SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO — La Orquesta Macabeo, la PVC, San Juan Habana, NG2, and Villariny Salsa Project are some of the new generation musical bands from Puerto Rico that are working hard to keep the Latin genre of Salsa alive.

"It isn't dead," confirms José Ibañez, musical director of Macabeo; rather, the followers of the genre don't attempt to follow the new generation of musicians and they stick to only following the most popular bands or artists. 

Ibañez believes that people simply like to live and remember the greatness of the old Salsa, or Salsa clásica, and they don't want to listen the new rhythms of today. 

On top of that, salsa bands all over the world fancy themselves with simply playing covers of old artists and bands, which maintains their popularity alive and trains the listeners or salsa lovers to only like those songs, those rhythms, and to always want to continue reliving those past salsa moments. It is a method to simply make money for salsa artists. 

But is it really as simple as that? or is there more reasons as to why salseros prefer the old styles and rhythms of salsa? 

New bands attempt to be more trendy, maybe add a little jazz or rock, or what they call their own 'touch' to the music. Their material may be original and unique, but it is not danceable at times, not likeable, and not pleasant to the ears of a person who loves purely authentic Latin salsa music. 

Vitor Rosario, a member of Villariny Salsa Project, gave credit to events like Salsa Congresses that are organized all over the world, for maintaining the thirst for salsa music alive. He also credited dance competitions composed of children, whom at some point will continue to love the genre, the music, the culture, and all of its history. 

Rosario, who was a member of Plena Libra and Zakandela, reaffirms that the interest in Salsa has always been there and continues to be there. Salsa is definitely not dying. 

We at SalsaHook.com know very well that Salsa is alive. The genre might have lost a lot of influence in the Latin music community, as it was recently that even the Latin Grammys dismissed the Latin Jazz category as non-important and purged it completely. But Salsa continues to be an embassador of Latin cultures to the rest of the world. 

New salsa orchestras do sometimes like to 'try new things' and attempt to re-invent the wheel, but all their hard work only ends up in proving the same thing: what works, works...and there is no need to try to change it. Salsa lovers - we, the dancers, the ones who will listen to the music and appreciate each and everyone of its beats, don't care for 'new' approaches to the genre, for trendy additions of jazz or rock-like styles of music, etc. 

Long live Salsa!