Best Latin music for production reference in 2017

When you are producing a new track its important to check out what the trends are because you want to stay current with your productions, and your sound both as a producer or as an artist.

Artists sometimes want to express “who they are” because, well that’s part of what it means being an artist, but there is a fine line between being the artist and making music that will sell and engage because its current

Remember that when we say “Music Business” there is the word “business” and its tied together with the word “Music” so we can’t ignore the fact that your music has to sell and make profit if you want to make a lasting career, unless you want to create music for free and just share with your friends which is also fine.

Its important to checkout what is the best Latin music or what is hot on the charts in order to take into account key elements in the sound of those tracks, things that are important and that you want to look into are elements like:

Song Structure
Song duration
Time when refrain or Chorus comes up in the song
Key of the song
Hook elements
Instruments used
General sound (Electronic, live, mixing, etc)

So before you get into the best latin music for reference in 2017, make sure you check out our articles on these elements as to have a better idea on what to look out for.

When you google “Top Latin Songs” or “best Latin music” what the search sends us to is a list of some of the biggest hits on billboard and historically

I will go thru some of the key elements I like from many of these tracks and how I hear the song from a producer perspective

1. Bailando by Enrique Iglesias and Gente de Zona

This song put Gente de Zona on the Map, although its worth mentioning that they had already done important work before in order for Enrique Iglesias to notice them

This song has a great flamenco guitar intro and background which associates listeners with the artists origins from Madrid, Spain,

the regueton Rhythm is definitely key to get people dancing and lately songs that don’t have a urban base are very hard to get on the radio,

Bailando is a song that has a great sound, the team behind that sound may require a few million dollars to get on your track but its well worth it after almost 2.5B (yes that b is for billion views)

Guitar – Jesusin Cruz
Mastered By – Aya Merrill, Tom Coyne
Producer, Recorded By, Mixed By, Programmed By – Carlos Paucar
Recorded By [Descemer Bueno And Gente De Zona] – Markel Barsagaz
Written-By – Alexander Delgado, Decemer Bueno*, Enrique Iglesias, Randy Malcom Martinez

A great song and definitely a good reference for many songs that came after

2. Despacito

Well I can’t go thru a list without mentioning “despacito”, a track that was written by Erika Ender known for her previous work with Luis Fonsi,

Despacito was part of one of Eikas previous albums as a pop song , then it crossed the hands of artist like Nicky Jam who decided not to record it, songs have their own energy and whoever is ment to sing it will sing it

Then came Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber in the mix and the rest is history

As you can hear the song has many of the elements of our previous song Bailando, the urban rhythm, the acustic guitars , and guest urban artists which gives you the Idea to have a Featuring by a cool artist is always a good way to go.

Despacito was produced by Andrés Torres and Mauricio Rengifo, Engineered and Mixed by Luis “Salda” Saldarriaga

3. Mi Gente

A won’t say it does nt fill me with excitement to see a Colombian singer and songwriter at the Top of the charts, J balvin has reached what many dream of but few can accomplish, he is singing next to Mega Superstars like Beyonce, so its worth paying attention to what he is doing

In this track you should check out how many times the musical refrain is repeated, the song revolves around a couple of chords, but again a common factor is that is good for dancing

Mi Gente was produced by Willy Williams and Mastered by Luca Pretolesi the known Dance Mixing and mastering engineer.

4. Perdon

The king of pop appears again, this time with Nicky Jam, a very simple arrangement, if you hear there is a regueton Keyboard/piano during the whole song doing the same thing, the structure is very simple

Intro, verse, refrain, chorus, verse, refrain, choruse, bridge, chorus, outro. Also worked around minor chords, duration 3,46 and with this it has over 1 Billion views.

Written-By – Juan Diego Medina Vélez, Nick Rivera Caminero, Saga Whiteblack
Backing Vocals [Backgrond Vocals] – Carlos Paucar, Nicky Jam
Mastered By – Tom Coyne
Mixed By – Carlos Paucar, Saga Whiteblack
Producer – Saga Whiteblack
Producer [Enrique Iglesias’ Vocals Produced By] – Carlos Paucar
Producer [Nicky Jam’s Vocals Produced By] – Jorge Fonseca

5. Danza Kuduro

If you go to a latin party you will definitely hear this song play and probably more than once, this is a song that will get you of of your seat,

Like most regueton songs it has only 4 chords Am F C G, again we see that its written in a minor chord, the song lasts 3:55 (again under 4 min) , in this case the song starts out straight with the chorus.

Written and produced by Lucenzo, a great track that definitely makes our list

6. Vivir Mi vida

Performed by Marc Anthony written by Björn Djupström / Achraf “AJ Junior” Jannusi / Cheb Khaled / Nadir Khayat / Bilal Majji / Alex Papaconstanitinou this song definitely made a mark by being one of the only recent latin hits without a urban musical background in its production, but instead an awesome salsa arrangement by Master producer Sergio George.

