Commentaries - March 2008

My rant about "music" - 03/24/08

Since I've established myself as a fairly successful and prolific film critic, it wouldn't be so crazy to start talking about music, right? It's not that I'll become a music critic and that I'll start posting reviews about albums or singles, but I might post a couple of commentaries every few weeks talking about music. This'll be the first one. I'm sure my girlfriend will enjoy reading this, not because she'll agree with me - I'm pretty sure she'll disagree with me, actually - but because, if I'm a film geek, then she's a music geek, so to speak. She loves listening to music, playing instruments - such as the guitar or the piano - and become immersed in what she listens to. While I'm not as passionate about music as she is, I do enjoy it, and although I don't love listening to music as much as watching movies, I feel pretty much ready to write a commentary about it.

So what am I gonna write about? Have you ever heard about reggeaton? No? Then I guess this'll be your chance to know more about it, although I assure you, it won't make you become a fan of the genre. Reggeaton is a Latino type of music, more or less a mix between between hip-hop and reggae. It has become really popular here in Peru and in other Latino countries during the last few years, and it's the most common music genre in parties.

Do I like it? Not really. Much like the title implies, this will be a rant, and a rant about friggin' reggeaton.

If you don't know much about this type of "music", you better check its Wikipedia page, either in English or Spanish, for I don't plan to further describe it. Actually, I wanna start talking about why I don't like it. Let's start with the lyrics, shall we?

The main problem I find in reggeaton is the themes and the stories the "artists" talk about in the songs. In short, most reggeaton songs are really sexist and chauvinistic. They talk about spanking girls, "doing it hard" with them, about how they "like it to do it aggressively", or how one "has to do it hard and hard and hard." Interesting, right? The content of most reggeaton songs are really explicit and sexual, and seem to imply that the woman is no more than a sexual object one has to, well, "do it hard" with. I'm not saying all reggeaton "artists" are like that (more of that in a few paragraphs), but "singers" such as "Tito el Bambino" (especially) seem to have a very sexist view on the world. The guy has a song called "Aggressive", for example, (you can imagine what it's about), which does nothing but to say how he likes to do it hard with hot girls. Yeah... really fun lyrics for a popular "song"...

The music videos for these songs, of course, convey what the lyrics talk about, and are really... well... revealing. I don't wanna dwell too much on that, so here's Daddy Yankee's video for his "Gasolina" song, which features lots of hot girls and cars, and pretty much makes the viewer realize what the song talk about: hot girls, cars and... gasoline.

Then there's the way these guys sing. Another reason I don't like reggeaton artists is that their music feels immensely artificial... why? Because they have horrible voices. One only has to watch their concerts videos or their appearances in live shows or awards shows. Their voices sound absolutely different from the recordings one listens on the radio, and these live appearances demonstrate that they have no singing talent. This is the reason why their songs sound so artificial and computer-manipulated. They are full of stupid sound effects and voice manipulation so that their horrible voices can be "fixed" and don't sound too awful on the radio.

Now, there are a couple of things I've noticed about the people who listen to reggeaton - especially now that I've returned to school - and that seemed really surprising to me. Firstly, I've noticed that the majority of people who listen to reggeaton are women. Yes, women. This is surprising considering the sexist content of the lyrics and the treatment these "artists" give to women in general. I mean, young girls - girls of my age, or even younger - really seem to enjoy this "music", and they even sing along to the lyrics. I'm not kidding when I say I've seen a 13-year-old girl (in the car that takes me to school) singing along to phrases like "spank me hard" or "she likes to do it aggressively." It's ridiculous. Don't listen to what they're singing? This proves that not only men can be sexist against women, but even women can be sexist to themselves. Like I said, ridiculous.

The other thing that surprised me happened today, actually. I'm participating in a service project in school, and I have to go every Monday, along with some friends and a couple of teachers, to a poor area of Lima to take care and play with little kids in a day care. I entered the place, and went inside the classroom today, and guess what was playing on the radio inside the little kids' classroom? Reggeaton. So teachers and parents no longer teach classic and really naive children's songs to their kids; they prefer to make them listen to horrible songs about sexual promiscuity and sexism. Great.

The thing is, lyrics in reggeaton songs not only are sexist, chauvinistic and high in sexual content, they are sometimes downright ridiculous. Take, for example, Tito el Bambino's (there's this guy again!) song called Gárgola. Yes, the song is actually called Gargoyle and talks about how the guy only goes out at night like gargoyles to dance in discos. There's also one of his most popular songs, "Siente el Boom" (Feel the "Boom") which talks about feeling the "boom!" of dancing in doggy-style. ("Perreo.") Yes. Dancing-in-friggin'-doggy-style. How more sexual can they get? Or you can even take the aforementioned Gasolina song, which compares dancing and sex to friggin' gasoline. Goddamn Tito even has an album called "Violencia Musical!" (Musical Violence.)

