Reggaetón the hot topic at Latin conference. LAMC

“It’s that time again. Hundreds of record-company types, agents, aspiring bands and jaded media will gather in New York for the Latin Alternative Music Conference to hash out how to make a different kind of music that’s profitable as well as challenging. Much of the talk at last year’s conference was focused on reggaetón and how it had gone from being “alternative” to wildly successful in about two seconds. This year, reggaetón has received some criticism for being too predictable – can an alternative spin help both genres go where no mÚsica has gone before?

This year’s darlings of alternative/urban/ reggaetón – Calle 13, who will perform Saturday at the conference’s main eventat Central Park SummerStage – seem to pose just that question. After quietly releasing their album in December, the Puerto Rican brothers Residente and Visitante (with some help from their sister PG-13) have gotten surprisingly consistent airplay and sales. Their music is quirky, literate and wildly inventive, and is beginning to attract a large following in South and Central America, Spain and the United States.”

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