I recently watched the video "Sexy Movimiento" from Wisin y Yandel on BET J and was struck by how boring the genre has become. Thinking back to early 2003 when reggaeton was just beginning to mainstream (of course, that is after it originally came out by El General in 1992), I realized I had not sat through an entire video since 2003. Not out of disrespect to our Latin musicians, but really, I started to feel early on that the lyrics and videos were extremely degrading to women, and at the same time there was a lack of innovation with the beats. As a good friend once said, "(Listening to reggaeton) is like being trapped in box." And now about 6 years later, I am saddened by how little has changed within the genre. Case in point - Wisin y Yandel. The video was basically a version of R. Kelly's "Down Low" and the beat was the same old beat coming from hundreds of other reggaeton songs.
Now, despite my disappointment with the beat and the song in general, I was also struck by the uber-metrosexual appearance of the majority of Latinos in this genre. We all know that the same can be said of other Latin musicians (Luis Miguel, Ricky Martin, etc.), but I have NEVER seen it to this extreme! These guys were more well-groomed than the Latina girls in the video. Eyebrows waxed to the max, matching outfits, perfect lines in the goatee and haircuts, I mean super-duper-primped! What happened to the days of Alejandro Fernandez brows? Au-natural! Regardless of what Latinos are now sporting - natural or metro - it's more about music and the lack of innovation that reggaeton has been able to sustain with. So with that - I probably won't post any thing else about reggaeton for another six years, or until I see/hear some real innovations!
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