In 2018, Latin music has skyrocketed dominating some of the charts and increasing its popularity, especially in the United States. In fact, it even surpassed country music in album consumption numbers, a new report says.

Latin music overthrew country music in terms of listeners. More and more Americans are now patronizing the Spanish-dominated music as years pass by.

In a newly-released report from BuzzAngle, a data company that measures music consumption, it stated:

“Latin music’s popularity increased so much [that] it surpassed country music in album consumption numbers.”

BuzzAngle

In the previous data from BuzzAngle, it showed that country music albums are usually a part of the top five most consumed albums in the U.S. However, things changed and in 2018, Latin music dethroned country and eventually took its place. Hence, the genre is now among the top five most consumed music albums across the country.

Statistics show that Latin music accounted for 9.4 percent of all album listening in the U.S. last year. Meanwhile, country music only recorded a staggering 8.7 percent.

Latin Music Domination

In an interview with NBC News, reggaeton singer Nicky Jam said:

“I know our numbers. There’s a new movement now, a new beat, a new sound. It’s where music is going right now.”

Nicky Jam

Adding to the rise of Latin music in the U.S. in 2018 is the release of new albums of Latin music giants such as J Balvin, Bad Bunny, Ozuna, Rosalia, and Mon Laferte. Their music has purely made an impact in just a short span of time, attracting more and more Americans.

When asked for his opinion about this (when he was promoting his then-new album, Vibras, J Balvin told NBC News:

“We are defining a new mainstream.”

J Balvin

Furthermore, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, one of the largest, most famous, and most profitable music festivals worldwide, have apparently picked up on the trend and even added many Latin artists to its lineup for this year’s event. The 2019 Coachella Festival could be considered an unprecedented list of major Latin musicians to have ever graced an American festival.

In fact, Coachella announced the following Latin artists to be part of the festival. They are J Balvin, Bad Bunny, Rosalia, Mon Laferte, Tucanes de Tijuana, Javier Mena, Tomasa del Real, and Ocho Ojos. They are set to take the stage this coming April. The demand for Latin music has been consistently growing since 2014. Hits like “Bailando” by Enrique Iglesias and “El Perdon” by Nicky Jam have paved the way to reaching a huge success. Thanks to the popularity of music streaming services, it became very easy for Latin music to penetrate mainstream music.