Reggaeton and urban music

Why have reggaeton and urban music taken over the radio, television and even children’s birthday parties?

The reason is clear, but few people know it: the music industry, as its name suggests, is an industry like any other, and its aim is to make money.

For what used to be called the record industry, and is now called the music industry because it no longer sells records, a very lucrative part of the business has disappeared. So the business has changed.

And where is the focus now? On cost and return.

From the 1960s to the early 2000s, the sums involved were substantial, and a company could afford to spend money on an artist recording an album because there were many ways to recoup the investment several times over… Not any more.

An hour in a studio is very expensive. Just imagine a month! And making music more accessible to everyone has not helped either.

To put things into context, all the equipment used in a recording studio is expensive. To record drums for a moderately famous rock band, you are talking about using between eight and fifteen microphones, with their stands and cables. You also need a drum doctor to make sure each part of the kit sounds right for the room, and a mixing technician or engineer to make the drums—which comprise many percussion instruments—sound like one cohesive whole.

That whole process usually takes between one and two days, depending on how large the drum kit is, and studio time is ticking away.

And that is just for the drums, so imagine how much it could cost in studio time and labour to record an album by a rock band such as the Rolling Stones. Recording a reggaeton album is infinitely cheaper; without wishing to disparage it, it can be done with a computer, a microphone and a mediocre audio interface.

So, where is the business? Streaming platforms do not ask you, when they charge you, whether you are going to listen to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony performed by the London Philharmonic or to Bad Bunny; they charge a single price, whatever you listen to. So, for music companies, the cheaper a product is to make, the more money they earn. The same applies to live performances.

That is why promoting reggaeton artists is much more profitable than promoting rock bands or melodic singers.

Fortunately, for some time now, more and more people seem to be getting bored of not knowing whether it is the same song or eight tracks have already gone by, because everything sounds the same. Little by little, rock and pop are starting to gain ground; even urban and reggaeton artists are beginning to bring rock musicians into their ranks.

Modern recording techniques are now bringing young rock musicians closer to the studio experience at more reasonable prices, but they still cannot compare with being in a proper studio. Unfortunately, what we rockers, whatever our age, like is expensive, breaks or weighs a lot.