EXPLORING REGGAETON: Part 5: A Star Is Born, Daddy Yankee Fought the Pop Machine---Yankee Wins
Written: Jun 30 '06 (Updated Jul 14 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A sexy and sophisticated reggaeton hit for the mass market
Cons: None really --- it's a great song
The Bottom Line: Gasolina is the pop face of reggaeton. Will any reggaeton song ever top its slick production, sexy sound, or controversial popularity??
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: Barrio Fino by Daddy Yankee |
Teeming millions of reggaeton fans are well and good, but if the big fan base doesn't translate into album sales, concert tickets, and ad revenue on radio stations, then "the music industry" isn't going to take anybody very seriously. Reggaeton managed to put itself "on the map" as far as the music industry goes in 2004 when Daddy Yankee blew away all arguments about the limited marketability of reggaeton with his slick, sly, sexy, and gloriously sleazy hit, Gasolina.
Gasolina --- far and away the most popular reggaeton hit yet recorded --- was the crowning jewel of Daddy Yankee's 2004 release, Barrio Fino. If radio airplay and a hit MTV video weren't enough to ensure the immortality of the song, there was the fuel thrown on the inferno by the whole controversy over what the song really meant.
The Power of Controversy...
There's nothing like a red-hot controversy to send sales numbers skyward for a musician.
Take the Dixie Chicks. They got roundly blasted a couple years back by gaping conservative sphincters for having the gall to think that they should be able to express their own opinions. Sweet revenge, being the very sweet thing that it is, seems to be what's propelled the Chicks' new album Taking the Long Way into a very solid and uncontested #1 slot on the Billboard charts. Trash talk means big bucks.
Not quite the same thing is happening with Daddy Yankee. Similar though. There's been a lot of controversy over Daddy Yankee's brand of music too.
The crux of the Daddy Yankee controversy is the question of double-entendre in Gasolina. Some folks hear a slick, fun pop hit. Some folks hear a decadent song of wanton lust (probably my favorite of the 7 deadly sins).
For his part, Daddy Yankee feigns ignorance. He claims that there is nothing lewd at all about his hit song. He tells us it's simply a song about girls who like to party and who like to cruise around in cars on a warm weekend evening. The girls love their gasoline. That's all.
Other folks hear a sinister side to the music. They say that it's all about sex and that girls who want to get "filled up" are really asking for sex, and that the kind of nozzle they want put into their tanks isn't the nozzle of a gas pump....if you catch my drift.
Most people do catch the drift, and street talk being what it is, has a fondness for double-talk and trash talk. So when you listen to Gasolina, the wide range of puns and double meanings become obvious, especially references to women who "want to run their engine all night long", not to mention the ecstatic female screams of "Dura!" ("hard").
Daddy Yankee claims that he intended no double meaning. I'm sure. And the Iraqis really did have "weapons of mass destruction". Wink, wink.
The Power of Gasolina...
Gasolina, like its reggae forbears, works its magic through the hypnotic power of repetition. Hear the song once, and you'll be singing along next time you hear it.
The basic gist of the song is "Crank up the mambo, cuz the babes are crankin' up their engines, they're gonna catch what's comin' (Hard!), I know you're not goin' away from me, and what I like is that you like to be taken away (Hard!), Every weekend she's goin' out to have fun (Hard!) My babe isn't going to stop going out because...
She likes the gasoline (female chorus: Give me more gasoline! Give me more gasoline!)
Oh how she loves that gasoline (female chorus: Give me more gasoline! Give me more gasoline!)
or, if you've already seen the videos on MTV or heard this song on the radio...
Ella le gusta la gasolina (Dame mas gasolina! Dame mas gasolina!)
Como ella le encanta la gasolina (Dame mas gasolina! Dame mas gasolina!)
The song goes on in that vein, with allusions to hanging out "in cars, motorcycles, or limos", getting pumped up on a Friday night, etc. etc. etc.
