Dear listeners,
Late last month, on The New York Times’s weekly music podcast Popcast, my co-host Joe Coscarelli and I sat down with the global superstar Bad Bunny, one of the defining pop voices of the last decade, and perhaps the artist most responsible for helping catapult Spanish-language music into the modern pop mainstream.
The conversation was wide-ranging and loose, covering the peaks of Bad Bunny’s pop success, his struggles with the demands of superstardom, his response to toxic comments about Puerto Rico at a Trump rally last year, and his recommitment to the music of his home — not simply the reggaeton of recent years, but also plena, salsa and other styles of earlier generations.
On Sunday, he released his sixth solo album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” which he described as his “most Puerto Rican” album to date. For someone who has gleefully taken the sounds of his homeland and integrated them with countless other styles, this was a creative statement, as well as a personal and political one. After bringing Puerto Rican music out to the world, he’s now bringing the world back to Puerto Rico.
“Puerto Rico is a very small island. Maybe an artist from Mexico could be successful only in Mexico. Same with Brazil,” he said. “But I always knew that I could be big and successful being Puerto Rican, with my music and with my slang and with my culture, my everything.”
Below is a chronological primer for those looking to understand how Bad Bunny’s musical arc has unfolded — you’ll find one song from each of his albums, and a little more.
Debería haber escuchado más canciones,
Jon
Listen along while you read.
1. “Soy Peor”
The first Bad Bunny solo single, from 2016, has many of the hallmarks of the work he would eventually become famous for: that rich sonorous voice, a slow and moody approach to melody and production, and a kind of emotional vulnerability that still feels deliciously rare.
2. “Tenemos Que Hablar”
Right from the outset of his album-releasing career, Bad Bunny was breaking norms. His 2018 debut, “X 100PRE,” featured a host of styles in addition to the Latin trap and reggaeton that he’d already made his name with. Chief among these experiments was “Tenemos Que Hablar,” a rousing, bouncy pop-punk yelper.
3. J Balvin and Bad Bunny: “La Canción”
“Oasis,” Bad Bunny’s 2019 collaboration album with the Colombian reggaeton star J Balvin, wasn’t quite the world-dominating creative team-up it might have been, but it did spawn “La Canción,” a blissfully ethereal duet about heartbreak in which Balvin sounds sweetly cloying, and Bad Bunny sounds as if he might faint of heartache.
4. Bad Bunny, Jowell & Randy and Ñengo Flow: “Safaera”
Especially early in his career, Bad Bunny was pegged as a kind of outsider curiosity, an eccentric with a fluid approach to songcraft and visual presentation. But what’s always been lurking underneath those poses is a reverence for the history of Latin music. His nods to classic reggaeton are clear on this track from his second studio album, “YHLQMDLG,” which features earlier-generation artists like the duo Jowell & Randy and the rapper Ñengo Flow.
5. Bad Bunny and Zion & Lennox: “Más de Una Cita”
This teamup with the crucial reggaeton duo Zion & Lennox — from “Las Que No Iban a Salir,” an odds-and-ends compilation from 2020 — demonstrates how Bad Bunny innovated on the reggaeton he was raised on. There’s a certain acidity in the voices of Zion & Lennox, a sense of scraping against the beat, while when Bad Bunny arrives, he floats, and then sighs, and then melts.
6. Bad Bunny and Jhayco: “Dákiti”
One of the biggest songs of Bad Bunny’s career — a career practically overflowing with big songs — is “Dákiti,” a duet with Jhayco from the third Bad Bunny project released in 2020, “El Último Tour del Mundo.” This is reggaeton-shaped club-pop, dreamy and celebratory and anchored by one of the most convincing drum patterns of the last five years.
7. “Tití Me Preguntó”
The commercial peak of Bad Bunny’s career so far has been the 2022 album “Un Verano Sin Ti,” his most musically ambitious and diverse release. “Tití Me Preguntó” shows him dabbling in Dominican dembow, a fast and salacious style, with equally fast and salacious lyrics.
8. “Cybertruck”
Bad Bunny’s 2023 album “Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana” felt a tiny bit like a dare — after the huge pop success, a retrenchment. Some of the experimentation on this LP was with the most forward-thinking production styles of the year, including this relentless, undeniable flirtation with drill music.
9. Bad Bunny and Los Pleneros de la Cresta: “Café Con Ron”
And now, at last, a turn to the past. On Bad Bunny’s new album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” he leans into the expansiveness of the music of Puerto Rico, finding inspiration in decades-old styles reinvigorated by young performers. Such is the case with “Café Con Ron,” recorded with Los Pleneros de la Cresta, which is an updated take on raw, ecstatic plena music.
The Amplifier Playlist
“Get to Know Bad Bunny in 9 Songs” track list
Track 1: “Soy Peor”
Track 2: “Tenemos Que Hablar”
Track 3: J Balvin and Bad Bunny, “La Canción”
Track 4: Bad Bunny, Jowell & Randy and Ñengo Flow, “Safaera”
Track 5: Bad Bunny and Zion & Lennox, “Más de Una Cita”
Track 6: Bad Bunny and Jhayco, “Dákiti”
Track 7: “Tití Me Preguntó”
Track 8: “Cybertruck”
Track 9: Bad Bunny and Los Pleneros de la Cresta, “Café Con Ron”
Bonus Tracks
Our first weekly Playlist of the new year has fresh songs from Ringo Starr, Lambrini Girls, Japanese Breakfast, SZA and more. Listen here.
And don’t miss one of this week’s most delightful features, Tim Sommer’s piece on the roadies grinding it out night after night on the road … who are all over 70 years old.
The post Get to Know Bad Bunny in 9 Songs appeared first on New York Times.
