As we all know, through the past year Latin music exploded onto the charts and Santana cleaned out the Grammys . But how much more of Ricky Martin shaking his bon-bon can we take? Boy bands like the Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, and 98° and teenage girls like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore and Jessica Simpson seem to be today's Spice Girls and are hot on the pop charts. But what's the next trend for popular music in North America?

Southern rap artists such as Juvenile and Hot Boys and dance groups such as Eiffel 65 are trends identified by Julie Pilat, music director of KUBE 93.3 in Seattle. The southern gangsta rap style of the Cash Money label is getting plenty of airplay and positive feedback. Juvenile recently won a Soul Train awards for Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist, and he was also nominated for an American Music Award and performed at the Billboard Music Awards. Artists from the Cash Money label have three CDs on the Rap CD Reviews on the Soul Train charts. When asked to describe their sound, Pilat said, "'bounce music'--people bounce up & down to it.... a lot of it has classical sounding beats.... like Juvenile 'Back That Azz Up'."

Dance music isn't that popular in North America--yet. Europeans thrive on the pulsating beats combined with repetitious lyrics, and the style is slowly making its way over the Atlantic. It was not so long ago that "Blue (da ba dee)" by the Italian group Eiffel 65 was being played all over the clubs here in Nanaimo. The number one dance single in the UK according to Dotmusic.com is "Stop Playing with my Mind" by Barbara Tucker. Chicane, Yomanda and Moby also top the dance charts on the same site. Pilat also mentioned the group Sonique that is number 25 on the Muchmusic top 30 chart with their song "It Feels so Good."

Manufactured groups are also a trend, the Spice Girls being a prime example. Producers have recognized the success of such artists as the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. Auditions are being held to find tomorrow's hottest artists. Groups that have been together for years, and who write and produce original material such as the Canadian group soulDecision take pride in just that.

Boy Bands are still very popular, reason being that there are still teenage girls with raging hormones. Two of the groups are in the top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. What's next for these cloned groups? Nick Lachey from 98° and Jessica Simpson (the latest Britney Spears wannabe) are now a couple and have a duet together entitled "Where You Are". 98° are also featured on Mariah Carey's newest single "Thank God I Found You." In addition, J.C. from N'Sync was recently featured on R&B group BLAQUE's hit single "Bring it All to Me." The bands are doing a commendable job broadening their repertoire. It is nice to hear artists performing different styles of music and proving their talents.

Macy Gray is a newcomer to the music industry but is proving herself and her style. Her album On How life is just went platinum in the US and is number seven on the Billboard top 200 charts. She was nominated for two Grammies and won the two Brit Awards she was nominated for. Her debut single "I Try" is still in the top 20 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. Her smooth R&B style is fresh and her distinctive coarse voice makes for an unusual combination. If Toni Braxton, Chante Moore, or Aaliyah were the vocalists, the songs would run with perfection. Gray's voice really does not float my boat, although with her popularity I think I am one of few.

I like seeing different musical genres merging. "Maria, Maria" by Santana featuring Product G&B is the perfect example. Latin and R&B music fit together beautifully and I hope we can hear more of that excellent combination. There always seems to be dance mixes for pop songs; take for example "Nobody's Supposed to be Here" by Deborah Cox or Jennifer Lopez's "Waiting for Tonight." We can look to Europe to find the next dance music we'll be dancing to at the clubs, and look south for the latest rap hits. The Latin influence is still strong. Christina Aguilera has a Spanish album in the works while Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias have extraordinary successes with their conversion to English. With the incredible success of all the calibrations on Santana's Supernatural album, there will be more artists merging together in the near future and creating the newest trends in North America.