Listening to Latin America on Its Own Terms

Alexandra Black | Latin America Fellow

Image sourced from Caleb Oquendo via Pexels.

Earlier this year, Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny released the incredibly popular album Debí Tirar Más Fotos (“I Should Have Taken More Photos”). Grounded in the region’s musical traditions, it tackles themes like colonialism, and gentrification in Puerto Rico. The success of artists like Bad Bunny marks a turning point for Latin American musicians, who are not only becoming more popular globally, but embracing their language and culture unapologetically. 

As citizens of an increasingly interconnected world, we often have a curiosity to understand the realities of places different to our own. Interacting with their cultural products, like music, constitutes a crucial first point of connection with these new environments. 

Latin America is a vibrant, complex region whose cultural products have long resonated with Western audiences. This affords the region a form of soft power, where literature, music, and art can influence and shape their global reputation. This is significant for a region often framed reductively by North American political and economic narratives. As members of a global audience, this moment offers us a chance to engage in what I call active listening - that is, determining what artists are saying and why. Through this process we are invited to gain a more nuanced understanding of the region’s realities on its own terms. 

Latin American Music as a Cultural Product

Music has long played a central role in Latin America’s culture of storytelling and resistance. It reflects a diverse history, shaped by Indigenous, African, and European influences. Building on this rich and complex heritage are movements like nueva canción in Chile and Argentina, or Brazil’s tropicália. Here, it is helpful to understand Latin American music as a cultural product. Cultural products are tangible expressions of a society’s culture, and, intentionally or otherwise, carry the values and perspectives of that culture. Music as a cultural product is inseparable from the social realities of its creators. In turn, the act of making and sharing music influences the society around it. 

In the 2000s, Latin America’s cultural products found a new mainstream audience through what is known as the “Latin Explosion”. Musical artists like Ricky Martin and Shakira reached chart-topping success as ‘crossover’ artists that embodied Latin American culture while appealing to international audiences. This moment helped Latin American music achieve greater visibility on the world stage but has received criticism for its limited representation of the region’s diversity and complexities. However, the Latin Explosion was just the beginning of Latin music’s global success. 

The Rise of Reggaeton

The rise of reggaeton in the 2010’s marked the next major stage of Latin music’s worldwide expansion. With roots in hip-hop, dancehall, and Latin beats, this brash, energetic genre has gained praise as a vehicle of political and cultural resistance. However, it is also notorious for the blatant sexism often embedded in its lyrics and culture. Regardless, the genre is one of Latin America’s biggest musical exports, marking an unprecedented growth of the region’s cultural influence and appeal. 

Now that Latin American music is more popular and accessible than ever, we as a global audience have the opportunity to listen actively and sit with what we find. “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” for instance, tells the story of a Puerto Rican artist speaking unapologetically about local issues in their own language. It marks how far Latin American music has come as a force of representation and social change. At the same time, it is not exempt from the familiar tropes of objectifying and derogatory language directed at women. Misogyny and sexism can and do coexist with political defiance in Latin American society. Active listening is one way we can gain insight into such complexities. 

How to Listen Actively

It is easy to passively consume cultural products, particularly when it involves a language barrier. After all, music is meant to be enjoyed. But stopping at surface-level appreciation removes the opportunity to truly hear the stories, histories, and worldviews infused in the lyrics, instruments and rhythms of Latin American music. 

Active listening begins with determining what an artist is trying to convey, why, and what can be learned from it.  By delving deep into this art form, people can seek out the stories behind the music. Truly hearing an artist’s message and understanding why they’re expressing it is the foundation of meaningful engagement. 

The next step is reflection. This means seriously and fairly considering any knowledge gained, even if it challenges personal assumptions, or values. It means asking – before judging – what social conditions, histories, or inequalities are being expressed or reinforced. This does not mean excusing harmful attitudes like sexism, but working to recognise and understand the deeper, structural roots of these issues.

How people engage with cultural products shapes how they understand the world. Listening actively enables audiences to uncover the stories, identities, and experiences embedded within the sound. It enables cultural products to challenge and teach, rather than just entertain. In turn, the more actively we listen, the more meaningful and transformative Latin America’s soft power becomes.

Alexandra Black is the Latin America Fellow for Young Australians in International Affairs. She holds a Bachelor of Public Policy from the Australian National University, with minors in Development Studies and Spanish Language. Alexandra’s interest in Latin America is driven by her Peruvian heritage and experience living and working in the region. As a fellow, she has raised awareness about social, economic, and political developments in Latin America.