{"id":7190,"date":"2013-03-15T12:35:54","date_gmt":"2013-03-15T17:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/?p=7190"},"modified":"2021-03-16T17:35:28","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T22:35:28","slug":"colombia-and-reggaeton-good-dumb-fun-or-artistically-deficient-trash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2013\/03\/colombia-and-reggaeton-good-dumb-fun-or-artistically-deficient-trash\/","title":{"rendered":"Colombia and Reggaeton:  Good, Dumb Fun, or Artistically Deficient Trash?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>&#8220;&#8230;.like&#8230;.music, which is the nearest Hell, or the Devil, in music. It polutes the art of Music.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;If we value civilization, we cannot afford to ignore any longer the high correlation between the multibillion dollar\u2026 racket and the explosion of drug use and illicit sex among their teenage victims.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;&#8230;immoral, as well as artistically deficient, a threat to the social order, apolitical.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;On the one hand there are aggressive, sexually obscene lyrics that deform the innate sensuality of &#8230;woman, projecting them as grotesque sexual objects. And all that is backed by the poorest quality music.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The above four quotes are some pretty strong reactions against different types of music. The first is a reaction against &#8220;jaz (<em>sic)<\/em>,&#8221; and the second against &#8220;hard rock.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s all the furore about? It&#8217;s just music, right? We&#8217;ve left that kind of moralistic backwardness behind, haven&#8217;t we?<\/p>\n<p>Well, what if I told you the other two quotes were reactions against <strong>reggaeton<\/strong>, a music that has swept the dancehalls of Latin America with its immediately recognisable &#8220;dem bow riddim?&#8221; Have I lost a couple of supporters, now? Is the moralism of the first two quotes that different from the next two? Is reggaeton just trash of the highest order, so morally and musically repugnant that it&#8217;s only right that it was once banned in the country of its origin, and is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/2012\/dec\/06\/cuba-crackdown-vulgar-reggaeton-music\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">now illegal in another<\/a>? Many people would agree, but these people will be hard to find on a Colombian dancefloor once Don Omar or J Alvarez start thumping their way through a track.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZURteDY6eDM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>What you will find, instead, is a whole dance floor going beserk to this music, so infectious and easy to dance to that you&#8217;ll even find this humble blogger &#8211; whose greatest dance inspirations are Ian Curtis of Joy Division and Peter Garret back in his epileptic fit days &#8211; sweeping the floor with his posterior in glee.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I&#8217;m not going to try to sing the praises of Reggaeton&#8217;s artistic sensibilities, or the profundity, sensitivity, and beauty of the work of its wordsmiths; but then again, dance music has hardly ever been known for that sort of thing. You tell me what great significance lies behind such turns of phrase as &#8220;Hee de hee de hee de hee,&#8221; (&#8220;Minnie the Moocher), &#8220;Rock, rock, rock &#8217;til broad daylight&#8221; (&#8220;Rock Around the Clock) or &#8220;Right about now: funk, soul, brother&#8221; (Rockefeller Skank). And, frankly, if I ever stopped to try to work out what that auto-tuned dude is actually saying over that cookie-cutter beat, I&#8217;d probably get a little grossed out. Glorifying consumerism, misogynism, and violence is pretty dumb, to say the least. But why single out reggaeton for its lack of subtlety? Why does nobody now bat an eyelid after Louis Armstrong&#8217;s just sung the praises of a gangster; Johnny Cash has just told us how he kills men just to watch them die; or John Lennon&#8217;s crooned about how he&#8217;d rather see his little girl dead than with another man; but then get all up in arms when Wisin and Yandel talk about their creepy sexual fantasies?<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7203\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7203\" style=\"width: 447px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2013\/03\/colombia-and-reggaeton-good-dumb-fun-or-artistically-deficient-trash\/kitty-farmer\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7203\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-7203 \" src=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/kitty-farmer.jpg\" alt=\"I'm sure you've heard about this horrible &quot;reggae-thong&quot; music...\" width=\"447\" height=\"255\" srcset=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/kitty-farmer.jpg 639w, https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/kitty-farmer-300x171.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 447px) 100vw, 447px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7203\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ve heard about this horrible &#8220;reggae-thong&#8221; music&#8230;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>What I will say, though, is that nobody seems to care about how poor the quality of music is when they&#8217;re shaking their things to it. And I don&#8217;t think anyone&#8217;s listening to the lyrics in any particular depth while said things are shaking. Another thing I&#8217;ll say, too: when I&#8217;m out on my Friday adventures tonight, I&#8217;ll probably be relieved when that salsa song finally stops, and the reggaeton kicks in. The poor people I&#8217;ve just continually tripped over during my salsa efforts will probably be thankful, too.