Foreign Language Pop: Reggaeton's Struggle In The UK & Why We Need To Embrace It More

'if we sang in English, we would have global No.1's, and no one would say anything' - Nicky Jam


By Waiching

Back in the 1990s, - two decades before the explosion of the song, 2018's Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee's Despacito - which was remade & released for the mainstream Western market with Justin Bieber's vocals added, Spanish language music wasn't taken seriously, with novelty tracks in The Ketchup Song by Las Ketchup and Los Del Rio's smash hit of 1996, Macarena still etched in people's memories. &, lest not forget, one of the biggest one-hit wonders of all-time. Despacito spent 16 consecutive weeks at #1; thus it made Billboard chart history along with J.Balvin and Willy William's Mi Gente, with two non-English songs appearing in the top 10 simultaneously. With Despacito being the biggest and most successful Spanish-language pop song, it heralded a new wave of Latin music acts in the likes of J. Balvin, Ozuna, Bad Bunny, Rosalia, Maluma and singing & rapping in Spanish & showing that this is a good thing; that Spanish pop didn't have to be corny or cheesy, but that it can be cool and it has its own sound that no one has heard of before.

Originating as an underground genre in Puerto Rico in the 1980s and early 1990s, reggaeton's Afro-Latino roots lie in Jamaican and dancehall music and is a fusion of R&B, hip hop, salsa, merengue & reggae; it is also a genre that is primarily dominated by male artists & is often blighted by overt sexism and stereotypes of women and hyper-masculinity. Musically, it combines rap and singing, whilst the rhythms of reggaeton are strongly categorised by repetitions and the songs themselves are bouncy, upbeat and energetic. With its danceable beats & cultural-feel, reggaeton quickly spread in popularity amongst Hispanic Americans and throughout South American regions, as well as Spain and has become the preferred choice of music in trendy clubs, nightclubs and for party-goers & at the forefront of Spanish language music. The most notable and well-known reggaeton songs are Despacito, Gasolina by Daddy Yankee, Subeme La Radio with Enrique Iglesias featuring Descemer Bueno, Zion and Lennox, as well as Bailando (also by Enrique Iglesias). 

Reggaeton has shifted the music paradigm of Latin America & Spain in today's generation to the extent to which it has eclipsed other traditional Spanish-based music genres by evolving through its sound and still remaining current. 

Reggaeton is a big deal in the U.S. and in 2016, the Swedish music service, Spotify declared that it was the most popular type of music for many Spaniards, inasmuch as in the UK market this isn't a type of music that is particularly well known here, seeing it remains an inconspicuous sub-genre that is targeted at and marketed towards pan- Latino, as well as native and local Spanish speaking folks and one that hasn't been consumed by the masses, nor really been exploited. Perhaps this has to do with UK-based Latin and reggaeton artists, who are not getting the exposure and airplay on commercial radio; that they are overlooked by promoters, DJs and record producers in the music industry, of whom don't see reggaeton, & particularly UK reggaeton, as a viable and profitable market to invest money into it.

Perhaps this has to do with the language barrier and people's resistance to move past that aspect that partly explains why reggaeton, and foreign language pop, is not as popular and prominent over here. Back in the 1980s, foreign language pop was a rarity that Brit music lovers shrugged off and during the 1990s, European artists from Germany, Denmark, Sweden such as Ace of Base, The Real McCoy sang songs in English and in the late 1990s, in Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez and Enrique Iglesias, these Latin pop artists broke through the U.S and UK mainstream by releasing and performing songs in English, instead of native Spanish.  

Outside of the Latin American and Spanish markets, & like K-Pop, these are genres that have a small niche following outside the Western pop world; this has a lot to do with migrants from South America and Spain choosing to move over to and emigrate in America (America being 'the land of the free'), and America has one of the largest Latino communities and is second only to Mexico in terms of the global Spanish speaking population. By comparison, there are over 46 million people residing in native Spain, who speak Spanish but there aren't many Spanish speaking people living in the UK, in contrast to Los Angeles and parts of Southern U.S such as San Antonio, El Paso and Miami. Which is funny as a) Spanish is fast becoming to be the second most spoken language of choice in Britain behind English and b) Spain is one of the top holiday destinations for sun-loving British travellers and tourists. Hearing Spanish in spoken and conversational form is nothing new to them, yet hearing Spanish being sung and rapped by artists in musical form is a different thing that is cultural, and for many of them, unfamiliar. 

We also need to factor in reggaeton artists teaming up with American, Canadian and or British mainstream acts and finding crossover and chart success: as well as Justin Bieber and Luis Fonsi, there is boyband CNCO and UK girl group, Little Mix on Reggaeton Lento; Katy Perry with Daddy Yankee for Con Calma and just recently, Dua Lipa with J.Balvin, Bad Bunny and Tainy on Un Dia (One Day). Sure it makes it a tad more accessible for general audiences; it is that they feel there is a need to have an Anglophone/English speaking artist to make it more accessible and less complicated as they are singing or rapping in English & in us fully understanding and knowing what they are saying and for us to get behind the song and to like/love it. 

Herbie Hancock once said that music is an art form that transcends language, but many British audiences still take some convincing before they connect with a non-English language song.

Yet this may change with digital music services in Spotify, Youtube and online radio and streaming, whereby people from all over the world and outside the Americas can access and listen to radio stations that play Reggaeton and Spanish language songs and music and thus, they and we are listening more widely beyond the traditional UK stations especially of whom these rarely or don't play Latin & reggaeton music. Latin music's explosion and appeal in popularity are due in a small part to these platforms, which with that fans and music listeners could acquire and connect with these artists. The internet, I think what is great about music is even if you don't speak the language that well, or understand what they are singing or rapping out, the universality of the beats, the sounds and music itself has an emotional and powerful impact and can make us sing or dance or bring joy to us. 

''I think Spotify and Youtube have a lot to do with what's going on. Before music was curated by the record industry gatekeepers, who were generally middle class, middle-aged White men. And now, it's curated by the masses'' - Sebastian Krys, music producer

Reggaeton has its share of detractors, as well as fans; and whilst a lot of reggaeton is sung in Spanish, it is technically not a Spanish music genre derived from Spain aka Espana, as it hails from Puerto Rico, which is central American. 

I didn't fully get into reggaeton and Spanish & Latin pop until say March of this year, and I paid attention to it via online internet radio and now it has become one of my favourite genres alongside pop, R&B, dance, but the songs are a key factor, and there are a considerable number of reggaeton songs that I enjoy listening to a lot. 

A lot of pop music is sung in English, but there is always a place in the music world for artists of all nationalities and of all languages if people not only give reggaeton, K-pop, J-pop etc a chance, but who can connect to it and enjoy its beats, irrespective of where you come from. Language is of diversity, multicultural, it represents how extremely diverse and universal our world is and through the medium of music is part of the bigger and wider picture of how the industry perceives and markets the artists and our consumption habits, and that how audiences and listeners focus on the lyrical, vocal, cultural and to a lesser extent, racial aspects in order to know and to understand.

However, one doesn't have to completely understand the lyrics and translate them to English to appreciate a great song and one that is sung in a foreign language. It may help a little, but If I enjoy and love the song, then that means more to me than anything else. If only the UK and the UK music industry would see that reggaeton, Spanish pop, as well as K-Pop has a place in the music scene, just as by embracing and investing in its talent. 

Spotify- My Reggaeton Playlist