Gasolina: The Video...
This disc has two videos on it. The King Daddy video is pretty predictable and unremarkable, but the Gasolina video....Wow!
Gasolina positively sizzles as a video. It's slick and sexy and has a feeling of West Side Story, with black and white rain-slicked streets in the big city. It also underscores the essential danceability side of reggaeton, with its pulsating beat matched and beaten by the intensity of slim, young, very sexy, very nicely rounded female posteriors lined up for some classic perrea displays. A dozen class-AAA money makers, softly swaying, to the chant of "dame mas gasolina, dame mas gasolina". Oh yeah...
The bouncy beat is exuberant and carefree, and it reflects a pop sensibility that's missing from most reggaeton (though I'd be surprised if more artists don't try to emulate a more Gasolina kind of feel very soon).
Other Content on Gasolina...
Gasolina is the focus of the disc, both in audio and video form, though the 'B' side track King Daddy gets almost equal treatment. The disc also includes the track Like You and King Daddy.
I detest Like You. Didn't like it when I first heard it on Barrio Fino, don't like it now. It's too soft and gentle for my ears, and I don't care for the obvious pandering to an Anglo audience. The lyrics are lame "All I want is a girl like you....all I want is to like you." Aye, caray! I've heard more impressive Partridge Family songs...
King Daddy is another matter. It's a very good reggaeton song, with a heavy hip-hop aspect. It's rough and tough to Gasolina's suave and sexy, an interesting juxtaposition of savage and sophistication. Not a bad song at all...it's no Gasolina, but it's perhaps more street-wise and more "real reggaeton".
Buying Gasolina Outside the U.S...
This review, for obvious reasons, discusses only the Gasolina multimedia "single" release that's sold in the continental United States. In the rest of the world, Gasolina is a very different beast, including just one 'B' side: Machete, and just the Gasolina video, and an extended remix version of Gasolina with a lot of collaborative interpretations thrown in. For the reggaeton purist, the import will be the more interesting product, though most fans just getting into reggaeton will like the highly produced feel of the domestic version reviewed here.
Bottom Line...
Gasolina is, without question, far and away the most significant reggaeton song to date. It's slick, accessible, and totally danceable. It's controversial with a depth of meaning with double, and even triple layers. It's sassy and it sounds great.
I don't recommend buying this particular disc though. The two additional tracks and the King Daddy video aren't as good as Gasolina itself, and for the $6 or so that they charge for the CD in music stores, you could do better. I love Gasolina, and I think it's the single most significant reggaeton song yet recorded, but I really recommend downloading it off iTunes and saving the extra $$$$ for a chilly brewski.
EXPLORING REGGAETON: The Series...
This has been Part 5 of a 10-part series exploring the roots, heart, soul, and future of the reggaeton style. Stay tuned as we delve deeper into the works and influences of the artists who are forging the new flavor of urban latino music, and seeing it spread to unexpected corners of foreign genres. Here's where we've been and where we're going on this musical journey...
Part 1: Rise of a New Urban Power
Part 2: Movers, Shakers, Players, and Names to Know in Reggaeton
Part 3: Conceiving a New Style, El General and the Panamanian Nexus
Part 4: Defining the Boundaries, Tego Calderon and the Puerto Rican Claim
Part 5: A Star Is Born, Daddy Yankee Fought the Pop Machine --- Yankee Wins
Part 6: Machisimo versus the Feminine Ideal, Ivy Queen in a Male-Dominated Genre
Part 7: Heard in the Streets, Wisin and Yandel Give the People What they Want
Part 8: Scrappy Young Punks, Alexis and Fido and the Good Fight
Part 9: A Prophet Pointing the Path, Don Omar Today and Tomorrow
Part 10: Little Kids, Big Kids, and Explicit Content: an Ongoing Controversy
Recommended:
Yes
Great Music to Play While: Hanging With Friends
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