Moral Anxieties and Colonial Residues in Spain’s Approach to Reggaetón in Music Education

• In Event: Critical Approaches to Music Education

Abstract

In this study, I explored Spain’s contemporary discourse about reggaetón in music education through scholarly publications and educational videos. I found reggaetón is often framed as sexist and misogynistic and the literature frames Spain’s teenage population as passive and naïve consumers of this music. As a result, most teaching proposals seek to remediate: They offer school-aged youth strategies to identify and mitigate reggaetón’s presumably corrupting effects. Drawing on Crenshaw (1989), James (2013), and Popkewitz (1998). I suggest adopting a more decidedly intersectional and aesthetically driven approach to the inclusion of reggaetón in schools which may enable a more sonically and socio-culturally rich approach to the study of reggaetón music in schools.

Author

• Antia Gonzalez Ben, University of Toronto