Traditional music
One of the most firmly rooted musical traditions in Puerto Rican soil (by any measure) is the music known as jíbara. Jíbaros are the farmers - usually of Hispanic origin - who formed a large majority of the Puerto Rican population until the mid-twentieth century. Apart from the use of the cuatro - a cousin of the guitar with five pairs of strings - one of the peculiarities of the genre is its texts based on the " decima ", an octosyllabic style of poetry that has ten lines per stanza and can deal with many subjects, including religion or politics, sometimes with a satirical tone. Jíbara music is divided into two main families that have become sub-genres: aguinaldos, Christmas songs, and seis . Once popular, the latter are now only seen in tourist shows. That said, the choreography generally remains intact and sees couples dancing in lines facing and crossing each other at regular intervals while stamping their feet. Urbanization has drastically reduced the number of farmers on the island over the century, erasing jíbara
music with their decline.The other pillar of the local traditional music is of course the bomba. One cannot consider going to Puerto Rico without trying to taste the bomba. Authentic Puerto Rican, the genre has its roots in a rich multicultural past that dates back to the late 17th century. At that time, African slaves, forbidden to worship their gods, merged their cult with that of Saint James. The bomba
was then played during ceremonies dedicated to him and where the traditional mask was worn to scare away evil spirits.Today, a bomba piece usually begins with a solo for the female voice to which the choir responds. A call and response song that testifies to the African origin of the genre. Generally, only one person is extracted from the chorus of singers to dance in front of the percussion instruments, his movements interacting with them. In a traditional bomba
, improvisation plays a very important role, both in the dance and in the singing.In the 1980s, the bomba
declined somewhat, although still cultivated by popular folk groups such as Son Del Batey or Los Rebuleadores de San Juan.One of the great names to have given the genre its letters of nobility is Ismael Rivera (1931-1987). Although often associated with salsa, this emblematic figure of national music played a lot of bomba, especially in his early days, when he was part of the group Cortijo y su Combo. As a soloist, Ismael Rivera touched on almost all the Puerto Rican aesthetics of his time and interpreted them with enough talent to leave, after his death in 1987, an indelible mark on the modern culture of the island.
Finally, an excellent opportunity to see and hear bomba music locally is the Fiesta De Santiago Apóstol
held in Loíza in late July. Among all the colorful ceremonies celebrating St. James, a patron saint of the island, bomba dances can be seen.Almost as popular, the plena is another important traditional aesthetic of the island. Appearing at the beginning of the 20th century, the plena is in its typical form a kind of simple song, accompanied by round tambourines often homemade, where a binary rhythm supports a rudimentary melody. In the 1920s and 1930s, plenas began to be recorded, most notably by Manuel " El Canario
" Jimenez, who became one of the icons of the style, before exploding in the hands of Cesar Concepción in the 1940s. It was this musician who popularized the big-band version of the plena, and it was largely due to his international fame that the plena was recognized as a Latin music genre in its own right. Less popular than in the past, plenas are still commonly performed spontaneously among friends or during a party. At the opposite end of the spectrum from the popular aspect embodied by the plena, the danza is also a traditional form but more elitist in its form and purpose. Its history dates back to the end of the 18th century, when the French contredanse was one of the most practiced and popular dances in Europe. In the following century, a creolized form of the genre, called contradanza, appeared in Cuba and Puerto Rico. Commonly referred to as danza, it flourished both as a piano piece accompanying ballroom dancing and as an orchestral genre supporting ballroom dancing. The danza also had its moment of glory in the graceful piano compositions of Manuel Gregorio Tavárez (1843-1883), "the Puerto Rican Chopin", as well as in his disciple, Juan Morel Campos (1857-1896), an incredibly prolific conductor and composer who composed more than 300 of them.Popular music
A word about salsa, first. Given the genre's hazy origins, the subject is potentially unfortunate in Puerto Rico. And if Puerto Ricans and Cubans dispute the paternity, one thing is certain: it is at least equally popular on both islands. The term was born in New York in the late 1960s, in the poor Latino neighborhoods of the time, designating this mixture of Cuban són and jazz, including other Caribbean rhythms such as merengue. And no matter how much the two islands bicker, both have seen the birth of so many salsa stars. Here, they are called Willie Rosario, baritone saxophone pro, Héctor Lavoe (1946-1993) known as " El cantante de los cantantes
" (the singer of the singers), Eddie Santiago, one of the ambassadors of romantic salsa, as well as Jerry Rivera, paragon of the genre or Giberto Santa Rosa (born in 1962) considered a living legend.More recently, salsa has married the other most important Puerto Rican aesthetic in its history: reggaeton. Collaborations between the two worlds are frequent and it is anything but surprising to see, for example, reggaeton stars like Daddy Yankee invite a salsa singer like Andy Montañez on one of his tracks (in this case: Sabor A Melao).
