Hate It Or Love It: Global Crossover of Reggaetón Music in the Digital Age
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© 2014 Michelle Marie Rivera HATE IT OR LOVE IT: GLOBAL CROSSOVER OF REGGAETÓN MUSIC IN THE DIGITAL AGE BY MICHELLE MARIE RIVERA DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Communications with a minor in Latina/Latino Studies in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Angharad N. Valdivia, Chair Professor Lisa Nakamura Associate Professor Isabel Molina Guzmán Associate Professor Richard T. Rodríguez ABSTRACT This dissertation critically examines reggaetón music as it is discursively constructed through mainstream media and Internet debates about the genre (e.g., online music forums, social networking profile pages) during and after the 2004 global musical crossover of reggaetón. Using various case studies to critically examine processes of both textual production and reception to reggaetón, I interrogate if and how the music industry constructs and simultaneously targets a Latin global and US Latino market for reggaetón through various marketing strategies and via mainstream media coverage in the US and abroad. Considering textual production and reception as equally significant processes that are constantly in contention with one another, I examine how active and participatory audiences online, particularly fans and anti-fans, negotiate reggaetón as a cultural text and in relation to the ways they are interpellated as the target market for it. Here, I apply Louis Althusser’s definition of interpellation, as “ideology’s ability to assign individuals to specific positions within its own communicative (semiotic) representations of reality” to the ways that the audience for reggaetón is constructed based on specific demographic features, such as ethnicity, race, age, income and/or language (Grossberg et al. 207-208). In this dissertation, I interrogate how targeted demographics play a distinct role in the interpellation of the audiences for “Latin urban” musical forms like reggaetón. Reggaetón is a cultural signifier for the contested ways in which Latinidad is negotiated in everyday life and, particularly, in relation to discourses of authenticity that circulate through Latin(o/a) popular culture and mainstream media representations of Latinidad. ii Para mis amores Sergio y Genesis iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Todo poderoso es el Señor! I thank God for unbreakable faith. This journey has been harder and longer than I ever anticipated. Thankfully, there were several loving folks along the path that pushed me, (sometimes) dragged me, but repeatedly encouraged me to keep going and heard an earful about my dissertation—namely my best friend Naz. I’m eternally grateful for my better half, Sergio, who patiently waited for me to finish and literally worked his butt off to support my cause. I could never thank you enough for not giving up on me! From undergrad to grad and onto the next stage—you’ve always had my back. From the bottom to the top, I was inspired to write about reggaetón and draw from the music and diasporic connections of my ancestors. I was feeding that bajón for reggaetón I’ve had since I was a teen. This dissertation helped me grapple with my fandom from a personal space and intellectual gaze. I thank the first reggaetón artists who allowed me to interview them before this project took shape. I also acknowledge Lah Tere for sharing her heart and life experience with me and allowing me to witness the powerful work of an independent artist/activist in motion. I drew and continue to draw strength from the powerful women who came before and after me: my itas (Chela keeping watch from above), visabuelas, lil sister, tias, cousins, nieces & my mom (who literally life-coached me to the finish line). Also, at the forefront of my support system have been my super-encouraging Dad (thanks for making sure I was getting my work done), proud ito, mis tios and nephews, my brilliant brother, kind stepfather and bonus brothers. I thank my cohort (namely My-rizzle who kept me laughing through Vico and Locke in prosem and still keeps me laughing…), my diss writing buddies, my numerous writing group pals, and fan studies group for motivating me to write on a consistent basis and for sharing their critical insights with me in a supportive intellectual space. Much love to mi segunda familia—la familia Padilla (especialmente Nando) por todo el apoyo, comida, risas, y amor. No lo podría haber hecho sin ustedes! I give many thanks to my committee for impacting me in innumerable ways. Anghy is the mentor I one day hope to be. She encouraged me to work my butt off, see the world, and still have a life outside of the academy. Isabel’s courses pushed me to become a better scholar and contributor to Latina/o Communication Studies. Lisa was “the source” on race and the Internet and made me raise my bar to properly address the gaps in these areas. Ricky has always been a kind supporter and confidence booster…just in those right moments. I also thank my early mentors—Dr. Arlene Torres and Jillian Báez for being such amazing role models to look up to as I chartered the course to get in and out of grad school. None of this work would have been possible without the generous support I received from the Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois (DFI) Fellowship as well as from the UIUC Graduate College Dissertation Completion Fellowship. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………...………..…...1 CHAPTER 2: CROSSING OVER…WHEN IS IT EVER REALLY OVER?: DECONSTRUCTING REGGAETÓN’S CROSSOVER DREAMS……………………………22 CHAPTER 3: FROM UNDERGROUND TO REGGAETÓN: THE POLITICS OF BRANDING, PAN-LATINIDAD, AND COMMERCIAL MUSIC CROSSOVER…………....71 CHAPTER 4: JUST SEXUAL GAMES AND 24-HOUR PARTIES?: ANTI-FANS CONTEST THE COMMERCIAL CROSSOVER OF REGGAETÓN MUSIC ONLINE……….………...133 CHAPTER 5: THE DIGITAL VISUAL CULTURE OF THE ANTI-REGGAETÓN MOVEMENT ONLINE………………………………………………………………………...158 CHAPTER 6: DADDY YANKEE’S ARMY OF ONE: THE HIGH STAKES OF COMMODIFYING LATINIDAD THROUGH REGGAETÓN……………………………….180 CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSIONS…………………..........………………………………………255 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………………263 v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This dissertation centers on reggaetón, a controversial and provocative Afro-diasporic musical phenomenon that derived from Puerto Rican underground music in the 1990s, and achieved crossover success as a mainstream pop music form by 2004. Thus, reggaetón is now a global commodity interpreted by a global audience. Mainstream media coverage between 2004- 2013 provides a window into pan-ethnic branding strategies that have successfully exposed and expanded reggaetón to global Latin music audiences. This study interrogates the interrelationship between media representation and audience reception of reggaetón. In addition, this dissertation critically examines the circuits of culture1 connected to reggaetón’s global crossover in the digital age. As a result, my 2 main research questions are: (1) how is reggaetón discursively constructed through pan-ethnic branding strategies and mainstream media coverage during and after its commercial crossover in 2004, and (2) how is reggaetón’s commercial crossover complicated by the online participatory culture of anti-fans that reject the global spread of the genre as well as the pan-ethnic branding strategies that seek to target them as global Latin audiences?2 I assert 2 hypotheses: (1) that the deployment of such strategies point to the marginal spaces that still exist for Latin(o/a) representation, even and especially in the context of a Latin- branded cultural form like reggaetón that attempts to represent Latin(o/a) populations globally 1 Paul du Gay et al. (1997) argue that there is a linkage of five major cultural processes (representation, identity, production, consumption, and regulation) through which cultural texts and/or artifacts come to possess meaning (40). 2 Henry Jenkins (2006) defines a participatory culture as one in which “Fans and other consumers are invited to actively participate in the creation and circulation of new content” (290). Jonathan Gray (2003) defines anti-fandom as “The realm not necessarily of those who are against fandom per se, but of those who strongly dislike a given text or genre, considering it inane, stupid, morally bankrupt and/or aesthetic drivel” (70). While I use Gray’s understanding of anti-fans in this study, I also expand his definition to encompass the role of cultural resistance to a particular genre or text. 1 (2) these online communities comprise over 100,000 reggaetón fan and anti-fan sites, which reveal Spanish-language dominant audiences as interactive subjects online who are speaking back to their marginal representation. Given US census data from 2000 and 2010 that place a spotlight on the exponential growth of “Hispanics,” demographic trends for Latinos and Hispanics are being followed more closely than ever before. However, marketers for the culture industries who continually seek more effective strategies for reaching the Hispanic and Latino consumer are carefully watching those demographic trends. The most recent figures from the AHAA (Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies) estimate that the purchasing power of the “Hispanic” population will reach $1.3 trillion in 2014 (<http://ahaa.org/default.asp?contentID=29>). Yet, Arlene Dávila (2008) argues that too often Latinos gain visibility “only as market, never as a people” (89). Dávila’s research elucidates the ways in which marketers are increasingly modifying their advertising strategies based on their conceptual distinctions about Latinos (as US natives, bilingual and/or English-language dominant) versus Hispanics (as Spanish-language dominant, foreign born or immigrants) (83). As the target on the Hispanic consumer increasingly moves toward second, third and fourth generations of bilingual, bicultural, and/or English-dominant Latinos in the US, the soundtrack for reaching this distinct Latino audience and market also changes. Reggaetón appeared on the mainstream music scene on the heels of the previous “Latin music boom” of the 1990s and early 2000s.