Latin Pop Albums is a chart that ranks the best-selling Latin pop albums in the United States. Since its inception, the chart had been published on a fortnightly basis with its positions being compiled by sales data from Latin music retailers and distributors. The methodology for the chart was amended with the effect from the week of July 10, 1993, to have its sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan, basing it on electronic point of sale data. At the same time, the chart began to be published weekly and became a sub chart of Top Latin Albums (which was established in the same week as the methodology change). Billboard also imposed a linguistic rule requiring an album to have 70% of its content in Spanish (later reduced to 50%) to be eligible to rank on the chart.
The first number one of the decade was Tierra de Nadie (1988) by Ana Gabriel, which had been in the top spot since the issue dated November 18, 1989. Ana Gabriel was also the female artist with the most number-one records of the 1990s with Quién como tú (1989), En Vivo (1990), and Silueta (1992). She had the bestselling Latin pop album of 1991 with En Vivo. Other female acts to reach number one on the chart in the 1990s included Vikki Carr, Gloria Estefan, Myriam Hernández, Daniela Romo, Selena, Shakira, and Olga Tañón. Selena had the longest-running number one of the decade with her posthumous studio album Dreaming of You (1995) with 44 weeks. It also topped the Billboard 200 chart, becoming the first predominately Spanish-language album to do so and remains the best-selling Latin album in the US of all-time .
Alejandro Fernández, Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, and Luis Miguel, dubbed by the Los Angeles Times critic Ernesto Lechner as among "Latin PopâÂÂs Golden Boys", all topped the Latin Pop Albums chart in the 1990s. Luis Miguel had the most number one albums of the decade. His album Romance (1991) was credited with reviving mainstream interest in the bolero genre, and spent 16 weeks at the apex of the chart. His follow-up bolero albums Segundo Romance (1994) and Romances (1997) also reached number one and all three albums were certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The Romance-themed albums were followed by his pop albums: Aries (1993), Nada Es Igual... (1996), and Amarte Es un Placer (1999), the latter being the final number one record of the decade. Me Estoy Enamorando by Fernández and Vuelve by Martin were the best-selling Latin albums of 1998 and 1999, respectively, and were both certified platinum by the RIAA.
Two albums related to the song "Macarena" hit the top spot of the chart: Macarena Non Stop (1996) by Los del RÃÂo and Macarena Mix (1995), a compilation album with music by Sandalo, Manolos, El Lupe and The Sacados, to capitalize on the song's popularity. It would be Los del RÃÂo's only number one album on the chart. Three predominately non-Spanish-language albums topped the chart: Lambada (1989) by Kaoma, Jon Secada's self-titled album (1992), and Supernatural (1999) by Santana. Although Supernatural topped the chart in the week of July 3, 1999, it was removed the week following its debut after Billboard determined the album did not meet the linguistic requirement.