Bad Bunny is heading to the Ivy Leagues. Well, sort of. Yale University is introducing a new course dedicated to exploring the cultural impact of the Puerto Rican superstar.
Titled “Bad Bunny: Musical Aesthetics and Politics,” the course will examine how the 31-year-old artist has brought visibility to the Puerto Rican diaspora, challenging norms around language, gender, and identity in contemporary Caribbean culture. Conceived by Albert Laguna, an associate professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, Race & Migration, the idea of the course was sparked after he listened to Bad Bunny’s latest studio album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, which to him “addresses Puerto Rico’s colonial past and present, as well as the current challenges the island faces. (…) And he’s engaging these issues in music that’s joyful.”
From what has been revealed so far, the class will delve into the intersections of Caribbean identity, diasporic politics, and the power of pop, using Bad Bunny as a cultural case study. More than just a Reggaeton icon, according to Laguna and the perspective he wishes to bring through his course, Bad Bunny represents something deeper; a prism through which the history, struggles and resilience of a group of people can be traced, explored, and studied.
“You can ‘hear’ what the mass migration of Puerto Ricans made possible. Reggaeton in Puerto Rico cannot be divorced from musical flows in the region inseparable from colonial projects in the Americas, and locally, the politics of policing on the island. The class will be attuned to these histories and their sonic manifestations,” Laguna said in a recent interview with independent student newspaper Yale Daily News.
After Beyoncé landed on the syllabus at Harvard and Taylor Swift took over NYU, Bad Bunny is the latest popstar to make his academic debut, with his dedicated course expected to launch in fall.
