Having spent too many hours watching Bad Bunny music videos over lockdown, something occurred to me. There’s a new type of Reggaeton on the horizon. Not just in the music, which itself is a mix of salsa, rock and bachata to name a few, but the whole image. From red leather drag to denouncing corruption and everything else in between, Bad Bunny’s music videos, just like him, push the boundaries.
The reason why the future could lie in Bad Bunny music videos is the themes he shows and the creativity with which he does it. From showing relationships between same-sex couples in Ignorantes to singing Solo de Mi through the mouth of a women with bruises from domestic abuse, Bad Bunny grapples with a huge number of topics and draws a rarely seen awareness to them.
His uncensored and creative music videos demonstrate his political activism and puts Puerto Rico’s tensions onto the world stage. Seen waving the Puerto Rican flag and protesting against Rosselló government in the street, Bad Bunny often collabs with rapper Residente from the protest group Calle 13. Unlike his 2018 X1 00PRE (siempre) with its collabs from European artists, his first album of 2020, YHLQMDLG, is an homage to his home Puerto Rico. With clips of dusty streets, couples dancing, and Spanish viols being played, Bad Bunny revels in his community. To me, this seems like the future of Reggaeton, showcasing a colourful celebration over dembow rhythm but also showing videos of poverty and struggling, depicting many peoples realities.
So, what reality does Bad Bunny live in?
His music videos experiment with unusual visual effects of him as a video game character in Hablamos Mañana to time lapse skateboarding in Yo Visto Así, showing no limits and no rules to what he wants to do. It can be said his reality is profoundly grounded in growing up in Almirante Sur barrio in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, singing in his church choir before creating his own beats and freestyling in high school, earning a reputation for his humour and creativity. His unique fashion sense stems from his passion for wrestling and its theatrics as a kid, seen in his music video Chambea with legend wrestler Ric Flair, as well as skateboarding. Studying audiovisual communication at the University of Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny’s videos show this innovation and creativity in their ambitious effects and themes.
Asking the question “is the future in Bad Bunny music videos”, if one had not been on an endless binge on his videos like I have, could make people think the future is cars, gold chains and girls in bikinis, as most Reggaeton music videos depict.
Bad Bunny is certainly not exempt from videos with bikini clad girls and cars, though it would be wrong to say this is all of his work. The videos like this are far and in-between, usually coming from his older work, perhaps when he was playing safe and sticking to marketing basics of half-naked women. In fact, in La Difícil, Bad Bunny actually parodies these exact types of videos, with the camera following a model in a Bad Bunny music video, showcasing her caring for a younger sister whilst having to deal with the objectification of her job. As he comes more into his own, it seems Bad Bunny experiments with everything and anything, doing whatever he wants as his chart-topping album from February, YHLQMDLG (Yo hago lo que me da la gana), suggests.
Though I think from these videos, there’s a new type of urban Latin artist for one, with Bad Bunny and J Balvin alike creating whole themed albums with motifs running throughout their videos. Take all of the videos in YHLQMDLG for example. Bad Bunny appears as his 12-year-old self, sporting a balaclava with bunny ears in order to protect his newly discovered third eye. When the hat is eventually pulled off, the whole world erupts, cars flying and meteorites whirring, all with young Bad Bunny and his three eyes staring at the camera. Bad Bunny has been described by his friends and family alike as special and it certainly shows in his constant releases with their non-stop experimentation.
Secondly, it is looking ever more likely that imagination, experimentation and defiance is what sells. Leaving behind the typical machismo music videos of money and women, people want, and obviously will buy, what is different. In Bad Bunny’s case, he’s always been different, rapping entirely in Spanish and retaining his daring vision for his music and videos alike.
From being the cover of Playboy to wearing protest t-shirts against a killing of a transwoman in Puerto Rico on the Tonight Show, Benito Martínez as a person unafraid to be different and celebrated as such. His philanthropic spirit and activism has led to the creation of his Good Bunny foundation, which funds outreach projects for children in poverty in Puerto Rico, as well as performing on top of a truck in New York to thank health care workers. This same truck is now front cover of the new album, El Último Tour del Mundo, and is seen driving through different landscapes for the audio videos on Youtube. Whilst we wait for the new music videos, I just remember that Bad Bunny is always 10 steps ahead, creating brilliant concept albums that are meticulously planned and filmed with stunning cinematography. So whatever Bad Bunny has planned for his future, it seems like he will do whatever he wants, and change the game while he’s at it.
It seems that being ruthlessly himself has now landed him as the most streamed artist in the world right now, debuting his new album at number one in Billboard albums chart, the first all-Spanish language album ever to do so. A large reason for his success is his popularity in Latin America and the huge demographics, allowing for a high number of streams. With the extremely saturated Reggaeton market, it begs the question, why Bad Bunny?
Bad Bunny’s success seems to lie in his constant innovation, relentless work ethic and changing of his music and his look. Nothing remains the same and that is precisely the point of his music.
So maybe the future can be seen in Bad Bunny music videos and it looks like one of tolerance, activism, experimentation and love. I don’t know about you but that sounds like a pretty bright future to me, and it will be an exciting ride to see Bad Bunny turn everything on its head, once again.
