Cognoscenti presents: The cultural phenomenon of Bad Bunny

Bad Bunny has captured our collective imagination and attention with his music and the larger than life personality. Fresh from winning album of the year at the Grammys for “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” and a historic halftime performance at the Super Bowl, some have argued he is the most important pop musician of our time. The music of Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, includes a long lineage of the rhythms of reggaeton and its evolution through the Caribbean, Latin America and the U.S. He also represents a cultural force that reckons with racial politics, LGBTQ rights and the dynamic and complex realities of Puerto Rico.

In partnership with Cognoscenti, WBUR’s essay and ideas team, join us for an evening exploring Bad Bunny’s cultural impact, featuring music and video highlights throughout the conversation.

Panelists

• Petra Rivera-Rideau — associate professor and chair of American studies at Wellesley College, and co-creator of the Bad Bunny Syllabus
  
• Wayne Marshall — ethnomusicologist, assistant professor at Berklee College of Music and co-editor of “Reggaeton.”

Copies of Rivera-Rideau’s “P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance” and Marshall’s “Reggaeton” will be available to purchase from our bookstore partner Brookline Booksmith and the authors will sign following the conversation.

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