Debí Tirar Más Fotos: sovereignty, gentrification, lost cultural identity, tradition, classic salsa — wait — are you sure this is about Bad Bunny’s new album?
The incorporation of plena rhythms, samples of classic salsa songs, and música jíbara in Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos display the album’s purpose clearly. By welding the island’s different musical identities into one, Debí Tirar Más Fotos is dedicated to Puerto Rico; it’s a tribute to his country. The album is a testament to the desire for traditionality and the preservation of culture in the face of gentrification — a theme many Latinos hold close and feel deeply. Though the themes of this album are specific to the Latino experience, it hasn’t kept non-Latino or non-Spanish speaking audiences from enjoying the album, as it reached No. 1 on Billboard 200. Regardless of the language and even cultural barrier, it is widely loved and appreciated throughout the world. While Debí Tirar Más Fotos’s rapid success proves that language doesn’t necessarily pose a major barrier in music, it does bring up the question of an “experience barrier.” Though anyone can intrinsically recognize the value and mastery in a musical album, are we all able to feel and experience music in the same way?
This “experience” barrier, so to speak, plays a much bigger role in how we interpret music than any kind of language barrier. Through our personal lived experiences, we can peel back the complex layers in the music we listen to and relate it to our own feelings and stories. While not sharing a lived experience with the subject doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy or appreciate music, it does mean that we can’t experience the music in the way it was intended to be experienced — or as strongly. For example, while many Latinos resonated with the themes of tradition, cultural identity, and gentrification in Debí Tirar Más Fotos, we as non-Spanish-speaking listeners are less likely to experience the album in the same way as Puerto Ricans. We may not necessarily understand the specific references to Puerto Rican culture.
The album’s cultural specificity exemplifies how personal and collective experiences shape the way we interpret music. One of the major examples of this is the recurring use of English words written in Spanish phonetic spelling: “Nuevayol” instead of Nueva York (New York), and “KlouFrens” instead of close friends — reminiscent of how our Spanish-speaking family and friends adopt English words into their Spanish diction. The average English speaker likely wouldn’t understand the meaning of “KlouFrens,” or that it represents a greater practice of English loanwords into the Spanish language, commonly known as “Spanglish”. Other examples of specific cultural references include the borrowed samples of classic salsa rhythms in “Nuevayol”, a rendition of “Un Verano en Nueva York” by El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico in 1975. “Nuevayol” also refers to several artists like Willie Colón and Frida Kahlo, as well as more niche characters like Toñita, the owner of one of the only Caribbean clubs in a historically Puerto Rican neighborhood of Brooklyn that is now highly gentrified. Similarly, “Café Con Ron” does the same as “Nuevayol” but with plena rhythms. Other songs like “Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii” have more political takes, providing commentary on the impact of rising tourism in Puerto Rico. It calls out the gentrification and privatization of natural resources and, by extension, the loss of the island’s cultural identity.
All of these factors clearly establish Debí Tirar Más Fotos as a tribute to Puerto Rico, by paying homage to its many musical styles in addition to speaking out about the grievances shared by Puerto Ricans. Yet, many of the social critiques expressed by the album come into question in light of Bad Bunny’s recent concert announcement. He will be playing a 30-show residency at the Coliseo of Puerto Rico, also known as “El Choli,” with the first nine shows reserved for residents of Puerto Rico and the other twenty-one being open to anyone. This residency stands in complete contradiction to the themes expressed in Bad Bunny’s album, as he is actively inviting new tourism into Puerto Rico. While he argues that Puerto Rico is losing its rich cultural identity and history because of gentrifiers moving into the island with no regard for its language or culture, his new residency actively works towards bringing in the very people he claims are perpetuating cultural loss. While tourism can positively affect the economy, it also goes hand in hand with the commodification of culture, dispossession of land, and an overall decline in the local quality of life. In Puerto Rico especially, this has been a growing issue. The government has placed the needs of wealthy foreigners above those of its own people by providing tax breaks to Americans who move to Puerto Rico and destroying affordable housing in order to sell the land to Americans. The residency brings into question how legitimate the album’s social commentary is. Do his indictments against tourism still stand if Bad Bunny himself is inviting more tourists into Puerto Rico? Moreover, what message does this send to Bad Bunny’s listeners who cannot fully understand the impact of gentrification and touristification — those stuck behind the “experience” barrier?