<\/p>\n<p><em>What do you reckon? Am I being too charitable to the trash the kids are listening to these days, or do you like to get down and dirty to a bit of the old &#8216;ton too? <\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Featured photo of Colombian Reggaeton star, J Balvin, courtesy of <cite title=\"rrrmusic.com\">http:\/\/www.rrrmusic.com\/<\/cite><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;&#8230;.like&#8230;.music, which is the nearest Hell, or the Devil, in music. It polutes the art of Music.&#8221; &#8220;If we value civilization, we cannot afford to ignore any longer the high correlation between the multibillion dollar\u2026 racket and the explosion of drug use and illicit sex among their teenage victims.&#8221; &#8220;&#8230;immoral, as well as artistically deficient, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88889,"featured_media":7200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[115,4,66,392,73,1],"tags":[58,200,1276,345],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.4 (Yoast SEO v18.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Colombia and Reggaeton: Good, Dumb Fun, or Artistically Deficient Trash? - Colombia Travel Blog by See Colombia Travel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2013\/03\/colombia-and-reggaeton-good-dumb-fun-or-artistically-deficient-trash\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Colombia and Reggaeton: Good, Dumb Fun, or Artistically Deficient Trash?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8220;&#8230;.like&#8230;.music, which is the nearest Hell, or the Devil, in music. It polutes the art of Music.&#8221; &#8220;If we value civilization, we cannot afford to ignore any longer the high correlation between the multibillion dollar\u2026 racket and the explosion of drug use and illicit sex among their teenage victims.&#8221; &#8220;&#8230;immoral, as well as artistically deficient, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2013\/03\/colombia-and-reggaeton-good-dumb-fun-or-artistically-deficient-trash\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombia Travel Blog by See Colombia Travel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-15T17:35:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-16T22:35:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/J-Balvin.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Paul Giles\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Colombia Travel Blog by See Colombia Travel\",\"description\":\"Colombia Travel Blog: An international perspective on travelling in Colombia by world travellers.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2013\/03\/colombia-and-reggaeton-good-dumb-fun-or-artistically-deficient-trash\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/J-Balvin.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/J-Balvin.jpg\",\"width\":300,\"height\":400},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2013\/03\/colombia-and-reggaeton-good-dumb-fun-or-artistically-deficient-trash\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2013\/03\/colombia-and-reggaeton-good-dumb-fun-or-artistically-deficient-trash\/\",\"name\":\"Colombia and Reggaeton: Good, Dumb Fun, or Artistically Deficient Trash? - Colombia Travel Blog by See Colombia Travel\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2013\/03\/colombia-and-reggaeton-good-dumb-fun-or-artistically-deficient-trash\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-15T17:35:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-16T22:35:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f098b05903adc07063c4bb549f28cb76\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2013\/03\/colombia-and-reggaeton-good-dumb-fun-or-artistically-deficient-trash\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2013\/03\/colombia-and-reggaeton-good-dumb-fun-or-artistically-deficient-trash\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2013\/03\/colombia-and-reggaeton-good-dumb-fun-or-artistically-deficient-trash\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Colombia and Reggaeton: Good, Dumb Fun, or Artistically Deficient Trash?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f098b05903adc07063c4bb549f28cb76\",\"name\":\"Paul Giles\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/042160c2ae3957c1811b809f45cfe0c6?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/042160c2ae3957c1811b809f45cfe0c6?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Paul Giles\"},\"description\":\"Hi my name is Paul Giles and I'm one of See Colombia's Travel Writers. 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I must say that it\u00b4s a bit of a happy accident that I\u2019ve found myself here at all. After flitting back and forth between Australia and Asia for a few years, I felt the South American continent calling me. I thought I\u00b4d end up in Argentina or somewhere, but ever since I\u00b4ve made it to Colombia, good things just seem to manifest themselves before my eyes. Whether it is the funky, slightly grungy energy of the capital, Bogota; the steamy sass of Cartegena; the Carribean beauty of Tayrona; or the jaw-dropping gorgeousness of the coffee region; I\u2019ve found it difficult not to fall in love with the country and its people. As for myself, I\u00b4m passionate about a number of things; travel (duh), poetry, food, good drinks, and ridiculous clothing. 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