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RESUMEN
A principios de los años 2000, el reggaetón, un fenómeno musical caribeño asociado a valores individualistas y mercantilistas, llegó a las costas cubanas. Este artículo defiende la relevancia de hegemonía, ideología y articulación en la localización de las prácticas y narrativas de los productores de música reggaetón (reggaetoneros) dentro de la sociedad cubana contemporánea. Los reggaetoneros participan en redes paralelas, que les permiten comercializar, promover y distribuir su música fuera de las regulaciones del estado Asimismo, los reggaetoneros se mantienen fieles a una retórica nacionalista marginal pero no dirigida contra las narrativas dominantes. La expresión de varias ideologías alternativas por parte de los reggaetoneros y su implicación en las redes paralelas ilustran como fluctúan entre su proximidad al proyecto revolucionario algunas veces y su alejamiento del mismo en otras ocasiones.
In the early 2000s, reggaetón, a Caribbean music phenomenon associated with individualist and market-oriented values, disembarked on Cuban shores. This article defends hegemony, ideology, and articulation as concepts relevant to the act of situating the practices and narratives of reggaetón producers (reggaetoneros) within contemporary Cuban society. Reggaetoneros are actively involved in parallel networks, which allow them to commercialize, promote, and distribute their music outside of state regulations. Similarly, reggaetoneros adhere to a nationalist rhetoric that is on the margins but not directed against the dominant narratives. The articulation of various alternative ideologies by reggaetoneros and their involvement in parallel networks illustrate how they oscillate between being close to the revolutionary project at times, and distant from it at others.
PALABRAS CLAVES: Reggaetón, Cuba, cultura juvenil, ideología, estudio de grabación.
KEYWORDS: Reggaetón, Cuba, youth culture, ideology, recording studio.
AT THE BEGINNING OF the 2000s, reggaetón, a Caribbean musical phenomenon influenced by Panamanian ragamuffin, Jamaican dancehall, and Spanish speaking hip hop, arrived on Cuban shores. 1 Reggaetón rapidly became the favorite musical referent for a majority of young Cubans, overtaking timba in popularity in regions such as Santiago de Cuba. Yet this phenomenon, associated with individualist and market-oriented values, has been regularly denigrated by prominent Cuban intellectuals and professional musicians. Reggaetón was also criticized by the press mostly by the UJCs (Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas - Youth Communist Organization) daily newspaper, Juventud Rebelde - as being anticultural, banal, vulgar, and trashy (see for instance Medel...