Sony Music | Latin

Bachata is a guitar-driven popular music and dance style that originated in the Dominican Republic. It blends the romantic lyricism and harmonic language of bolero with rhythmic accents and dance energy connected to Dominican merengue and Afro-Caribbean son traditions. The classic ensemble features a lead guitar (requinto), rhythm guitar, bass, bongos, and güira. Typical songs are in 4/4 time with syncopated bongo martillos and a steady güira pattern, while the guitars alternate arpeggios, bachata rasgueos, and melodic fills. Lyrically, bachata is renowned for amargue (bitterness)—poignant narratives of love, longing, heartbreak, and desire—though modern variants also embrace flirtation and celebration. Since the 1990s, "bachata romántica" and 2000s urban/pop bachata have expanded the sound with electric guitars, keyboards, R&B harmonies, and pop structures, taking the genre from a once-marginalized style to a global Latin pop mainstay.

Latin (as a genre label) is a broad umbrella used by the recording industry to categorize popular music rooted in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Iberian world, often characterized by syncopated Afro-diasporic rhythms, dance-forward grooves, and lyrics primarily in Spanish or Portuguese. As a marketplace category that took shape in the mid-20th century United States, it gathers diverse traditions—Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, Mexican, and Caribbean styles—into a shared space. In practice, "Latin" spans everything from big-band mambo and bolero ballads to contemporary pop, rock, hip hop, and dance fusions produced by artists of Latin American heritage.

Latin ballad (balada romántica) is a romantic, slow-tempo pop song style that emerged across Latin America in the 1960s, blending the melodic intimacy of the Cuban bolero with the orchestral sweep and songcraft of European (especially Italian and Spanish) ballads. Its hallmarks are emotive lead vocals, lush string or keyboard arrangements, clear verse–pre‑chorus–chorus structures, and lyrics centered on love, longing, heartbreak, and reconciliation. Songs often sit around 60–90 BPM, use diatonic pop progressions with tasteful modulations, and may feature a climactic key change to heighten drama. The genre became a radio mainstay and a soundtrack to telenovelas, shaping the sound of Latin popular music for decades and influencing salsa romántica, grupera, and modern Latin pop balladry.

Latin pop is mainstream pop music performed primarily in Spanish (and sometimes Portuguese) that blends contemporary pop songwriting with Latin American and Iberian rhythms, harmonies, and vocal stylings. It typically features verse–pre-chorus–chorus forms, catchy hooks, polished production, and a balance between rhythmic drive and romantic lyric themes. Classic Latin pop often leans on bolero- and ballad-informed melodies and soft-rock textures, while modern Latin pop readily incorporates dance-pop, electronic, and urbano elements (such as reggaeton-influenced grooves) without losing its sing-along pop core.

Latin rock blends the instrumentation and attitude of rock with Afro‑Latin and Caribbean rhythms, percussion, and song forms. Typical bands combine electric guitars, bass, and drum kit with congas, bongos, timbales, and hand percussion, creating a driving, danceable groove grounded in the clave. Vocals may be in Spanish, Portuguese, Spanglish, or English, and lyrics range from love songs and urban life to social and political commentary. Harmonically, Latin rock draws from blues/rock progressions but frequently incorporates modal colors (Dorian, Mixolydian) and montuno‑style vamps borrowed from salsa and Afro‑Cuban traditions. The result sits comfortably between club‑ready rhythm and arena‑sized rock energy.

Merengue is a fast, dance-centered popular music from the Dominican Republic characterized by a driving 2/4 meter, bright major-key harmonies, and a propulsive rhythmic engine created by güira and tambora. In its rural "típico" form, the lead instrument is a diatonic accordion, supported by tambora, güira, and bass. Urban and orchestral evolutions expanded the instrumentation to include saxophones, trumpets, trombones, piano, congas, and electric bass, yielding a powerful big-band sound. Common song forms use verse–chorus structures with catchy coros and a climactic jaleo section where horns or accordion play tightly arranged riffs. The style spans energetic party anthems, romantic ballad-leaning numbers (merengue romántico), and modern fusions that blend with pop and urban music.

