The birth of the project: the perception of Latin music in Europe

It is time to tell you about the birth of this project.

In 2019, I took a Spanish course at ESSEC (my school) where we talked about music and its influence on Latin American mentalities. At the end of this course, I spoke with my (Argentinean) teacher, Maria Selva Senor, who asked us what kind of music we were listening to.

At the time, I had just discovered this committed Latino music, especially about the #NiUnaMenos movement in Latin America: Chocolate Remix (Argentina), Rebeca Lane (Guatemala), Renee Goust (Mexico)... Music that went in the opposite direction of all the latino music I had listened to until then as reggaeton, so much appreciated in Europe but not very respectful of women.

So I shared this music with my teacher, while explaining to her that I was trying to stop listening to sexist latino music, which I was ashamed to appreciate (for their rhythm and melody): Romeo Santos (Dominican Republic), Maluma (Colombia)...

We had a very interesting conversation about this perception of music, especially in the Latin American region. I told her at the time that in France, Latin music is associated with sexism and the sexual objectification of women: thus some music that is actually Spanish is associated with Latin America for its sexualization of women.

Thus, Maria Selva Senor was led to build a course on the comparison of these two musical tendencies in Latin America: on the one hand, commercial music, and on the other hand, committed music. We compared the scope of the different songs, the virality of the others. The main tendency has been to see that music that objectifies women enters the norms of commercial music in terms of rhythm and melody, and thus, despite its topic, is viral and listened to by many people, regardless of their beliefs.

This was the students' response when we tried to understand the difference in virality between the two types of music: the majority considered that it is not the theme that explains this difference in scope, but the musical codes. According to them, committed music is too protesting and therefore less pleasant to listen to, less festive.

I did not and still do not agree with this opinion, because we studied various music, protest rap of course, but also a cumbia (La Cumbia Feminazi by Renee Goust) that fits more into the commercial codes, and despite this, this song does not reach the virality of a "classic" Latin song (although it is already very much listened to). I am convinced that music is a great way of expression for women and for every person who wants to change mindsets about gender matters.

This topic really raised my interest, so I decided to start this research project.

For me, to open myself to the music of a Latin country and to broaden the European-centered and external vision that I have at the moment.

Also to investigate this new movement of committed music, and the songs that have since gone viral (Canción sin miedo de Vivir Quintana in Mexico in particular).

Finally to be able to communicate these discoveries to the interested people who follow this blog.

Thanks for following me, more info next week!