Acoustic Guitar – René Luis Toledo Backing Vocals – Guianko Gómez , William Duval
Bass Guitar – Rubén Rodriguez
Bongos, Maracas, Guiro – Diego Galé
Congas – William “Kachiro” Thompson
Engineer [Assistant] – David Poler*, René Toledo Jr.*
Engineer [Mixing] – Carlos Alvarez
Engineer [Recording] – Juan Mario “Mayito” Rivera
Engineer [Vocal], Producer [Vocal] – Julio Reyes*
Executive-Producer – Bigram Zayas*
Executive-Producer [Associate] – Sergio George
Mastered By – Tom Coyne
Producer, Arranged By – Marc Anthony
Producer, Piano, Keyboards, Backing Vocals, Arranged By – Sergio George
Timbales – Robert Vilera
Trombone – Antonio “Toñito” Vázquez, Víctor Vázquez
Trumpet – Luis Aquino

If you go thru the list you will see that producer Sergio George works with legends, these guys are on many great hit songs and an artist can only aspire to have the opportunity to be able to worke with these incredible musicians

7. La Bicicleta

An incredible Mix between Carlos Vives and Shakira the song has over 1B views on youtube, unlike our previous tracks this one is not in a minor but a major chord, length is 3:57 below 4 min the chorus hits at 50 seconds into the song and a great mix of urban pop.

Accordion – Christian Camilo Peña*
Bass, Programmed By, Keyboards – Andrés Castro (2)
Coordinator – Nadine Eliya
Design, Graphics – Lucho Correa
Engineer [Additional] – Andre Nascimbeni, Andrés Castro (2), Carlos Hernandez Carbonell, Gustavo Celis, Luis Barrera Jr
Executive-Producer – Afo Verde
Flute [Flauta de Millo] – Tato Marenco
Guitar – Andrés Castro (2), Luis Fernando Ochoa
Management – Walter Kolm Entertainment
Mastered By – Adam Ayan
Mixed By – Dave Clauss
Percussion [Caja], Percussion [Guacharaca] – Alfredo Rosado
Photography By – Jaume de Laiguana
Producer – Andrés Castro (2), Carlos Vives, Luis Fernando Ochoa, Shakira
Recorded By [Voz de Carlos Vives] – Andrés Castro (2)
Recorded By [Voz de Shakira] – Andre Nascimbeni
Vocals – Carlos Vives, Shakira
Written-By – Andrés Castro (2), Carlos Vives, Shakira

8 Living la Vida Loca

This is a song that cant be left out of our list, its always important to go a little back in time and check out what opened the doors for so many other Latin songs we now hear and Living La Vida Loca is a song that made music history.

Written by two master songwriters Desmond Child and Robi Rosa

One of the best Latin songs of all time, Ricky Martin exploded internationally with this track, the song is in a minor chord as well , length of under 3 minutes

Rusty Anderson – Guitar
Iris Aponte Production Coordination
Randall Barlow Keyboards, Programming
Big Pun Rap
Randy Cantor Arranger, Keyboards, Programming
Desmond Child Composer, Producer
Brian Coleman Production Coordination
Tony Concepcion Flugelhorn, Trumpet
Kevin Crouse Mixing
Charles Dye Engineer, Mixing
Bill Esses Engineer
Fat Joe Rap
Pablo Flores Producer, Remixing
Javier Garza Mixing Engineer
Ted Jensen Mastering
Craig Lozowick Engineer
Nathan Malki Engineer
Glen Marchese Engineer
Ricky Martin Primary Artist
Vladimir Meller Mastering
Germán Ortiz Engineer
Poke Producer
Corey Rooney Producer
Robi Rosa Composer, Guitar (Acoustic), Producer, Vocals (Background)
Robin Rose Composer
Rafael Salano Percussion
Scissorhands Remixing
Rafael Solano Percussion

9 Hips Don’t Lie

Am, F, G E is the circle for this one, 4 chords around the entire song, This track got the girls shaking, its always great to hear music that makes us move or dance.

10. La Gozadera

Yes I know it has the same chord progression as Danza Kuduro but hey its ok most music now a days is written around the same chords, this is a great song regardless and it plays and will play in many clubs for a while.

Produced by Motiff an extremely talented artist and producer, La gozadera is definitely a great track and worth mentioning in our list of reference with over 1 Billion youtube views

“La gozadera” is an awesome track we won’t stop hearing any tipe soon.

11.Baila

I am including the most recent track I recorded called “Baila” I would love to know what you think, I included many elements that I mentioned previously, the song was produced by Eliot el Mago D Oz and Juanes Duque (409 Studio, Medellin Colombia).

I hope you like my track as well and I hope to hear your comments

Conclusion

Best Latin music that is playing currently and are hits have the common factor -but not mandatory- of being under 4:00 this is because they will probably get more airplay in this way

Most of our hit songs have a minor chord progression.

The songs revolve around 4 chords, in other word keeping it simple is a common factor

Instruments are mostly programmed so the songs have an electronic sound that can play in clubs and is good for dancing.

Chorus or hook is played before or at the first minute.

Working with great musicians and producers is an important key to the songs success