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Nobody listens to Salsa anymore. When I said it's dead, I'm referring to the commodification of it. Of course, Salsa dance classes and clubs exist, but as far as it being a popular music, it's dead. Dembow and Bachata are what these youngings are listening to know. Salsa is no longer popular music.
Salsa was always an older generation thing... When you were growing up who was it that you heard bumping Gran Combo, Hector Lavoe, Jerry Rivera? It was always the parents and that still is the case... The reason why you don't hear salsa outside anymore is simply due to the fact that PR ghettoes no longer exist... PR's have spread across the city and the country... That doesn't mean we don't listen to salsa anymore... And from what I see heading to church parties and having to chaperone sometimes at the events, most of the new crowd of spanish folk are starting to appreciate salsa as well... Everywhere I go, I see more and more kids learning salsa steps for the parties... The dance itself takes so much more skill than bachata or merengue and these kids wanna learn... Only difference between back then and today is that kids learned how to dance salsa from their parents growing up, now they just learn it at dancing schools across the city...
At majority of the parties ive been to it's a mix... No one wants to hear dembow 100% of the time just like no one wants to hear salsa 100% of the time... Depending on the crowds, you'll hear a mix of bachata, merengue, salsa, dembow, cumbia, vallenato, reggaeton, etc. with a mix of hip hop and other party songs...
Please, stop talking what you don't know... I'm trying to protect you from sounding foolish on here... The NYC salsa scene is definitely on the decline overall but Puerto Rican salsa from PR, Columbian Salsa, Cuban Salsa, etc. is still going strong... It may not sound like the classics did but salsa will always be around...
LOL! But IMO that's the right to do... cuz I like his threads.
I have no idea what parties you are attending anon, maybe at the church parties the kids are mimicking the old folks because that's what church kids do. Back at the ranch however, salsa is DEAD, and it's the old timers who dance it, with kids playing along for fun. The younger generation (35 and younger), are listening to a variety of pop spanish music (La Oreja De Van Gogh/Juanes etc), bachata, reggeaton, merengue, and mainstream American music thrown in. Yes salsa is played also, but it's for the old folks and mandatory to play it just because you have to.
And anon, there are still "PR ghettos", and I would say Mott Haven/Hunts Point/Woodstock, generally the southeastern Bronx, is the last area which can be describes as such. And trust me when I am walking around, the 65+ year olds are listening to salsa, everyone else is listening to the other music I listed.
I have no idea what parties you are attending anon, maybe at the church parties the kids are mimicking the old folks because that's what church kids do. Back at the ranch however, salsa is DEAD, and it's the old timers who dance it, with kids playing along for fun. The younger generation (35 and younger), are listening to a variety of pop spanish music (La Oreja De Van Gogh/Juanes etc), bachata, reggeaton, merengue, and mainstream American music thrown in. Yes salsa is played also, but it's for the old folks and mandatory to play it just because you have to.
And anon, there are still "PR ghettos", and I would say Mott Haven/Hunts Point/Woodstock, generally the southeastern Bronx, is the last area which can be describes as such. And trust me when I am walking around, the 65+ year olds are listening to salsa, everyone else is listening to the other music I listed.
Like I said in a previous post, the decline you are seeing in the Bronx of the PR population is what areas like Bushwick, Cypress Hills, City Line experienced in the early 2000s... Right now the flavor of the month in the Bronx is Dominican and a growing Mexican presence so naturally these first timers moving into the Bronx aren't going to be interested in listening to Salsa... From what I can see in pretty much every other area outside the Bronx (I don't head out there that often)... once the neighborhood stabilizes and there isn't this mass exodus of PR folk anymore... Salsa starts to grow on these new kids and right now at every party I go to these kids want to learn how to dance salsa... We have little classes here and there at my house where the instructor and I teach these kids the basic moves and different spins, etc.
3 to 4 years ago, I agree that these were the same parties whose DJs had stopped playing salsa... Not the case anymore... Whether it's the Mexicans or Ecuadorians who look at salsa like a modified version of cumbia or the Dominicans who love to show their skills on the dance floor, Salsa is gaining popularity again wherever I go... I've been to parties in CT, New Jersey, Yonkers, the Bronx, Manhattan, and mainly in Brooklyn and Queens and usually it was CT that would play the most salsa (probably like a 50-20-20-10 breakdown of salsa, bachata, merengue and party music)... Now these BK and Queens parties are playing alot more new school salsa (basically from N-klabe, Son de Cali's new albums, DKG, Maelo Ruiz, etc.)
P.S.- What kind of corny parties do you go to where the kids bump to oreja de van gogh... That speaks to a completely different set of party goers than your typical dancing crowd... That's like comparing hip hop/r&b parties to rock... Of course those parties where kids listen to oreja de van gogh are not gonna have salsa... At traditional parties where Salsa, Bachata and Merengue and other forms of "dancing" music is the focus, you'll see that at least in the parties, salsa really hasn't lost that much popularity...
Listening to it at home and dancing it at parties are two completely different things... The first statement I will concede that this is definitely true that salsa is pretty much dead in NYC... On the second front we'll have to agree to disagree there...
The kids listen to all sorts of music...which is what is happening at these parties, including Juanes/Shakira/Oreja De Van Gogh..why is that corny? Unless they are being "cool" and listening only to stereotypical carribean music, it's corny? Sounds like you are the one going to to the corny parties. If you think Salsa hasn't lost popularity, you have been going to parties with the 65+ crowd...they do play salsa at parties, but it's cuz it's tradition. And yes the kids go out on the dance floor and trip over themselves to imitate salsa dancing, but it's about tradition, not popularity.
