Reggaeton Is Dead... Again

My dear co-editor Wayne Marshall tweeted earlier this month:


Here are plenty more recent thoughts on the issue:

Willie Colón's interview in El Nuevo Día.

Tego Calderón's (and others') reply to Willie Colón, also in El Nuevo Día.

Gavin's post "Can we Talk About the Reggaeton Crash?" and "Updates from Chicago's Puerto Rican Pride Festival."

Marisol's posts "Reggaeton's White Hope and the 'Reggaeton Crash'" and "Romantiqueo Is Going Under."

Wayne's post "Can We Talk About 'Can We Talk About the Reggaeton Crash?'”

And the comments to my post "The Relevance of Reggaeton."

O.k., so I side with the folks that say that pronouncing reggaeton dead at this point would be premature.

But lets consider this for a second... MAYBE now reggaeton is REALLY about to be "dead" soon—though lets keep in mind folks have been saying it's dead for over a decade... since before it took on the name reggaeton.

In considering the above, I'm struck by the bizarreness of pronouncing a genre dead. Is danza dead? Is bomba dead? Is "Latin" freestyle dead? Is opera dead?

Another thing that gets me thinking is... why are some folks so happy about the prospect of reggaeton's death? Is the same lyrical formula over a different beat any better? Is the music any better just because Flex is crooning over non-dembow beats? Is the music better because Wisín & Yandel and Don Omar are using electro-pop beats? Is the music any better because some of the same artists that made their name as "reggaetoneros" are using different beats and calling it "urban music" instead of reggaeton?