For this month’s “Interview with a Trends Manager,” we spoke to Karla Agis, YouTube’s Culture & Trends Manager for Latin America. Before joining YouTube, Karla spent nearly 10 years focused on the analysis and creation of viral content for brands such as Buzzfeed and Condé Nast.
You cover all of Latin America but grew up in and are currently based in Mexico. How does YouTube fit into the media landscape in Mexico and other Latin American countries?
Karla: When we talk about the media landscape in Mexico and the Spanish-speaking regions in LATAM, we’re talking about 18 countries and one language. So there’s a lot of similarities in culture, which explains certain patterns. For instance, not only is YouTube one of the favorite platforms on which to watch videos, but creators also share a lot of audiences across the region. In Mexico alone, we have over 600 YouTube channels with more than one million subscribers, but there is a lot of cross-consumption of creators like Luisito Comunica, Los Polinesios, and Kimberly Loaiza across other Latin American countries.
And while there are many shared categories of content that are popular, there are also clusters of unique content creators. For example, in Argentina, there is a community that is at the forefront of trap, a popular style of music often called a subgenre of hip hop. Although trap was originally developed in the southern United States, today it is led by artists like Paulo Londra, and Nicki Nicole, who have evolved this genre.
What role has music played in how creators discuss Covid-19?
Karla: Historically, music has been a medium of hope that enables us to talk about difficult things, such as Covid-19. But only in Latin America would you have major artists singing about the disease in different ways. That alliance of hope and creativity comes from our strong sense of community and our warmth across the Latina American world.
Many artists gave voice to what we were feeling: frustration, loneliness, and uncertainty. Some, like Jc La Nevula, performed songs that spoke to the really hard aspects of the pandemic. But others brought comedy to it, like Los Tres Tristes Tigres, whose song “La Cuarentena,” a parody of “La Macarena,” referenced being parents with kids in quarantine.