Description
Book SynopsisThis collection offers the first critical assessment of the music and culture of reggaeton, a popular genre that blends reggae and rap, Spanish-language lyrics, and Latin-Caribbean aesthetics.
Trade Review“
Reggaeton is a truly important contribution to our understanding of the most pervasive and perhaps most misunderstood Latin musical genre at the turn of the 21st century. The blend of academic and journalistic writings with artistic statements, interviews and visual art offers the reader an extraordinary window into the complex landscape of reggaeton. . . . Raquel Z. Rivera, Wayne Marshall, and Deborah Pacini Hernadez have established the foundation for the rich and productive academic conversation that the genre will still generate.” - Alejandro L. Madrid,
Dancecult“This collection of essays is the first attempt to critically engage with the phenomenon, and wisely hedges its bets with a broad collection of writings—earnest academic appraisals are effectively offset by punchy location reportage from Latin America, Q&As with major protagonists and landmark magazine pieces from the music’s early days. . . . [A] largely informative and sometimes exhilarating survey of a multinational phenomenon.”
- Derek Walmsley,
The Wire“
Reggaeton is an excellent collection which itself occasions many surprises. Overall the book is structured in much the same way as its subject (reggaeton), as a series of overlapping, interconnected and often contradictory layers. . . . This book is a tour de force of criticism and analysis which is relevant not only to the study of reggaeton but to the study of popular music in general.” - Cameron White,
Transforming Cultures“The admirable book
Reggaeton . . . invites us to carefully ‘read’ this extraordinary musical and social phenomenon of our times. . . . The authors in this volume extensively document the crossing of geographic, racial, ethnic and linguistic borders. . . . As the essays in this book skillfully demonstrate, the ‘reggaeton nation’ constantly moves between numerous countries and cities, between Spanish and English, between Caribbean and African American rhythms.” (Translated from the Spanish) - Jorge Duany,
El Nuevo Día“I cannot overstate how critically important this volume is. It captures the synergies of a musical and cultural movement that few have seriously grappled with, even as the sounds and styles of reggaeton have dominated the air space of so many urban locales.”—
Mark Anthony Neal, author of
Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic“It’s about time academia dared to include reggaeton. This might mean that we’re finally understanding that all of us are
los de atrás (the ones behind): our country, Puerto Rico, and the whole Caribbean. I hope people support this book so it can be translated into Spanish, and kids in Puerto Rico and Latin America can read it. Because we Caribbean people, even if we don’t want to, even if we don’t like it, even if it hurts, we come from behind . . . and there’s a value to that. There’s a beauty to being los de atrás.”—
Residente, frontman of the Grammy and Latin Grammy award-winning duo Calle 13
“The kinetic contributions in
Reggaeton melt false borders—ones wrapped like straitjackets around peoples, knowledges, and cultures—and move the crowd. More than an exciting, exhaustive treatment of this vital musical culture, this anthology is a fine blueprint for engaged cultural scholarship right now.”—
Jeff Chang, author of
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation“This anthology opens a chapter in hip-hop history that brings it all back home, back to our transnational Afro-Spanish-speaking countries and diasporas and ’hoods where young people are going through their hip-hop ecstasies and traumas, but in their own language, and in their own unique and hitherto-unknown style.”—
Juan Flores, author of
From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity, from the foreword to Reggaeton“
Reggaeton is a truly important contribution to our understanding of the most pervasive and perhaps most misunderstood Latin musical genre at the turn of the 21st century. The blend of academic and journalistic writings with artistic statements, interviews and visual art offers the reader an extraordinary window into the complex landscape of reggaeton. . . . Raquel Z. Rivera, Wayne Marshall, and Deborah Pacini Hernadez have established the foundation for the rich and productive academic conversation that the genre will still generate.” -- Alejandro L. Madrid * Dancecult *
“
Reggaeton is an excellent collection which itself occasions many surprises. Overall the book is structured in much the same way as its subject (reggaeton), as a series of overlapping, interconnected and often contradictory layers. . . . This book is a tour de force of criticism and analysis which is relevant not only to the study of reggaeton but to the study of popular music in general.” -- Cameron White * Transforming Cultures *
“The admirable book
Reggaeton . . . invites us to carefully ‘read’ this extraordinary musical and social phenomenon of our times. . . . The authors in this volume extensively document the crossing of geographic, racial, ethnic and linguistic borders. . . . As the essays in this book skillfully demonstrate, the ‘reggaeton nation’ constantly moves between numerous countries and cities, between Spanish and English, between Caribbean and African American rhythms.” (Translated from the Spanish) -- Jorge Duany * El Nuevo Día *
“This collection of essays is the first attempt to critically engage with the phenomenon, and wisely hedges its bets with a broad collection of writings—earnest academic appraisals are effectively offset by punchy location reportage from Latin America, Q&As with major protagonists and landmark magazine pieces from the music’s early days. . . . [A] largely informative and sometimes exhilarating survey of a multinational phenomenon.”
-- Derek Walmsley * The Wire *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations vii
Foreword: What's all the noise about? / Juan Flores ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction: Reggaeton's Socio-Sonic Circuitry / Wayne Marshall, Raquel Z. Rivera, and Deborah Pacini Hernandez 1
Part I. Mapping Reggaeton
From Música Negra to Reggaeton Latino: The Cultural Politics of Nation, Migration, and Commercialization / Wayne Marshall 19
Part II. The Panamanian Connection
Placing Panama in the Reggaeton Narrative: Editor's Notes / Wayne Marshall 77
Reggae in Panama:
Bien Tough / Christoph Twickel 81
The Panamanian Origins of
Reggae in Español: Seeing History through "Los Ojos Café" of Renato / Interview by Ifeoma C. K. Nwankwo 89
Muévelo (Move It!): From Panama to New York and Back Again, the Story of El General / Interview by Christoph Twickel 99
Part III. (Trans)Local Studies and Ethnographies
Policing Morality,
Mano Dura Stylee: The Case of Underground Rap and Reggae in Puerto Rico in the Mid-1990s / Raquel Z. Rivera 111
Dominicans in the Mix: Reflections on Dominican Identity, Race, and Reggaeton / Deborah Pacini Hernandezq 135
The Politics of Dancing: Reggaetón and Rap in Havana / Geoff Baker 165
You Got Your Reggaetón in my Hip-Hop: Crunkiao and "Spanish Music" in the Miami Urban Scene / Jose Davila 200
Part IV. Visualizing Reggaeton
Visualizing Reggaeton: Editors' Notes / Wayne Marshall and Raquel Z. Rivera 215
Images by Miguel Luciano 218
Images by Carolina Caycedo 221
Images by Kacho López 222
Part V. Gendering Reggaeton
(W)rapped in Foil: Glory at Twelve Words a Minute / Félix Jiménez 229
A Man Lives Here: Reggaeton's Hypermasculine Resident / Alfredo Nieves Moreno 252
How to Make Love with Your Clothes On: Dancing
Regeton, Gender, and Sexuality in Cuba / Jan Fairley 280
Part VI. Reggaeton's Poetics, Politics, and Aesthetics
Chamaco's Corner / Gallego (José Raúl González) 297
Salon Philosophers: Ivy Queen and Surprise Guests Take Reggaetón Aside / Alexandra T. Vazquez 300
From Hip-Hop to Reggaeton: Is There Only a Step? / Welmo Romero Joseph 312
Black Pride / Tego Calderón 324
Poetry of Filth: The (Post) Reggaetonic Lyrics of Calle 13 / Frances Negrón-Muntaner 327
Bibliography: Selected Sources for Reading Reggaeton 341
Index 345
