Reggaeton - Authentic "latinidad" or a lazy marketing ploy?

If you're on your year abroad in a Spanish speaking country, whether it be Spain, Colombia, Mexico or elsewhere, you are sure to come across reggaeton. This blend of Hip Hop, Dancehall Reggae and Spanish rap is often blared out in nightclubs over a sea of gyrating, twerking and slut-dropping revellers. To put it bluntly reggaeton is rude.

Stars like Daddy Yankee (see below) and Pitbull have helped this style of music cross to the UK and beyond with huge hits like "Gasolina" and "El Taxi".

 

Reggaeton has been called the first "transnational" music as it's impossible to specify where it first originated. Puerto Ricans will often claim it as their own seeing as many of the first reggaeton artists were Puerto Rican living in the US in the 1990s and early 2000s. Panama is also often touted as its birthplace with a precursor to reggaeton, reggae-en-español, taking hold there during the 1970s and 80s.

The diagram below shows how reggaeton developed over the years from two separate musical styles, hip hop and reggae, became translated into Spanish, Spanish rap and reggae-en-español, and eventually culminated in reggaeton in the 1990s in the US. Along the way a certain "Latino" flavour was added with elements of Puerto Rican Bomba, the mish mash that is salsa and other South American traditional dances being incorporated.

 

The music itself is characterised by its use of the "Dem Bow Riddim" a beat made popular by Jamaican Dancehall artists like Shabba Ranks (see below) in the early 1990s.

The artists creating those first reggaeton songs had grown up surrounded by the same cultural issues that affected African Americans in the US. Racism, poverty, the problems of urban living and the feeling of being ostracised by society in general are all synonymous with hip hop and would come to dominate reggaeton as well. In fact many Latino artists had been there at the birth of hip hop in the 1970s and would continue on the scene for the rest of their careers.

Listen to any more modern reggaeton song, however, and ideas of a deeper subtext geared towards social commentary or rebellion evaporate... Sex, money, partying and more sex is all that reggaeton seems to endorse now. The lyrics are overtly sexual, at times homophobic and generally misogynistic; in reggaeton the man most definitely wears the trousers.

Its similarities and links with hip hop have allowed this form of latino music to establish itself in the mainstream much more firmly than other past latino dance "crazes". In Madrid it's everywhere. Teatro Kapital has its own reggaeton floor and there are clubs that exclusively pump out its steady beat.

This ubiquity has become something of an issue though - in the mainstream US media it seems that reggaeton as a musical style has now come to represent the Latino community as a whole. Its stars are being used to advertise products to the Spanish speaking market and it seems that all US hispanics are presumed to identify with the ideas of Latinos it presents. Below are images of Daddy Yankee advertising Pepsi and his own brand of perfume for women:

In the first image the star is playing the "big boss" role. He sits dripping in bling, muscled arms rippling and covered in tattoos. The ad also includes the word "cartel" implying that he's somehow involved with drugs. The second image sees him reclining on a beach while a scantily clad woman drapes herself over him. Here he looks sharp and wealthy portraying the pseudo-aristocrat, billionaire playboy character. Both images are endorsing traditional latino stereotypes.

Rivera states that:

"Reggaeton artists have been used by the culture industry to promote and sell Latin urban authenticity as a tenable media representation of latinidad (or Latin identity)".

 

In other words the mass media is making use of these reggaeton artists in adverts as they see them as a quick fix solution to appeal to a Latino market. The star is used as the icon or epitome of modern Latino identity, hopefully ingratiating their product or service with Latinos and non-Latino consumers who are attracted by the "latin flavour" the artists provide. The Pepsi advert is written in Spanish implying it's meant for a Spanish speaking audience but how much do US Latinos truly like or identify with reggaeton and the messages it sends?

The stereotypes promoted by reggaeton and its artists are tired and outdated. Since the 1990s and early 2000s the Latino community in the US has changed significantly leaving the music lagging behind. The overly macho lyrics and music videos full of men in over-sized t-shirts or too tight vests surrounded by a harem of near naked women are just not in-keeping with what it is to be "Latino" today in the US.

Rivera also notes the recent appearance of "anti-fans"; Latinos who actively speak out on the internet bemoaning this over-generalisation and cliched stereotyping of their community.

It seems that marketers hoping to appeal to a Latino audience by lazily plastering their promotions with images of artists such as Daddy Yankee do so at the risk of alienating a large proportion of the community they aim to target.


References

- Flores, J (2000) 'Puerto rocks: rap, roots and amnesia'. in Flores, J. (2000) 'From bomba to hip hop: Puerto Rican culture and Latino identity'. New York: Colombia University Press, pp. 115-139.

- Nieves, Moreno. A (2009) 'A Man Lives Here' - Reggaeton's Hypermasculine Resident' in Rivera, R., Marshall, W. and Pacini Hernandez, D. (eds). 'Reggaeton'. London: Duke University Press, pp. 252-279

- Noriega, D. A (2014) 'Música, imagen y sexualidad: el reggaetón y las asimetrías de género'. El Cotidiano, 186. pp. 63-67 

- Rivera, M (2011) 'The Online Anti-reggaeton Movement: A Visual Exploration' in Prout, R. (ed). 'Seeing in Spanish: From Don Quijote to Daddy Yankee - 22 Essays on Hispanic Visual Cultures', Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing