Nothing sells records like a little controversy. Try to ban something and you pretty much guarantee its popularity as everybody stops to see just what could be so enticing or sinful as to make it worth banning.
Controversy is no stranger in music, which has seen at least as many would-be censors on its fringes as the literary and journalistic worlds. For 50 years now, rock and roll has been decried as the devil's music, and in the intervening decades, rap and hip-hop have been pretty much reviled since their very inception. Naturally, reggaeton, with its strong parallels to hip-hop, is taking it on the chin too.
I'm not a fan of censorship in any way, and I am categorically opposed to anyone who would categorically ban any communication or artistic expression. I have little patience for government officials who violate first amendment rights and even less sympathy for emotionally charged yet ultimately ignorant public outcries.
None of this makes life as a parent particularly easy. We live in a very media-rich world where it's hard to monitor everything going on in every media source. This raises huge challenges for the responsible mom or dad, who should have the right to shape their families as they wish, and who should be able to say which kinds of music are right for their children and which are not.
Can we raise PG kids in an R-rated society? Al Gore's wife, Tipper, raised exactly that question back in the 1980s, and even wrote a book about the subject. I never did read the woman's book, but at the time, I recall thinking that Tipper would make a much better name for a puppy than for a grown woman.
Letting kids grow up healthy without setting unrealistic boundaries is a tough challenge for any mom or dad, and it's made tougher by the increasing popularity of musical styles like reggaeton.
Is Reggaeton Ever Appropriate for Children?
Kids love the heavy, driving beat of reggaeton hits, and the music is becoming so prevalent in many cities that it's almost impossible to totally avoid. It's cool to be reggaeton.
Just as parents' of previous generations had to decide whether to ban rock, or metal, or goth, or rap, parents of the current generation need to decide whether to ban reggaeton in their homes. D'frent strokes for d'frent folks.
Some folks will see no problem with reggaeton and will buy their kids the latest Daddy Yankee album just like some old school parents bought 50 Cent albums for their kids. That's their prerogative, but I'm of the opinion that almost all reggaeton will be off limits to my house, as will almost all hip-hop, or whatever the next big offensive thing will be. (Doesn''t mean I won't pick it up --- but the kids better not.)
In my opinion, reggaeton is totally inappropriate for kids. Period.
Some songs are not offensive. They're not violent. They're not sexually explicit. They don't advocate socially reprehensible behavior. They're the exception: as a genre, reggaeton can't be cleaned up. Not and remain relevant as an urban contemporary style.
What makes reggaeton edgey are the same things that appeal to hip-hop fans. Remove too many of these elements, and reggaeton ain't reggaeton. Leave even one of the elements in place, and it's probably not something I want in my kid's hands.
Objectionable elements of reggaeton include but are not limited to:
* Foul language: There's cursing, there's blasphemy, there's all the bad words George Carlin couldn't say on radio. Unless you want your kid to be walking around the neighborhood singing songs about how he's gonna "f*ck that ho, then f*ck her some mo," you might want to keep a very close eye on the kinds of reggaeton he's listening to. If this is the only real problem you see with contemporary urban music, then buying Reggaeton Niños can put your mind at rest, and you should give it a listen.
* Adult themes in lyrics: Lots of reggaeton songs are about sex. Most of 'em, as a matter of fact, though there's a few that focus more on violence, dancing, guns, machismo, or drugs. Sex is the big recurring theme though. Sure, you can tone down the sex talk on a kid-oriented album or track, but stamping it out in reggaeton isn't a very easy thing to do. On many songs, the sex isn't blatant --- it's couched in hidden meanings and street language. Double-entendre: does "lick that lollipop" really refer to sweets from the candy shop, or are we really talking about genitalia? The line isn't always sharply defined, and I'm not criticizing artists who go for the double entendre --- since it is one of the cleverest aspects of the style --- I'm just letting parents know that it often is there, and that you can't always judge a book by its cover. Just because lyrics appear "clean" doesn't mean they are.
* Sexually suggestive videos: Sexually suggestive imagery is nothing new, but reggaeton revels in blatantly suggestive videos. The style spawned its own style of dance, called perrea, whose main feature is lots of very hot latinas swaying their little mini-short clad bottoms in obvious invitation. The perrea is one of the main reasons I love watching reggaeton videos. They're sexy, and sexy is good. But, I wouldn't think of watching reggaeton videos with a kid around.
* Poor role models:
People who look to pop music for role models are almost as sad as the folks who look to Hollywood stars or pro sports for their role models. Too much of pop culture revolves around sex, drugs, greed, and short-cuts. Yeah, you could find a few exceptions, but not many. And everything that holds true with pop culture in general holds true in spades for reggaeton.
Most reggaeton performers aren't people you'd really want hanging around your home. You sure wouldn't be happy to have your teenage daughter bring one of the tatooed cretins home with her. Even when they try to project a positive image, they somehow come up short. Recently, Don Omar was suggested as a role model for a stay-in-school program in Puerto Rico --- at least until somebody pointed out that Omar himself never graduated from high school...he's hardly alone in that regard. I'm not sure the stay-in-school program ever did find a reggaeton artist who met the lofty standard of actually possessing a high school diploma.
