience is not monolithic.

"In different areas of the country, they listen to different music," she said. "In Miami it's more salsa, merengue and cumbia. California is more Spanglish, hybrid, fusion."

Rick Rodriguez, who manages the Latin division of Nashville-based Songs for the Planet and works as a song plugger for the same, has been trying to encourage Music Row to mix with Hispanic artists and music.

"I'm a Mexican from South Texas," he said. "I grew up listening to people like Freddy Fender and Johnny Rodriguez. If we can get old-school country music, like back in the day what was coming from Hispanic cats, I think it would be big."

Texas-based singer-songwriter John Arthur Martinez, who was the runner-up on the inaugural season of Nashville Star (a country music talent competition like "American Idol'), said Hispanic listeners are already there.

"Nashville has not made a conscious effort to court the Hispanic audience on a major scale, but without realizing it they've already attracted people like my sister," he said. "Her CD collection is 90 percent country and 10 percent tejano."

Martinez thinks Music Row "could lure more people to buy the music if there were more artists that looked like them."

Maria Pena owns Las Americas Music in Nashville and carries music in Spanish almost exclusively. No one ever comes into her store looking for country, said the Chihuahua, Mexico native, adding that she doubted her customers were familiar with the genre.

But Pena's employee, Camelia Wissar, also of Chihuahua, said she listens to country and her friends do as well. Asked who she likes, she listed Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks.

"I listened to it in Mexico, too," she said in Spanish.

Music Row may be still commissioning market surveys, but others are already trying to sell the Hispanic-country convergence.

Maritza Baca, a marketer who recently formed the U.S. Hispanic Country Music Association in California, is convinced Hispanics are gravitating toward country. She's met with the CMA twice about it.

"I think there's definitely a trend," she said, noting that in a Mexican airport she has heard country music in English played over the intercom system. She said Spain has a Country Music Association, and Argentina just put on a country music festival with artists from South America.

Rick Murray, the Nashville CMA's vice president of strategic marketing, says he wants to see more research before he's convinced. That research should answer questions like whether Spanish-language singers are necessary to lure listeners.

"Is it a Hispanic artist, or is it bringing existing music into the Hispanic market?" he asked. "Those are two very different things that might complement each other."

Still, Wright-Rios said he can understand why Hispanics are an attractive audience to the music industry.

"I know a lot of people who don't have a lot of money, but if a good Mexican band comes along, they'll drop $150 on a pair of tickets," he said.

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Is nothing sacred anymore

Martinez thinks Music Row "could lure more people to buy the music if there were more artists that looked like them."

And they have the nerve to call us racist. Can you imagine if someone said they would buy more if the artists "were white." ?? I also read the same thing about politics....someone remarked they don't see a lot of candidates who "look like them." Is is coming to this??

They are becoming so transparent in their racism against whites!

Originally Posted by nittygritty

They are becoming so transparent in their racism against whites!

They are racists towards white ppl, and have very little use for Black ppl other than to use us to help further their illegal causes.

They are sucking up, claiming ,and taking advantage of everything we Americans hold dear in this country, and I am fed up