Bad Bunny Took Plena and Salsa Songs to Number One. Here's Why That Matters
It took over the top spot on Apple Music. The next day, it reached number one on Spotify's global chart, and it's still holding that spot on both platforms. It also set the record for the Spanish language song that reached number one in the most countries in Spotify history. “DtMf” is performed in the traditional Afro-Puerto Rican folk music style of plena, a genre that many people outside of Puerto Rico are not familiar with. While well-known among Puerto Ricans and a popular feature at Puerto Rican cultural events, plena had never achieved mainstream commercial success. Prior to “DtMf,” no plena song had ever charted in any position.
The success of the song has been a wonderful surprise. "I didn't expect this reaction, this reception. What's happening with "DtMF" feels like a cultural movement. And it feels like the world is giving love and support both to my team and to Puerto Rico, and in such a wonderful way," he says.
The music video for the song has over 24 million views and gives a brief history of plena and the related Afro-Puerto Rican music genre of bomba. It points out that bomba, which combines music and dance, originated in communities of enslaved Africans in Puerto Rico and their descendants. Almost a quarter century after slavery was abolished in Puerto Rico (1873), plena emerged as a new Afro-Puerto Rican genre. Unlike traditional bomba, plena usually includes vocals, and typically has different types of drums and instrumentation. On "DtMF," Bad Bunny worked with "the 'sobrinos'" - the group of students from Puerto Rico's Escuela Libre de la Música who perform on several tracks in the album.
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The album primarily features salsa music in its opening track "NuevaYol," its closing track "La Mudanza," and the top charting "Baile Invidable," which reached number 1 on Apple Music on January 9 and was briefly later surpassed by "DtMF." With "Baile Invidable" reaching number 1, it became the first salsa song to ever top Apple Music's global charts. Salsa draws from Afro-Caribbean rhythms and originated in New York's low-income Latino communities in the 1960s, heavily influenced by Puerto Ricans from the diaspora. While salsa achieved more mainstream success in the 1970s than folk genres like plena, salsa was "in many ways comparable to how people thought of reggaeton when it first began," says Petra Rivera-Rideau, an associate professor of American studies at Wellesley College who specializes in Latin music. Initially, early reggaeton, like salsa and plena before it, was often looked down upon because of its roots in working-class Black communities.
It's clear that the success of the album is rooted in its authenticity." "From the moment you press play, it's obvious that Bad Bunny is making a statement," Sanchez says. "Whether you're Latino or not, the album resonates because it has a clear aim: to offer a strong and genuine portrayal of Puerto Rico. Bad Bunny is not only celebrating his people's culture and heritage, but he's also shedding light on the current challenges they face.
His "favorite song on the album" has a deep significance that goes beyond it being the first number one salsa song in history. The track "Baile Inolvidable" is a six-minute live instrumental salsa featuring Bad Bunny accompanied by student musicians from Puerto Rico's Escuela Libre de la Música and vocalists from the plena group Pleneros de la Cresta. The director of the music video for "Baile Inolvidable," Kacho López-Mari, who previously worked on the music videos for 2019's "Callaita" and 2022's "El Apagón"/Aquà Vive Gente as well as the films for Bad Bunny's 2023 Coachella set, states that the inclusion of student musicians in the song is part of the same resistance and struggle they're promoting. They want public education to continue and don't want La Escuela Libre de la Música to close.
They shot part of the pro-education ad in front of the school attended by the students of "Baile Inolvidable" and "DtMF". "It's quite a coincidence that these students from the same school happen to be in the number one song in the world. The statement made with ["Baile Inolvidable"] isn't just about celebrating salsa music; it's also a statement about the value of public education and the faith that Benito has in young people from Puerto Rico."
There's a lot of young people into salsa, and in Puerto Rico they've always been. In Cuba too... I think it's about the vision and goals of the artists. On the mainstream level, since not much is happening with salsa, artists sometimes say 'Well, this is the market we can tap into.' And so they make good music, but it doesn't feel like it's from the street or has the essence of the culture. With these number one songs and this album overall, Bad Bunny has made a bold move to shake things up and invest in the future of young Puerto Rican musicians who are carrying on cultural traditions.
The synth responded with, "This is a salsa." MAG described the synth in the intro, which took up about the first minute of the six-minute track, "It begins in a very mysterious manner and then transitions into a salsa rhythm. That's Benito's take on the salsa."
Bad Bunny's approach to salsa and plena isn't the traditional route, yet "there is a direct link from the old-school plenas to what Bad Bunny is doing on this album. He's collaborating with individuals who are strongly dedicated to maintaining plena's legacy like Los Pleneros de la Cresta - a group formed with the goal of promoting social change through their music," Rivera-Rideau explains.
Although "DtMF" is primarily about appreciating moments with loved ones before they're gone and appreciating people and culture that are being forgotten in a gentrified Puerto Rico, the song represents the complexity, love, joy, and pain that life in Puerto Rico as a colony involves.
This music is helping Bad Bunny share various Puerto Rican genres with a global audience, thereby inspiring appreciation for and preservation of Puerto Rican culture and the island of Puerto Rico itself. "I know these songs, with their exposure of Puerto Rican sounds, are already a significant success," MAG says. "However, there's so much more than just reggaeton that makes up the diverse musical genres of Puerto Rico. I hope this encourages other artists from Puerto Rico and different parts of the world to draw inspiration from their own cultures and unique musical styles."
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