December 11, 2020 #ChileDiverse

The Chilean music industry catches the world's attention

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The first celebrations of this particular date date date back to 1695 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and later spread to other countries, such as Spain. In Latin America, the first celebrations began in 1920 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and then spread to the rest of the countries in the region.

Music trends in Chile

Taking an x-ray of the music industry in our country, the trends that are in force today respond to what is happening on the international scene. According to Marcelo Contreras, music critic, Chilean music has three main categories: urban, new Chilean pop and classics. Urban music is the biggest attraction for young audiences today, marking a strong trend by leading the rankings, says Contreras. National artists such as Gianluca and Princesa Alba are representatives of this new musical generation.

Despite being a sort of reflection of the global context, the urban music that is generated in Chile has a certain character that identifies it as local. "While reggeaton is always based on hedonism and carnality and in Chile those elements have not been lost, artists have given it a more taciturn and melancholic interpretation, which generates a paradox: festive music but with a degree of intimacy and fragility," explains the music critic.

On the other hand, there is a generation that exhibits the new Chilean pop, a term coined in the last two decades of this century. Javiera Mena, Mon Laferte, Gepe, Pedropiedra, Camila Moreno and Francisca Valenzuela are some of the outstanding artists that are part of this group, who have managed to enchant Latin America with their talent and have been recognized on numerous occasions.

The third stratum of Chilean music today corresponds to the classics, those that endure over time without changing their style. Some groups such as Illapu and Los Jaivas have loyal listeners since their beginnings, who have followed the bands for many years.

Music in the world: reflection of a cultural exchange

Apart from the urban style, there is another trend that is setting the musical tone: Korean popular music, better known as K-Pop. Marcelo Contreras tells that today the Billboard world ranking has a special selection dedicated to this genre and urban music, something that could be explained by the loss of Anglo-Saxon hegemony in music over the years. "Until before the 1990s, there was rock and hip hop music in English. Now the game has been shared out, and there is music in other languages as well," explains Contreras. This is how music has directly influenced cultural exchange, generating interesting crossovers between the artists' languages. For example, in Chile K-Pop has become a real phenomenon among young people, causing them to sing in Korean.

In recent times, several Anglo-Saxon singers have also been seen singing in Spanish and doing collaborations with Latin musicians (one of the most recent being "One Day" by British singer Dua Lipa with Latinos Bad Bunny, J Balvin and Tainy), when it used to be the other way around: artists like Ricky Martin or Shakira singing in English.

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