Reggaetón Racial Identity

Reggaetón stands as a musical genre that originates from Panama and was popularized by Puerto Rico (LeMay, 2012). Known as ‘underground music’ and the first form of transnational music, Reggaetón combines Jamaican dancehall, Spanish rap, hip-hop and other Latin American influences. This type of music contains a fundamental influence from Jamaican and Spanish Reggae starting in the early 20th century. It includes artists such as Daddy Yankee and Tego Calderón who display both the sexual and political messages that can be found in this form of music. (The Roots of Reggaeton) Reggaetón becomes prominent when it is introduced in Puerto Rico and includes major influences from both Jamaica and Panama. The musical genre, Reggae, initially
Regardless of the genre’s major success, its globalization led to the result of controversial issues over racial identity. This controversy applies mostly to African American and Puerto Rican communities and artists (Galanes, 2012). The debate over racial identity began long before the establishment of Reggaeton, it began during the time of colonialism in Puerto Rico (Samponaro, 2009). In 1952, the US formed the Common Wealth of Puerto Rico and its mission was to encourage racial equality amongst the three cultures that most Puerto Ricans inherit: the African, the European, and the Indigenous (Samponaro, 2009). In an attempt to prove the racial equality of the country and its reputation in the United States, Puerto Rican elites began to refer to Europeans as “white” (Samponaro, 2009). This motion done by the elites in Puerto Rico only increased the amount of segregation in the country and it affected people’s opinions on Reggaetón. As Reggaetón’s popularity continued to grow in the early 2000s, more Afro-Puerto Ricans and Puerto Ricans started rejecting any interest in Reggaetón (Moore, 2010). The idea of Reggaetón being classified as music for specific cultures caused people to disregard the genre (Samponaro, 2009). Parents and elders, including those who are not from Puerto Rico, disapprove of children and young adults listening to this genre of music. As said by Philip Samponaro, it influences a child or teenager’s racial thinking because it is considered a genre of music that introduces racial boundaries informally. Reggaetón depicts images of cultural diversity