JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Latin music had a big night yesterday as the 25th annual Latin Grammys took place in Miami. The show celebrated new and veteran artists, but it also showed the cultural and generational shifts in the industry. Anamaria Sayre is the co-host of NPR's Alt.Latino podcast, and she joins us now from Miami. Hello there.
ANAMARIA SAYRE, BYLINE: Hey, Juana. How's it going?
SUMMERS: I'm well. Hey. I know you were there last night. So tell me. What was your big takeaway?
SAYRE: You know, Juana, in recent years, Latin music has experienced an explosion that we really haven't seen in the past. For that reason, I think all eyes in the music industry in general are on this space. And it's something that we're all talking about. We want to understand why. And I was able to really get a sense from artists who are on the ground - young artists who are genre-bending and experimenting with different sounds from across the continent more than ever before. What I heard from a lot of artists is that they're just really interested in telling a good story. A good song is a good song regardless of what genre you define it as.
SUMMERS: I mentioned that this was the 25th year of the awards. So as the Latin Grammys was celebrating this anniversary, can you just tell us how the industry has changed over that time?
SAYRE: Obviously, a lot has changed in how we consume music. But, to me, the thing that I've really noticed more than anything is what I see as an increased globalization on the front end of the music production process. I caught up with Colombian pop-rock star Juanes, who was around for that first Latin Grammys and has now won 25 of them over the 25 years, and he talked about his early influences being derivative of what was right in front of him.
JUANES: My algorithm was just my house, you know, the vinyls that my parents had at home. That was everything.
SAYRE: He'd then go and make his music based on that, and it would be exported to the rest of the world. In recent times, there's actually been an uptick in domestic consumption in Latin America. Mexicans want more Mexican music. Colombians want more Colombian music. It happens like this across almost all of the countries. To me, this is attributable to a real emergence of cultural pride that's represented in the music. That's most evident in the recent musica Mexicana explosion, which me and my co-host Felix Contreras have reported on extensively on our show, Alt.Latino.
SUMMERS: Yeah, that's right. So I'm really curious given how much reporting you guys have done on this. Do you think this is generational?
SAYRE: Oh, absolutely. Young people are exposed to more genres from a young age than ever before, simply by the nature of how we consume music, right? As a result, they're seamlessly bending genres. All anyone could talk about on the carpet is how their music - it doesn't fit into a box. It's just them. I talked with best pop song nominee Leon Leiden, from Mexico, on the red carpet last night, and he affirmed that there's a valuation of global styles, but there's a real interest in excavating more diverse domestic sounds with pride.
LEON LEIDEN: (Speaking Spanish).
SAYRE: He hopes Latin music is expressed through many more new genres and formats. He also hopes that his country, Mexico, is heard more and more across the world.
SUMMERS: And I know you have been talking to some of the artists that are leading some of the changes in music we've been talking about. I'm so curious. What are you hearing from them about where they want Latin music to go?
SAYRE: I caught up with cutting-edge Puerto Rican artist Alvaro Diaz, who was also nominated last night. He said, for a lot of years, people didn't hear his music. But then young kids who felt like the different kids - they found a home in what he was making.
ALVARO DIAZ: That feeling that - like, genuine things, you know? - not - like, perfection is going away. I think the most - imperfection, I think, is going to be a huge thing in the future.
SUMMERS: That is Anamaria Sayre, co-host of NPR's Alt.Latino. Thank you so much.
SAYRE: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "QUIEN TE QUIERE COMO EL NENE")
DIAZ: (Singing in Spanish). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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