Marshall’s blogpost entitled “We Use So Many Snares” traces the popularity and the prevalence of snare patterns and timbres in Reggaeton, a genre he only recently discovered. He also offers a relatively detailed description of the “music itself,” drawing attention to the differences between snare styles in various genres. “the difference between soca and dancehall, between merengue and reggaeton,” he says, “Is a mere issue of speed--at least in a basic musical sense; let's not forget, though, that the cultural contexts for these styles are often rather different.” The overarching tone of the article is the accessibility that beat-making programs, bloggers, and technology in general have widened to each of these genres. My question is if these musical styles, which have their roots in specific localities but are also syncretic international forms, become simplified and reduced once they are exported globally.
He explains its global reach – “Reggaeton has become the most popular youth music not just in the PR and DR and Panama but in Cuba, Colombia, Belize, and increasingly in Mexico, Chile, and non-Caribbean Latin America. of course, it's big in Japan. and there appears to be a thriving scene these days in the UK.” When a musical style is globalized – that is, exported to and enjoyed in countries apart from its origin, does it maintain its historical integrity? Do Reggaeton listeners in geographically distant areas like Japan understand the music they are listening to – its influences, founders, shapers, or does it become the generic sound of an entire area? Do musical genres need to maintain their historical integrity (that is, their indebtedness to locality) for them to keep their cultural validity?
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