It is said that one of the fathers of Reggaeton is the Panamanian “El General”, quite famous in Havana in the early 90’s.  We used to dance in 1991 to the sound of “Muévelo” , “Tu Pum Pum”,“No me trates de engañar”. Also around that time Vico C from Puerto Rico became really popular but after a short while never heard of them anymore.

I recall the summer of 2003 when “Cubanito 20.02” became really popular with their CD “Soy Cubanito” and specially the song “Mátame”. Songs were playing all the time, from clubs to supermarkets. At that point I used to enjoy the dance, the rhythm and I was not complaining at all.

During the same summer, some people started mentioning a popular music style in Dominican Republic clubs called Reggaeton and somehow similar to this mix of rap, faster reggae, sensual dance and hip hop. That was the first time I heard the word Reggaeton.

After that, summer was over, I was too busy listening to international rock, jazz and other Cuban bands like Habana Abierta, Vivanco or Kelvis when the whole Reggaeton fashion went insane at the beginning of 2004 and I started listening to the song “La Gasolina” everywhere. Every neighborhood house party would play the song “Lo que pasó, pasó” and many others that I cannot remember. One of my friends started listening to this type of music instead of rock and happily told me that: “it is easier to dance than Salsa, I do not have to follow any steps and turns, I just have to move up and down, left and right. Sexy and easy”.

I used to roll my eyes and affirm that Reggaeton music was going to last one or two years and quickly would fade away. I was convinced that this would be a furious fashion and would not change the Cuban music in any way.

Sadness.I was totally wrong.

Still in 2011 young people listen to international and national Reggaeton. From our backyard we have bands like Gente de Zona, Eddy K, Clan 537 and Candyman. This is a disease and it has the name of Cubaton!  People love this and it seems that it is here to stay! It is damaging the creativity and future of the Cuban music. It is ruining the international reputation of the amazing Cuban music.  Some foreigners already think that Cuba is equal to Reggaeton. I guess that going to see opera or classical music is not “cool”enough.  A party or social function without “perreo” is for sure not “cool” enough. 🙂

Cubans love to dance and they do dance in a very provocative way, not only reggueaton, also “perreo” and “tembleque” have been common in salsa dancing.

I think that the biggest problem here is the actual music.

The sound is repetitive but catchy; it is definitely fun to dance even though the musical quality is none. The lyrics have not artistic value plus they are violent, the women are pictured as sexual objects, get insulted, they are placed in the lowest level possible.

Some songs are ambiguous, typical of Cuban music, “ She likes the meat, the baguette, the baseball bat, the pistol, the cigar” (Clan 537- “La mujer del pelotero”) but most of them are completely explicit and much more aggressive.

Those 48 million  Youtube fans of Daddy Yankee and Wisin & Yandel will never agree with me but I wish and hope to see the end of reggaeton soon. I would like to assist to its funeral with a victorious face.