The Influence of Cuban Styles of Music on Modern Reggaetón explores how musical, political, and social aspects of Cuban culture have played a role in developing the addictive aspect and thematic importance of the genre reggaetón. Despite the restrictions that Cuban politics has on modern ideas, trying to maintain the country’s image as professional under Christian ideas, Cuban musicians, especially those drawn to reggaetón, have persisted to continue creating music for the genre. More common for younger generations, Cuban reggaeton has proven how people need to fight against expectations for the country and speak up about matters that are important to them. Artists’ work continues to prove reggaetón’s deeply-rooted worldwide cultural importance: for people to be able to express themselves freely about any topic important to them.
While many engage in arguments about the origins of reggaetón, it can be rooted in Panamá, where artists’ families came from the Caribbean, more specifically, Jamaica, where reggae was created. In Panamá, the Latinx population was not happy with the Black Panamanians who had immigrated from the Caribbean. As a result, these songs were about the discrimination that Black Panamianians faced. Eventually, this music was brought over to New York, where it was combined with hip-hop and dancehall. With time, Puerto Ricans traveling between Puerto Rico and New York were inspired by the beats and the themes of resistance. Eventually, people in caseríos, or housing projects in Puerto Rico, created what was considered underground music, which focused on speaking up about the violence that the working-class community faced. When the rise of this music, along with enticing music of sex, was featured on the radio, the music reached the Caribbean island of Cuba through Santiago de Cuba in the early 2000s.
Santiago de Cuba is located at the eastern end of Cuba, giving its residents access to Jamaica’s radio signals. It is from this city that residents started to pick up dembow, the main rhythm of reggaetón. For this reason, many people consider Santiago as the “home” of reggaetón in Cuba. This compares to Havana, the capital of Cuba, located towards the western end of the island, where residents pick up signals from Florida in the United States and orient themselves more with the country’s rap. Regardless, reggaetón has played a large and influential role in all of Cuba. As a socialist country, Cubans are easily censored from publicly speaking up about social issues that affect them and matter to them. Still, reggaetón has provided a space for people’s voices to be heard as far as worldwide. Reggaetón first exploded in Cuba in Havana with the youth group Cubanito 20.02’s song “Soy Cubanito,” meaning “I’m a young Cuban” because of its beats and combination of music styles.
Despite backlash from the Cuban government, Cuban reggaetoneros have found ways to informally distribute their music. The first way was through bicitaxitas, the drivers of bicycle-taxis. They were migrants, private drivers, or boaters and blasted music from their vehicles. Eventually, this medium inspired the spread of the music through CD sellers who promoted the genre through informal street parties called bonches. Officially sanctioned artists, being few, had the opportunity to spread their work through live performances nationally, internationally, and in official media.
Most research on reggaetón focuses on its importance of giving people a voice in Panamá and Puerto Rican as it developed. Further, today’s reggaetón mainly focuses on sex, a fun and enticing theme. This especially helps artists gain popularity as listeners enjoy the rhythms and language that they hear in the music. With time, reggaetón has become less of a genre of resistance and activism. Despite this rapid change, though, Cuban reggaetón continues to represent the space that many Cubans feel they do not freely have. On one hand, Cubatón makes it clear that Cubans will always find a way to find a space to express their most important cultural traditions. On the other hand, Cubatón reminds all listeners of Cuba about social issues that the media may try to censor. Because music lives beyond artists’ own lives, their voices will never die in the long-lasting internet. Still, this information and activism may be difficult to find. As a result, it is important to provide a voice for Cuban artists and Cuba’s role in reggaetón that history may already be starting to forget.
This website goes deeper into the influence of reggaetón in Havana and Santiago de Cuba, why the Cuban government and older generations have continued to be against reggaetón’s development in the country, what genre reggaetón has taken inspiration from, what traits have been transferred over, and influential reggaetoneros in Cuba. The videos at the end of each section represents a main idea from that section.