There's a small niche of salsa fans that love the Fania era, and Willie Colon seems to have bridged generations of fans single-handedly.

Salsa didn't cross over to the younger generation, mostly cause latin music took a more urban turn to first Freestyle to then what we see in Reggaeton, bachata, merengue, all of which took cues from American rap and R&B.

The thing is salsa dura of the 70s that reflected urban life in NYC changing to salsa romantica in the 80s had something to do with the music eventually being seen as tired and lame.