If this intergenerational meeting is pleasant and prolific, let us say that it is not systematically happy and does not produce only masterpieces. Marketing has its reasons that the reason does not know (always). It is also impossible not to mention here the (very) big Puerto Rican success of these last years: Despacito. Sung by Luis Fonsi in duet with Daddy Yankee (still and again), this single became a worldwide hit accumulating 5 billion views on YouTube only a few months after being uploaded. It is simply the first Spanish-speaking song to be so successful since La Macarena in 1996. By the way, if you love the song and are in the vicinity of Old San Juan, it is more than recommended to go through the Factoría. Voted as one of the 50 best bars in the world, the place was used by the singer Luis Fonsi for the shooting of his famous video.A little more about reggaeton..
Jamaica has reggae, Puerto Rico has reggaeton. An international hit since the early 2000s, reggaeton is the Puerto Rican aesthetic par excellence - at the crossroads of rap, dancehall and Latin music - and the island's emblem. While its birth was in Panama in the 1990s, it was really in Puerto Rico that the genre came to life (and the name was coined). At the time, Caribbean music (especially ragga) and African-American music (mainly rap) were gaining momentum in Puerto Rico. In this context, local artists used the rhythm of the song Dem Bow
by Jamaican artist Shabba Rank as the backbone of their songs. Reggaeton was born. Quickly, the genre will free itself from the simple Hispanicization of the Jamaican dancehall, in particular in the hands of the Puerto Rican Daddy Yankee who imposes his own flavor and codes to the genre. Extremely popular with youth, reggaeton tells of street life, women and drugs, but not only. If the style often appears to be unfriendly, some important artists - more and more - take the genre out of its comfort zone and offer it a new dimension. It is notably the case of the Puerto Rican star Bad Bunny who gives an arty, sensitive and almost intellectual reading to the reggaeton. Not to mention that more and more women are experiencing commercial success and esteem in the field, blurring the machismo or vulgarity inherent in the genre. Among them, Karol G (who is Colombian) or the Puerto Rican Ivy Queen are more than recommendable. The latter is often cited as an influence by many artists. Maybe it's the texts where an ambient misogyny and a homophobia not yet eradicated remain or the hyper-sexualization - remarkable in the perreo, the typical dance of the genre which is danced with the buttocks raised, stuck to its partner -, but the genre seems to be ignored or even openly despised by the media. Yet Bad Bunny was Spotify's most listened-to artist in 2020, great singers like Rosalia are cramming it into their albums, and the genre's big hits regularly break sales or listening records. Able to catalyze the anger and resistance of youth - behind its party music aspects - reggaeton is a music much more complex than it is allowed to be. Misjudged and decried for the moment, reggaeton will undoubtedly travel the same road to acceptance as rock or hip-hop before it.Classical music
The world of Puerto Rican classical music is very small, but there is one name to remember: Pablo Casals (1876-1973). You may notice that he is Spanish, and you would be right. But the composer spent his old age in Puerto Rico and is, therefore, somewhat considered a compatriot by Puerto Ricans. His brilliant career was the result of an unexpected encounter with the Queen of Spain, which illuminated his destiny. While playing the cello in a café in Catalonia, Spain, to earn some money, she spotted him and, seduced by his talent, took him in hand to find him a scholarship. Pablo Casals is today one of the great references in the history of the cello, along with Rostropovich. He introduced new techniques and made the instrument evolve. Also a composer, he left a great work for cello. In Spain, he is respected for his commitment against fascism. He never agreed to play in Germany under Nazism, and did not hold any concerts for five years in Spain to oppose Franco. Finally, he chose Puerto Rico, where he founded the symphony orchestra and gave numerous master classes. He died in San Juan at the age of 96.