Which leads me to something else: the artists themselves. Their songs and the genre in general is sexual and full of sexist and violent references because of the artists that create the music. It's not secret that the majority of reggeaton "singers" (like Don Omar) have criminal and law-abusing backgrounds. The guys have been raised in poor, dangerous and, let's admit it, ignorant neighborhoods, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the content of their songs is so full of references of the kinds of lives they have lived. It could be argued that the lyrics of their songs promote violence and sexual promiscuity, but I think that would be a little too extreme - people choose what they listen, after all -, so all I'm gonna say is that these guys talk about sex, girls as sexual objects and violence because of the way they were raised. This brings a question to place: should kids and immature tween girls/boys listen to these people signing their songs about these issues?

The last reason I don't like reggeaton is 100% subjective and has to do more with musical and technical quality than content. I'm no professional DJ/musician, but I do appreciate artists who actually put effort onto their creations. Reggeaton singers don't. I mean, their songs are mainly horrible, repetitive beats with a little rhythm and awful lyrics. I'm not exaggerating when I say reggeaton beats are almost the same in all songs, no matter the artist/singer or DJ. Talk about repetitiveness... Additionally, I also appreciate people who decided to become artists because they know about music. You know, small, unimportant things like FRIGGIN' INSTRUMENTS. I remember a person in an anti-anti-Reggeaton group (basically a group that supports the genre) on Facebook that posted something like "saying that reggeaton doesn't use guitars or pianos isn't a valid argument for hating the genre; many songs do use guitars" or something of the sort.

Really? Then let me elaborate on that.

I don't like reggeaton because it's a kind of music based only on computer-produced beats, and because it doesn't demand any musical knowledge from the artist. Do Don Omar or Daddy Yankee know how to play the guitar? Does Tito el Bambino know how to play the piano? Do they know how to friggin' sing? No! All they do is hire a DJ to produce horrible-sounding, repetitive beats on his laptop, write sexist and horny lyrics, and vòila! They've created a new hit. Some songs do use the guitar a couple of times, but I'm 99% sure that the reggeaton singer is not the one playing the instrument. Reggeaton is not music because it doesn't involve any music. The artists make no use of instruments or note-based signing or anything. They just get their DJ to produce beats so that they can "sing" awful, vomit-inducing, chauvinistic lyrics. In all fairness, the DJ should be the one that gets the whole credit for the "music."

Some paragraphs ago I mentioned that not all reggeaton songs had sexist, violent lyrics, and it's true. Actually, I appreciate that some reggeaton "artists" are starting to mature and are stopping to produce horny songs about hot chicks. (Something that Tito el Bambino, quite possibly the horniest, most sexually-restrained "professional" singer in the planet, might never do.) Some groups/singers are starting to release romantic reggeaton songs, and it's all good. The problem? Well, apart from the obvious (they still use the same horrible beats, making it hard to consider the songs as music), most of these romantic songs are horribly-written and extremely corny. I mean, even the most sentimentalistic, emotional, soap-opera-like person on Earth would find it difficult to relate to the stories these guys tell in their songs. It's really funny.

So yeah, there goes my rant. I'm sure I'm gonna receive some e-mails complaining about this post. I'm sure many of my readers like the genre, and that they don't agree with me. What can I do? I'm a friggin' critic, after all, what did you expect? I created this website to express my opinions, not only about movies - although I mostly concentrate on them - but also about a great many things, including music and, in this case, reggeaton. I'm sure even my girlfriend won't agree with me. Although her musical taste is really great - we coincide almost 90% of the time, and it's really great to share music with her; it's cool when she discovers an underground band and recommends me songs to download -, she kinda likes reggeaton and likes to dance it in parties. Granted, she doesn't listen to it at home (I think...), but she doesn't hate it.

So yeah, that's what I think about reggeaton. No one can accuse me of racist or discriminator - I'm Peruvian, after all, and while criticizing reggeaton, I think I've made it really clear that I hate racial and sexist discrimination. Heck, one of the reasons I hate the genre is because it treats women like crap!

So yeah, I'm sure I'll receive some hate e-mails. What can I do... for those of you who have something sensible to say, fell free to e-mail me, and I'll answer you as fast as I can. I hope you agree with me, and if you don't, it's all right. A critic's aim is not to transform peoples' opinions, but to express his or her own point of view.

My final verdict? Reggeaton is crap, and yeah, I'm not ashamed to say it.

Sebastián "GG" Zavala

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