Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Displays of Colonial Shame in Puerto Rican Reggaetón

2015; Volume: 12; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.32855/fcapital.201501.009

1930-014X

Alison Torres-Ramos,

Media, Gender, and Advertising

Yo soy el que nadie entiende, el loco demente, la voz del pueblo, el más buena gente,todo lo que yo te hable va a ser desagradable, muy inteligente y supuestamente, poco saludable.Gracias a mis insultos, los niños tienen que escucharme bajo la supervisión de un adulto[1] -Calle 13 "Ven y Critícame" Yo no planto bandera pues yo no soy Cristóbal Colon, yo soy de Las Acacias cien por ciento de corazón, de ningún caserío yo me quiero hacer dueño, no soy un extranjero soy puertorriqueño [2].-Vico C "La Recta Final"It was summer 2004 in Puerto Rico, I had just gotten my hands on the new Barrio Fino CD, and I was on my way to the local Sam's Club in Ponce to meet Daddy Yankee.I was ecstatic on the way there and blasted the CD as loud as it could go in the car.I arrived about two hours early and the dense line, made up of equally exited fans, stretched around inside and outside the door.I never got to meet Daddy Yankee because he decided to leave (after several hours) before it was my turn.I, and the countless other fans who left Sam's Club that day without an autograph or picture, were not bitter.We played our CDs loudly on the way back home and were not ashamed to love reggaetón [3].Fast forward to Puerto Rico today, and while reggaetón is still fairly popular at parties or at local youth hangouts, the love for reggaetón has greatly decreased on the island.Gone are the days when people were not ashamed of liking the genre.Now, listeners of reggaetón are stereotyped as being without morals, overly sexual, and having criminal inclinations.Reggaetón is still a popular genre in the wider Latin American community, as evidenced by the numerous reggaetón artists that appear on popular TV shows, such as Nuestra Belleza Latina, and by the reggaetón artists who still win music awards and whose music tops the charts.Why is this acceptance of the genre by the wider Latina community not a reflection of Puerto Rican sentiments?Radio stations, music videos, and elaborate concerts are just some of the ways that music is part of the burgeoning culture industry.With its entertaining yet innocent façade, the music industry has covertly helped shape many aspects of contemporary culture, such as fashion trends, personal identity, and even media production styles, to name a few.According to Debord (1970), spectacles refer to media events that are produced by the culture industry and are designed to influence audience behavior in order to maintain their hegemonic relationship with the ruling class.I use Kellner's (2003) diagnostic critique as my methodological framework.Kellner explains that "The conception of cultural studies as a diagnostic critique thus combines using social theory to interpret and contextualize phenomena of media culture with developing close readings and situating of cultural texts to elucidate contemporary culture and society" (29).This framework facilitates the analysis of the rise and fall of reggaetón because it provides insights into Displays of Colonial Shame in Puerto Rican Reggaetón