The kids listen to all sorts of music...which is what is happening at these parties, including Juanes/Shakira/Oreja De Van Gogh..why is that corny? Unless they are being "cool" and listening only to stereotypical carribean music, it's corny? Sounds like you are the one going to to the corny parties. If you think Salsa hasn't lost popularity, you have been going to parties with the 65+ crowd...they do play salsa at parties, but it's cuz it's tradition. And yes the kids go out on the dance floor and trip over themselves to imitate salsa dancing, but it's about tradition, not popularity.
You didn't mention the other singers... You specifically stated Oreja de van gogh as what kids listen to at the parties... For the record, to all those people unaware of who Oreja de van gogh is... Check out one of their more popular songs...
Oh man... Can't wait to listen to that at a party... Sounds like the only one going to parties with the 65 year old crowd isn't me sobro... Like I said, the parties where kids are listening to Dembow, Cumbia, Reggaeton, Merengue, bachata... they're also listening to salsa as well and they're finally dancing it well... You can tell their moves were learned recently as most of the spins they use are fairly predictable... but still... its an improvement from previous years... The thing with the Bronx, is that pretty much in terms of everything, the borough is a little behind... Their behind in the PR exodus scene, their behind in the hipster scene, the gentrification scene, the expensive rents scene, and apparently from what you tell me, the party scene as well... Although I can probably chalk that party statement up to the fact that the parties you seem to go to are definitely more mellow in nature than the ones I've attended...
I mean really? You can't possibly be this small minded anon can you? U pick almost any artist..and they have slower music, while they ALSO have more dance/party/trendy music. Would you play Rihanna's "Unfaithful" at a party, or "Pon De Replay"? According to you, because Rihanna has the slow song "Unfaithful" you would not play Rihanna at all! PS: You should hear the dance remix of the "BullBoxer31" song....it's off da hook!
Like I said, I get that you are old and into the whole church thing, so your take on parties is not actually relevant to this discussion. The kids are not dancing salsa well...these are the same kids who can't speak english OR spanish well....it doesn't take any skill to dance pereo...but it does to dance salsa, and these kids don't dance it, except to mimick the adults and just have a good time...it's tradition, not popular.
As for your comments about the Bronx:
PRs have been leaving the Bronx in droves, for decades now..how can you say they are behind this trend at all? They have been driving it!!!!!!! How do you think all those Mexican/South Americans/Dominicans are moving in? They are replacing all the PRs.
They are not behind the hipster/gentrification scene because it is not welcome here, and they are not catering to the population...that is a choice, not "falling behind."
As for expensive rent scene, the Bronx has always been the affordable borough since Day 1...that is not being behind the scene, that is what the Bronx is always about!
And as I stated before, your opinions on the party scene are not relevant...when I want to sing in tongues I will ask for your opinion on what songs to play.
I mean really? You can't possibly be this small minded anon can you? U pick almost any artist..and they have slower music, while they ALSO have more dance/party/trendy music. Would you play Rihanna's "Unfaithful" at a party, or "Pon De Replay"? According to you, because Rihanna has the slow song "Unfaithful" you would not play Rihanna at all! PS: You should hear the dance remix of the "BullBoxer31" song....it's off da hook!
Like I said, I get that you are old and into the whole church thing, so your take on parties is not actually relevant to this discussion. The kids are not dancing salsa well...these are the same kids who can't speak english OR spanish well....it doesn't take any skill to dance pereo...but it does to dance salsa, and these kids don't dance it, except to mimick the adults and just have a good time...it's tradition, not popular.
As for your comments about the Bronx:
PRs have been leaving the Bronx in droves, for decades now..how can you say they are behind this trend at all? They have been driving it!!!!!!! How do you think all those Mexican/South Americans/Dominicans are moving in? They are replacing all the PRs.
They are not behind the hipster/gentrification scene because it is not welcome here, and they are not catering to the population...that is a choice, not "falling behind."
As for expensive rent scene, the Bronx has always been the affordable borough since Day 1...that is not being behind the scene, that is what the Bronx is always about!
And as I stated before, your opinions on the party scene are not relevant...when I want to sing in tongues I will ask for your opinion on what songs to play.
As usual I see its not that difficult to get under your skin since you clearly know so much more about the party scene that I do... What would a poor ignorant church person know about a party scene anyway... clearly I'm backwards in that regard...
As for reggaeton dancing, that is about the only thing i'll agree with you on... There is absolutely no skill involved in dancing perreo... That being said, I'm going to stick with my opinion being that I go to parties across the tri-state area on a bi-weekly basis either to help DJ or chaperone certain parties, as opposed to your Oreja de Van Gogh, and what I'm assuming is also Mana, Christian Castro, Luis Fonsi, Sin Bandera, Tercer Cielo, etc. party going self...
Your inmaturity when it comes to anyone who has a differing opinion to you only shows your heightened sensitivity and child like nature but sure criticize the church goer for being a religious nut... That's the way to go... Can't be that someone is a little more educated on a certain topic than you sobro... No, thats impossible...
Final Point - When I throw shade at these artists being played at parties... Don't get me wrong and think I don't listen to every single one of these artists... I have them all on my playlist and when I'm in a relaxing mood, you will definitely hear some Ricardo Arjona or Oreja de Van Gogh in my ipod... But you claiming that the young kids are not listening to salsa because they're busy dancing their tails off to "BullBoxer31," doesn't really help to buffer your point one iota... Just sayin
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As usual I see its not that difficult to get under your skin since you clearly know so much more about the party scene that I do... What would a poor ignorant church person know about a party scene anyway... clearly I'm backwards in that regard... 
