It is not a trend, nor a prefabricated product. He has shown that he possesses feelings, can err, can laugh. He has moved us, who are thousands of kilometers away from his country and from the country to which this one belongs. And for two weeks he has been making the Madrid Metropolis dance every night, after doing so in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Japan. You may like his singing from Bad Bunny more or less, you may understand (or not) his lyrics, but the Puerto Rican makes clear with everything he does that he is not an automaton, nor is he artificial.
In Bad Bunny Won Over the Machines (Debate), the journalist and writer Marta Fernández has delved into the vibes that emanate from the singer, the actions he has carried out in recent years, the reactions his concerts have provoked, his presence, his statements, and she has contrasted them with two of the omnipresent lyrics in every corner of our lives, AI. Because in these times when Artificial Intelligence is offered as a solution for everything, even if it is a scant remedy, the Madrid-based author shows us that the “Benito’s Way of Life” is more authentic, more fun and above all, more human.
And she does so through a brief, but intense, essay about Bad Bunny and his transformation into a global music star. An engaging and interesting narrative that will delight those who do not know too much about the show’s star but sign up to see the show.
From Benito to Bad Bunny
Fernández is aware, as many of us who have watched that performance on repeat are aware, that Bad Bunny was already a music star before February 8, but that day he became something more. A benchmark, a guide, an idol. And that, despite the fact that, unlike machines and just before urging the importance of chasing dreams, he made a misstep and among the human shrubs that surrounded him there was something that caused him to step off the script. Better, because that makes him more human.
Cover of Marta Fernández’s essay, Bad Bunny won over the machines.
A lo largo de algo más de 120 páginas, a las que luego hay que añadir un glosario boricuo que nos ayuda a entender mejor su universo musical, Fernández recorre la vida y obras de Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio: cómo su madre no estaba muy por la labor de que escuchase reguetón, cómo le regalaba libros o le llevaba al coro de la iglesia. Y nos lleva al barrio en el que creció, los juguetes con los que pasaba los ratos, y que hemos visto en fotos que están por todo internet, demostrando que puedes ser una estrella pero los 90 no fueron muy «aesthetic».
Pero, como no podía ser de otra manera, le presta especial a Dbtmf, que es en realidad el disco que le ha llevado (nos ha traído) hasta aquí. «Bad Bunny», apunta Fernández, «hace el viaje del héroe con este trabajo, un viaje profundo a su identidad y a sus orígenes. Y como todos los héroes, vuelve triunfante al hogar, simbólica y físicamente». Y añade: «Si Bad Bunny estaba mirando a alguien a los ojos con estas canciones, ese alguien era Benito».
Culture and Imagination Transformed
In Bad Bunny Won Over the Machines we discover how the song that gives the album its name was conceived, born from a hangover, the roots of the connection between Puerto Rico and New York, and its reflection in Nueva Yol, both the song and the video. An audiovisual work in which, as is usual with Bad Bunny, nothing is casual, everything has meaning, there are symbols, tributes and messages in every element that appears on screen.
Bad Bunny with the Puerto Rican flag during the halftime performance at the recent Super Bowl.
The roots of reggaeton, and the change brought by the Puerto Rican in a musical genre that, in its more classical form, was macho; the social and political commitment that the artist has shown through various causes, the first of them his country, and his compatriots, are other aspects related to Bad Bunny’s life and works that Fernández analyzes while offering a demystifying view of the advances that machine intelligence can offer us.
The struggle between Kasparov and Deep Blue, what made possible the birth of the salsa music genre, who designed what are now the world’s most famous chairs, how long it takes to create a masterpiece, depending on whether you are human or Maurice Jarre, or how technology has transformed culture, but also our imagination, are other topics the Madrid-based writer and journalist explores in her book.
Bad Bunny during a moment of his performance at the halftime of the 60th Super Bowl edition.
And between page after page, while we discover—with a touch of fascination, if you will—that behind the man, the myth, the legend, there is a guy committed to his origins, his compatriots and his identity who reminds us, by personal experience, that while one is alive one should love as much as one can. And AI can know that, but not feel it.
