A New Generation In Reggaeton: Bad Bunny

Over the years, reggaeton has been a style of music filled with many controversial lyrics — until one particular reggaetonero, Bad Bunny , changed the direction of the genre by using his lyrics to create political movements alongside his unique style.

Benito Martínez Ocasio, famously known as Bad Bunny, has become one of the most influential reggaetoneros of all time due to his unique style, wardrobe and the many controversial statements hidden behind his lyrics. He has been able to gain the attention of his fan base by using what they admire about him most, his music, to make sure social issues such as the constant harassment of women and trans women are being addressed in order to make a stop to the issue.

Reggaeton is a music genre that originated in Puerto Rico in the late 1990s. This music style has been very popular as it is influenced by American hip-hop, Latin American music and Caribbean music.

Up until a few years ago, reggaeton was a male-dominant style of music. Lyrics among several songs involved sexist comments about women, insinuating that women were extremely submissive to men as long as the men had money, power and fame.

“It is for sure dominated by male artists, although women have tried to create their own platform,” said Thalia, Cordón, 31 of Bosotn, “I think the sexist and homophobic lyrics are not as prevalent as they were when I was in high school and college.”

Cordón, who is from Puerto Rico, has been listening to reggaeton most of her life, and has witnessed the influence of the lyrics behind the controversial genre has caused on the island. Many consider this genre to be liberal and progressive as it creates a revolution throughout the island.

“There’s a division of thinking, people are tolerable and understanding when it comes to reggaeton. It shows the growth the island is going through,” said Cordón.

Of course, to many people reggaeton is just music, but it has become more than just a genre of music globally thanks to Bad Bunny Baby.

Martínez Ocasio has been one of the few reggaetoneros to use his platform to fight social and political injustices. He often uses his music to point out things that must change in society and has ever since then been respected by his listeners due to his statements, especially the ones he often makes about women and how unfairly they are treated.

“Bad Bunny brings the civility to the issues that people have not been paying attention to and one hopes that calling out these things would be a push to encourage people to do the same thing,” said Veronica Davila, 30.

Davila is a graduate student at Northwestern University. She has spent most of her studies researching the genre where she is in the process of creating a disertation about women and queer dominican performace in reaggeton.

To further demonstrate her passion in the genre she has written and published two articles where she talks about no other than Martínez Ocasio. She published one about the influence of reggaeton during the protest in Puerto Rico regarding Reselló at the Washington Post and the other one about Martínez Ocasio’s new album “YHLQMDLG,” at North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA).

“Bad Bunny is trying to bring back the authenticity of reggaeton back, his music encourages people to put an action behind those public policies that would protect people such as transgendered people, queer people and women,” said Davila.

Her interest in the artist has come from her definition of “real” reggaeton, in which she feels as though Martínez Ocasio demonstrates in his music.

“I consider real reggaeton to be an afro caribbean music genre that uses a demo base with rap sounds and lyrics that about the realities of imporbesh and racial lives of people in the carribean,” said Davila, “Bad Bunny is himself, he has been able to maintain the things he likes and wants to be done by having a clear idea of the project he has within his music career-he is himself, honest and humble regarding to the way he presents himself to his audience.”

Born and raised in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, Martínez Ocasio made one of his first statements by calling out the former governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Reselló. Martínez Ocasio, alongside Rene “Residente” Perez Jogler, recorded a song to protest Reselló’s position by encouraging him to resign after numerous screenshots from a political group chat in Puerto Rico came to light demonstrating Reselló’s sexist and homophobic comments. The song, alongside many protests around the streets of Puerto Rico, resulted in the speedy resignation of Reselló.

“It has been extremely crucial in the year 2019, where Puerto Rican residents have been realizing just how messed up ‘the system’ is and his platform. His stance to go back to the island and represent people no matter where they are coming from is what matters,” said Pamela Cortes Ortiz, 23 of Boston. “He was able to unite with artists to bring attention to the island, and it’s been a while since the world remembers us.”

Cortes Ortiz has been listening to the genre for a long time, and in the midst of the discussion of who brought the “real” reggaeton back, she considers Martínez Ocasio as the one who has brought it back due to his trap background merging within his music.

Martínez Ocasio earned the attention of Cortes Ortiz in 2017 due to the evolution of his music, as she believes he has brought the “real” reggaeton back by merging concepts most couldn’t even imagine.

“He has truly opened my eyes in how strong of an artist he is,” said Cortes Ortiz, “Bad Bunny is highlighting the barriers society creates and how it applies to identity, social status and nationality.”

This was just the beginning of his many important statements hidden behind his catchy lyrics. During a concert in Puerto Rico, Martínez Ocasio wore a shirt that said “They Killed Alexa,” in Spanish. This was to acknowledge what had happened to Puerto Rican transgender woman Alexa Negron Luciano, who was found dead from gunshot wounds. A few hours before her death, Negron Luciano was seen being verbally abused and harassed by a group of men.

With this statement, Martínez Ocasio’s shirt went viral, and the statement on it was used to raise awareness of the mistreatment of transgender people in Puerto Rico.

Chris Cochrane, 34, has considered herself to be a transgender advocate her whole life. Based in Nova Scotiam she has advocated for the transgender community by educating others about the community in regard to gender pronouns, amongst other things.

Cochrane was raised around the genre of reggeaton, where she found it to be not so inclusive but has recognized the power a platform such as the one that Martínez Ocasio has on controversial issues such as the mistreatment of the transgender community.

“When you step out and actually use your platform to bring visibility to an issue, that’s when you are actually making a change,” said Cochrane. “He said screw this I am going to use my platform to speak up, now we have somebody who many idolize that will encourage his supporters to listen and speak up against the same things.”

But Martínez Ocasio did not stop there.

On March 8, right after International Women’s Day, he released his album “YHLQMDLG” which stands for a Spanish abbreviation translated to “I do whatever I want.” Within that album, a certain song titled “Yo Perrero Sola,” which translates to “I dance alone,” went viral after the release of the music video, in which Martínez Ocasio was seen dressed up as several women.

Martínez Ocasio once again used his platform within his own music video to protest the groping of women while they dance alone in the club. At the end of the music video, a message was shown to encourage men to leave women alone who chose not to dance with them.

Never in the history of reggaeton has a male artist dressed up as a woman in a music video so the response to Martínez Ocasio’s video was very broad. Many women came to his support as the groping of women while they dance has been a problem for so long.

“I think the music video is what our culture needed,” said Tuft University graduate student Andrea Mora, 27, “It’s 2020 and you’d be surprised how much controversy that video started.”

Mora has been listening to Martínez Ocasio since 2017 and has been aware of the way he includes social themes, such as the groping of women, behind his lyrics.

“He is not afraid to get real with his audience or social norms,” she said. “He continues to stand up for women who are still not respected by men, and I am here for it.”

Martínez Ocasio isn’t your regular reggaetonero. Living in Puerto Rico for eight years has taught me to see more in music than just a catchy beat while disregarding sexist lyrics. In 2020 reggaeton has become a movement to serve as an example to the newest generation of people that will come behind.

Sure, it is silly to think this deeply about something as simple as music. But the truth is that reggaeton has been highly influential in Puerto Rico, even helping to kick out a corrupt government.

There’s one more thing we must think about when talking about such an influencing reggaetonero such as Martínez Ocasio. Do you think he is on his way to starting a new era in reggaeton?

“He already started,” said Mora.