[Retro]

Selena's power was indeed strongly focused in the US and Mexico. She was a brilliant artist and had strong influence on several performers from those countries, but her power didn't necessarily extend to the rest of Latin America. She indeed specialized, for a long time, in a regional sector of popular music; she's widely known as a Tejano artist.

[Luder]

Originally posted by Kat

Oh I've never read that quote.

Interesting.

Well, you never noticed the quality difference in material?

[GreasyBruce]

Originally posted by RobynYoBank

She's only sold 8 million albums in the US, so that means she's sold 82 million albums in Latin + South America. Poor Shakira!

She's probably sold 9.2 million albums worldwide. They misplaced the decimal point.

[Vine101]

They don't have the 2nd best selling American album from the past 5 years, Fearless, in that list so it's ****

[Retro]

Originally posted by GreasyBruce

She's probably sold 9.2 million albums worldwide. They misplaced the decimal point.

Maybe a little more, but tbh this is a lot closer.

[iHype.]

Originally posted by GreasyBruce

It's not And OK i was being too harsh on the poor girl, but when it comes to her career elsewhere I'm being serious. She's completely unknown and she has no impact or anything outside of Mexico/US. And Latin American countries did have album charts in the 90s, artists could sell millions of copies of their albums.

And the fact that I didn't know who she was, despite having lived in Ecuador and Peru since I was 9 years old until recently, is proof that she is a non factor. She was never discussed, her songs weren't anywhere Her damn film did not even receive distribution outside of the United States because they knew there was zero interst.

http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=selena.htm

I still think she's a Latin Icon if you were serious. Aaliyah's an R&B Icon (and am NOT calling her a Legend b4 y'all drag me) and Selena had a much bigger presence. Like again, she was Top Latin Artist of the 90's and you're acting like she was doing AKA #'s.

Originally posted by RobynYoBank

She's only sold 8 million albums in the US, so that means she's sold 82 million albums in Latin + South America. Poor Shakira!

[Retro]

Why did I wait to listen to Frank Ocean until today?

Why?

Holy ****, why?

[GreasyBruce]

I will be the first to admit Shakira's Wiki album sales are a mess. 20m for Laundry Service (sold 13m). 12m for Oral Fixation 2 (it sold like half of that). 5m for Sale El Sol (sold half of that).

But from 9m to 90m

[Kat]

Originally posted by Luder

Well, you never noticed the quality difference in material?

No, it makes sense that a lot of that stuff is higher quality.

But none of those Kanye clothes look like they're worth anywhere near that so...

[GreasyBruce]

Originally posted by iHype.

I still think she's a Latin Icon if you were serious. Aaliyah's an R&B Icon (and am NOT calling her a Legend b4 y'all drag me) and Selena had a much bigger presence. Like again, she was Top Latin Artist of the 90's and you're acting like she was doing AKA #'s.

That's all very well but that "Top Latin Artist" title is for the United States. Actual Latin America determines what is truly Latin, not the comparatively scant amount of Latin people in the United States who have lived through that country's culture and are no longer from Latin America.

She is an icon to the Mexican-American community, for sure. But that doesn't make her an icon to all of Latin America.

[BabyCantYouSee]

Originally posted by 4AM.

Why did I wait to listen to Frank Ocean until today?

Why?

Holy ****, why?

You'll get over him in a couple of days.

[Scuba_Dive]

Originally posted by 2AM

Greasy since your the most knowledgable on the issue, which pop girl is the closest to being a Latin icon? Shakira?

Britney or Lady Gaga.

[Retro]

Tragic deaths elevate an artist's profile in some ways, honestly. It has an impact on you when you live through a major artist dying - it's usually a huge media event, and focus is drawn to what a loss their death always is. That kind of brings attention to them, as it did for Selena. Her death was an event that directly lead to my Spanish teacher's discovery of her and subsequently my introduction to her work, and I'm sure her death led to many more people hearing about her. It probably made her even a little more significant in music history; it's tragic and horrible, particularly in that it was a professed fan that killed her, but it's a fact.

[Retro]

Originally posted by BabyCantYouSee

You'll get over him in a couple of days.

Maybe, particularly knowing myself, but what I'm hearing so far is sooo good.

[Ecstasy]

Honestly I only heard of Selena cuz I saw a documentary of her death on a show that showed these kind of things frequently. They did John Lenons death on the next episode

[iHype.]

Originally posted by GreasyBruce

She is an icon to the Mexican-American community, for sure. But that doesn't make her an icon to all of Latin America.

n that still makes her a Latin Icon.

That's like saying Beyonce isn't a Black Icon, because people in actual Africa don't use her, she's an African American Icon. (YKWIM)

[GreasyBruce]

Originally posted by 2AM

Greasy since your the most knowledgable on the issue, which pop girl is the closest to being a Latin icon? Shakira?

You mean out of the pop girls we discuss here? Shakira obviously, but people dragged her so much for She Wolf and it hasn't been the same since tbh. She's still an icon but before She Wolf with Laundry Service and Fijacion Oral she was on some Michael Jackson level, just look at how people react when she wins here:

[Halien4Life]

I like Dempsey, pretty much the backbone of The US team

Leggo USA !

[Giselle]

Ooh, 4AM, lemme catch you while you're in your Bey phase http://atrl.net/forums/showthread.php?t=622603

[GreasyBruce]

Originally posted by iHype.

n that still makes her a Latin Icon.

That's like saying Beyonce isn't a Black Icon, because people in actual Africa don't use her, she's an African American Icon. (YKWIM)

Don't equate "Black" to "Latin". Two very different things (Latin isn't a race to begin with, it's more of a geographical descriptor because even within Latin America there are an infinity of ethnicities and cultures) and saying "Latin Icon" implies she is an icon to most Latin people when that couldn't be further from the truth. I just vehemently oppose that kind of discussion because it ties in to how Americans assume that Mexico equals all of Latin America.