Latin Pop: Taking Progressive or Traditional Path?
Latin pop and reggaeton are everywhere now. A public request for bright, loud, rhythmic music is enormous. Of course, being global means dealing with global challenges, including the growing impact of gender equality. Does modern Latin pop, which is listened to worldwide, promote feministic ideas or sticks to the traditional images and scenes?
Modern Latin Pop — Quo Vadis?
What do you imagine when you think about Latin pop? Is it JLo and Shakira? Or Despacito? Anyway, Latin pop and R&B have changed significantly during the decade.
First of all, singers from Latin American do not have to target the USA or Europe, using English in their art. If you recall some of the 2000’s hits of Shakira, you will see that the majority of them is on English. There were Spanish versions too, as well as songs that were only available in Spanish. However, global success has come to Colombian singer after her ‘Whenever, Wherever’ hit — which was in her fifth (!) album.
Young Latin pop singers nowadays do not face the necessity of singing in English: both because the request for Latin pop is huge and because of the size of their internal, Spanish-speaking audience. Generally speaking, even if someone is not popular worldwide — Spanish-speaking audience itself will provide the artist with a comfortable life.
The splash of Latin pop also leads to bigger competition among artists. New stars can be spotted everywhere — from talent contests to YouTube. It is easier to get on stage nowadays for young people from Latin America: their skills are demanded, and they can use their mother tongue to sing — no problems with pronunciation, accents or grammar.
Since economic and social situations are still rather unstable in the region, young musicians usually make their way, quite often from regular families in regular neighborhoods. And for them ‘becoming’ definitely means something. Having walked through the thick and thin, these self-made stars can play a key role in promoting crucial social values to their people.
Women in Latin Pop: Objects or Something More?
People usually associate Latin pop with hot as hell girls, who surely know how to dance. Starting with early Shakira’s music video and continuing with almost any modern video — seems like having at least one beautiful girl in the video is essential for its success.
It’s true. To some extent.
Presence of female dancers and skimpy outfits question whether this type of music matches the modern understanding of gender equality and human rights. Aren’t these women treated as objects? Whom should we condemn for provocative music videos: musicians or directors?
It would be difficult to impose a simple answer to these questions. Just like anything, Latin music is not homogenous: there are different patterns, sub-genres, etc. And there are different roles, too.
When talking about the place of women in Latin pop, we should separate the consumers and the creators. The first group includes those who listen to this music, go to the concerts, watch music videos… You probably know, that despite the popularity of hot female artists, the majority of the Latin pop audience is also female. And this audience is also not homogenous: some of them crave equality, feminist ideas and some of them don’t. Still, everyone wants to find something in this music.
It is common within progressive (or so-called progressive) feminist and body-positive activists to ignore Latin pop since, in their opinion, it promotes all the rudimental ideas of flawless people and sex-symbols. However, it would be much more beneficial for everyone not to ignore but to cooperate. Especially because already there are some examples of how this music works for equality.
In August 2018 there was a release of the new single of young Colombian artist Maluma — ‘Mala mía’. This song was a logical and consequent part of Maluma’s image of male sex-symbol and bachelor. However, it was perhaps the first time when a pro-feminist audience of the singer began to ask questions — wasn’t it too much? Even his strongest advocates may felt unpleasant with this declaration of lifestyle — or even Maluma’s philosophy outside the stage? Being well-known for female dancers on live shows and having a reputation of a global lady-killer, Maluma could have easily gone little too far…
The answer was released in December 2018. This was a remix, created in collaboration with two of the most significant female artists in the field — Becky G and Anitta. The song starts with rebellious and provocative lines about how Becky G kissed a boy and a girl continues with the original chorus proclaiming free life. Anitta appears on the final verse and imposes an important statement, rather new in Latin pop culture: ‘Some do not understand / That women also have sex / As free as men / … / Leave the machismo’.
This very line (‘leave the machismo’) is capable of changing the flow of the whole Latin pop. Many believe that this genre is full of toxic masculinity and cultivates it, placing women in art as subjects. Remixes like this, created by the most popular artists nowadays, show that the problem is understood on both sides of the YouTube or AppleMusic — both by consumers and by creators. And having such influence and popularity around the globe, music like this can work as a pro-feminist ambassador.
Propaganda of Freedom
Even though sexualizing everyone and everything is rather common in Latin pop, it also has another side, rather beneficial for women. Women artists (and some of the male, too) spread the idea of the sexual liberation of women. Yes, women also have sex. Yes, they can be subjects of the process.
When talking about images of women in Latin pop, it is important to understand: female singers are subjects, not objects. They wear whatever they want, behave however they want. It is their decisions.
It is a kind of culture front in the fight of liberty. Nowadays we still face the accusation of women of wearing something ‘inappropriate’ or ‘vulgar’. Female artists, who wear short and bright outfits, can help in the battle for understanding what is right.
In 2017 Brazilian singer Anitta made a strong pro-feminist speech, becoming a powerful figure in Brazilian and global feminism: ‘I’m going to keep fighting with my music, talking about shallow things, dancing, wearing short clothes, saying what I say and what I do… so people understand that it’s not a short outfit, it’s the fact that you kiss how many people you want to kiss one night, who will tell you whether you’re smart, whether you’re capable, whether you have talent, whether you can sing, do, or fail to do’.
However, Latin culture is still unfriendly towards body-positive. Being glamorous, slim and flawless distances artists from regular people. This can lead to mental crashes of those who adore their idols — the inability to be so ideal. Some of the stars, however, promote a healthy lifestyle (Shakira) and stay away (at least publicly) from plastic surgeries, but many popular singers and actors undergo these aesthetic procedures. This provokes a question among hundreds of fans: ‘If even my idol is not okay with his/her appearance, how can I?..’