So this is what you're dealing with reggaeton. You're dealing with a rough, urban musical style that features lots of songs about women as impersonal, one-dimensional sex objects, to be used and thrown away by dominant males. You're dealing with violence in domestic relationships, and violence on the street. You're dealing with elements that are proud to have no future better than today, and you're dealing with elements who don't give a f*ck what you think is appropriate for you or for your kids.
That is the brutal reality of reggaeton.
Can reggaeton ever be "cleaned up for kids". I don't think so.
If it can, I have some other ideas for product marketing. Kidz Kama Sutra? Soldier of Fortune for Toddlers? Hustler Magazine Junior? First Grade Crack-Smokin' Street Ho's?
Or maybe it's better to just face up to reality and admit that some things just are not meant to be "for kids"...
The Shades of Grey on Reggaeton Ninos...
Okay, enough generalities about why reggaeton as a style is inappropriate for kids. Let's spin up Reggaeton Ninos vol. 1 and see specifically whether it is or is not appropriate for kids...
After a first listen, it's apparent that Reggaeton Ninos vol. 1 actually spans a range of "acceptability" levels, with some songs that are overtly and covertly age-appropriate, some that are questionable, and some that --- even in "clean" format --- are not things kids should hear. It's a matter of shades of grey, and all those shades are here, from white to coal black.
Some songs never really needed much "cleaning up" in the first place. I see nothing at all wrong with Don Omar's original Pobre Diabla, for example, and I don't really see any sanitizing having taken place in this version. It's basically a straightforward love ballad, surprisingly free of the sexual allusion that's common in the genre. Reggaeton does have natively clean songs, and Pobre Diabla is one of 'em.
From there, you move to songs that have some suggestion of sexuality, like on Baila Morena, but that never cross the line to blatant obscenity. It's fleeting and you have to look for it. Call it 90 percent clean, 10 percent questionable.
Add a little deeper grey with songs like Reggaeton Latino, which are still not blatantly obscene, but that start skirting the line of acceptability with lyrics like "Move that thang, move it! Sweat! Kiss me! Seduce me! Kill me!" Mmmmm....not sure I want my 10-year old daughter listening to that...
Then you get into songs that I feel are well over the line. Like Oye Mi Canto, which essentially says, "When I bone Shorty, I slap culo and listen QUE?...See her booty got rep for its own..."
To me, that kind of lyric might not be too bad for a mid-to-late-teen, but it would be way over the line of respectability for a pre-teen. What do you think? Want your kids talking about "boning Shorty"??
Add a little more grey with the song Cae la Noche, with lyrics like "I touch you...I devour you...Hey little flirt, I'll touch your body and I'll go, go, go, go behind you...Hey, hey! We're alive and doin' it doggie style and the gatas (babes) are gettin' mounted, Hey, hey!"
Not the kind of song that I think lends itself to being sanitized "for kids". Still think you can clean up reggaeton and make it "age appropriate"?
I haven't even mentioned the most kid-favorite tune on the album. This album contains Daddy Yankee's hit tune Gasolina, a song that just oozes raw sexuality and that is filled with blatant double-entendre. It is completely true that even in its original form, the song did not contain outright obscenity or outright offensive content. The offensiveness of this song is completely in the suggestion, and in the use of double-entendre. You need to think a little bit and use a little imagination to "get it", but don't worry, it's far less imagination than I'm sure your kids would have. The song has lots of allusions like: The girls like to run their motors HARD! They like to take that nozzle and fill their tanks (background chorus of girls chanting, "give me more gasoline! ahhh! give me more gasoline!...")
Did it tax your imagination to figure out where the sexual allusion is in songs like that? Think your kids aren't going to "get it"? Still think that any amount of sanitizing will ever make the song "age appropriate" for PG kids?
Bottom Line...
There's a lot of cool reggaeton music being played these days, and a lot of listeners who appreciate street-savvy contemporary urban music will find a lot to like in the style. Unfortunately for parents, the vast majority of reggaeton is as age-inappropriate for kids. Even an album like Reggaeton Ninos amounts to little more than light beer or low-tar cigarrettes. They may be shadows of the real thing, but they're still not "para niños".
Thumbs up on reggaeton for adults. Thumbs down on Reggaeton Para Niños.
Until next time, see you in the music store. As always, I'm in the latin music aisle.
Series Wrap-Up...
I hope I've provided enough info about reggaeton music for you to understand what it's rising popularity is all about, and to decide whether or not any or all of it is right for your ears. It's been a fun and educational listening journey for me, and I hope it's been at least slightly enlightening for you as well.
EXPLORING REGGAETON:The Series... This concludes my 10-part series exploring the roots, heart, soul, and future of the reggaeton style. Here's where we've been on this musical journey...
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