Reggaeton in the Time of Zune

(Click aquí for the Spanish version in El Diario / La Prensa.)


Wisin and Yandel—the self-proclaimed “Duo of History”—for real made history in 2006 when they became the first artists to get four of their songs into Billboard’s top ten in the Hot Latin Songs chart.

This month they again made history, according to Machete Music President, Gustavo Lopez, as the first reggaeton artists to simultaneously be at the top of three Billboard charts less than a month after a song’s release—in this case, “Sexy Movimiento.” Last week, this first single from their newest album was #1 in the Rhythm Airplay chart, #2 in the Tropical charts and #3 in the Latin Pop charts.

Wisin and Yandel also made history this week when Microsoft made them the first artists to collaborate with the corporation in the design and marketing of a Zune digital media player.

The customized Wisin and Yandel Zune is pre-loaded with their new album and exclusive music, videos and photos. This limited edition Zune is yet another corporate effort to captivate the Latino music market and, particularly, the youth sector that represents a huge portion of digital and mobile music sales. It’s of great significance that among so many musical genres in the English and Spanish markets and so many artists to choose from, Microsoft opted to market the Zune via Latinos via reggaeton via Wisin and Yandel. (Hhhhhmmm... And yet some folks still insist that reggaeton, as a commercial product, is dead.)

I imagine Wisin and Yandel are happier than a dog with two tails since their new album is dropping next week, when they will also find out if they won that Latin Grammy they’re nominated for.

Oh, and last week their new music video for “Sexy Movimiento” premiered—a Jessy Terrero production I’ll sum up as plenty more of the visual, musical and lyrical formulas reggaeton has accustomed us to. In other words: fancy house meets bling meets fancy cars meets helicopter and adrenaline-inducing scenes and fantasies of power and bikinied women—one of them with a Zune in hand. It’s probably thanks to those same formulas that reggaeton still resists its prematurely announced death.

Congratulations?