Norteño (música norteña) is a Mexican regional style built around the bright timbre of the diatonic button accordion and the driving strum of the bajo sexto. Rooted in borderland dance music, it blends Central European polka, waltz, and schottische rhythms with Mexican corrido storytelling and ranchera songcraft. Characterized by brisk 2/4 polkas and lilting 3/4 waltzes, norteño songs range from narrative corridos about migration and everyday struggles to romantic ballads and party tunes. Traditional ensembles used tololoche (upright bass) and snare, while modern groups often add electric bass, full drum kits, and occasionally tenor sax (in the norteño-sax substyle) or tuba (in norteño-banda). The result is a dance-forward, story-rich music that bridges rural and urban audiences on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border.

Ranchera is a traditional Mexican song style rooted in rural life, love, patriotism, and everyday stoicism. It is most commonly performed with a mariachi ensemble featuring violins, trumpets, vihuela, and guitarrón, though solo voice and guitar or accordion-led groups also appear. Musically, rancheras are strophic songs with memorable, singable melodies and straightforward harmony (often I–IV–V with occasional secondary dominants). Rhythms alternate between 3/4 (vals ranchero), 2/4 (polka-like), and 4/4 (march-like) feels. Vocal delivery is passionate and ornamented, frequently using belting, slides, and the characteristic grito (a cathartic shout) to heighten emotion. Lyrically, rancheras deal with romance, heartbreak, longing, pride in the homeland, and the dignity and hardships of rural life. They are a pillar of regional Mexican music and a cultural emblem within and beyond Mexico.

Reggaeton is a contemporary urban dance music that blends the dembow rhythm of Jamaican dancehall with hip hop’s MC culture and Caribbean–Latin melodic sensibilities. Its hallmark is the propulsive, syncopated “dembow” drum pattern, typically around 85–100 BPM (often felt in half-time), which powers energetic verses and catchy, sung hooks. Lyrically, reggaeton is most often in Spanish or Spanglish and centers on dance, nightlife, flirtation, romance, and street life, with a performance style that alternates between rapped bars and melodic chorus lines. Production emphasizes tight, punchy drums, rolling 808 sub-bass, percussive plucks or stabs, and bright, hook-forward toplines—crafted for the club and tailored for crowd participation and perreo.

Regional mexicano is an umbrella term for traditional and popular Mexican roots styles—such as ranchera, corrido, norteño, banda, mariachi, and newer offshoots—that share storytelling lyrics, dance-friendly rhythms, and distinctive acoustic ensembles. While the industry label coalesced later, its musical DNA goes back to the Mexican Revolution era, when corridos and rancheras crystallized as powerful vehicles for narrative and sentiment. Typical textures range from brass-heavy banda and trumpet–violin mariachi to accordion-led norteño and guitar-forward sierreño, with characteristic rhythms drawn from polka (2/4), waltz (3/4), and huapango. Songs often address love and heartbreak, regional pride, migration, everyday struggles, and, in some cases, outlaw themes (narco-corridos). Harmonies are functional (I–IV–V with secondary dominants and relative minor turns), vocals are expressive with belting and gritos, and arrangements foreground strong melodic hooks supported by tuba, guitarrón, tololoche, or bass-driven grooves.

Salsa is a pan–Latin dance music forged primarily in New York City by Puerto Rican, Cuban, and other Caribbean diasporas. It synthesizes Afro‑Cuban rhythmic blueprints, Puerto Rican bomba and plena, jazz harmony, big‑band horn writing, and Nuyorican street culture into a tightly arranged yet improvisation‑friendly style. The music lives on the clave (either 2‑3 or 3‑2), with layered percussion (congas, bongó, timbales, cowbell, güiro, maracas), a tumbao bass that anticipates the beat, and piano montuno guajeos that interlock with the rhythm section. Call‑and‑response vocals (coro/pregón), punchy horn mambos and moñas, and instrumental solos energize the montuno section. Tempos range from medium to fast in 4/4, optimized for social dancing (commonly “on1” or “on2”). Across decades, salsa has branched into harder, percussion‑forward “salsa dura,” smoother “salsa romántica,” and regional scenes in Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Colombia, while continuing to influence—and be influenced by—neighboring tropical and jazz idioms.