Bad Bunny is an EVIL GENIUS and I think I love it.
Okay, so hear me out.
Yesterday, I wrote on threads it was time for me to go seek out this ADHD diagnosis formally cause my hyper focus on Benito had ended. I gathered all the information I needed, and I was satisfied. He is a cute celeb whose artistry I admire, but not more than honing my own skills.
But here we are again. He has triggered my need to understand him and how he creates art, AGAIN.
”How?”, you ask.
Well… I’m scrolling on Instagram, ahead of my afternoon nap, and Ojitos Lindos from Un Verano Sin Ti is playing. So, Li Samuet’s voice is like crack to begin with, and then the beat drops, and I feel transported to a new place. My parietal lobe is activated, and my curiosity is piqued. How are they doing this? How am I addicted again. Why Am I writing about this man, AGAIN.
My immediate thought is that they must be recording at a different frequency than the 440 that is common in the music industry. So, I googled it. No, hypothesis was wrong. its in 440. So, I think, why do I feel like the song is touching me? That question activates my nerd brain, and here we are again, trying to understand this obsession with Benito.
Digital Crack
This past winter, just ahead of and a little bit after the Super Bowl, I listened to and watched a ton of music from Bad Bunny, which I found was this salad of sound and sensation. Bad Bunny and Tainy create this auditory drug that I just can’t put down. They are in the lab operating like neuro-musical scientists, engineering sounds that heal and sounds that trap. Ojitos Lindos is the song that triggered the relapse, and so that is the one I am going to dissect. The thesis, if you need it, Ojitos Lindos creates an unusually immersive sensory experience through vocal contrast, environmental sound design, and emotional pacing. The result is music that feels less like something heard and more like a place inhabited. In my opinion Bad Bunny strategically activates the brain’s tactile, spatial, and emotional centers by activating your senses creating this push pull dynamic that kicks up your dopamine and reward anticipation systems. I think he does this intentionally, so that you’re never quite done with him. There is always a yearning for more.
Travelling on sound
As the opening notes of the song play, I feel my Parietal lobe activate. (How you ask… you’ll have to read my Hashimoto’s posts, I have superpowers, now.) What sounds like horns and an organ play on a loop. The first loop doesn’t resolve the way that you expect, and it makes you feel like you need to keep listening. Almost compulsively.
I get this same sensation waiting in line to board a plane. Like the journey has started, but it hasnt. So, your dopamine is kicked off before that singing even starts.
Anyway, the Parietal lobe in the back of your head. It is responsible for interpreting touch, not SOUND. TOUCH. Which is trippy. When I listen to Bad Bunny’s music, I feel like he is TOUCHING me. Unhinged? yes, but I honestly think that’s the point of the mix. For you to feel like you are in the room with him. having this experience together.
Once Li’s voice comes in, you are almost transported to a new place. The sweetness of the singing draws you in.The music climbs towards the beat drop, and the layers continue to build into the first chorus. and then drop off again.
Emotionally, it feels like the start of a relationship, where you are climbing and building and layering in your feelings and emotions, and the relationship is part of your daily rhythm. The end of the chorus says “ And I’m born again ( or reborn) and the loop starts again in the other person’s perspective.
Storytelling in the production
The story isn’t just in the lyrics. The mix is also telling the same story. In the second verse, you hear Benito’s voice; the lyrics move you through the climb into the relationship in a different way. He says it’s been a while since I’ve held anyone’s hand. It’s been a while since I’ve sent a good morning text”. ( Actual lyrics: Hace tiempo que no agarro a nadie de la mano, Hace tiempo que no envío: "buenos días, te amo"). Here, you hear the sonic layers start to build again. The beat drops a little sooner here. As if to say he was sure faster. He was in it quicker. The beat cuts out again, and you get the sounds of paradise. You can hear the birds coming in. As he describes heaven. “There is no sin here” and “making mistakes is beautiful”. Which is an awesome sentiments for growing intimacy. ( Listen, I can make this about Jesus so fast your head will spin… but I won’t).
I won’t lie, the very sound of Benito’s voice gets me going… lol. The depth of his voice activates my frontal lobe EVERY TIME. I often imagine what he smells like, cause I’m weird.
The section where you hear the waves crashing and the lyrics are simply “Tu y Yo”, for me feels relaxed, easy going, soft, not rushed. It’s the sensation of just being. Being still and trusting that its good. that sensation of the calm you feel once your love is settled. You still get the heat in your belly when you see them but your heart and your mind doesnt race like it did before.
Like when I lay on the beach and close my eyes to take a nap trusting the sun won’t burn me and I won’t get robbed.
The Music video
The music video is trippy cause that’s not at all what I expected. In the video he is on dates with multiple women, night after night, day after day, some one new. You then see him speeding down the a road and he’s clearly disconnected from anything. the thrill of driving fast is one I know well. Hitting 100+ in my honda accord on i-285 comes to mind.
It’s playing with his life in crazy ways. There is a scene where he has his eyes closed as he drives. The car wrecks and he ends up in the hospital. He gets a text and then his dog comes in the room and that’s who he is happiest with. That isn’t really the treatment you expect for the song. But love is love. So i guess it works.
That I would have done
If I was building out a story line for the music video, I would be boring and obvious.
I would follow a woman who meets a man, maybe on the beach, maybe at a party or at work, whatever. She is cautious like the music plays to, and it is a slow climb. The images are POV. So you dont see her, you just see him, and how she views him. The lighting and the environments would adjust as her feelings climb. They would reflect that its a slow climb, a slow burn for her. You get to the end of the first chorus and it rewinds. You go back and see it from his perspective, from the point where he decides its her. You watch her from his POV and it builds until the end of the second chorus.
Then I would pan out, and look at their relationship from the outside in. What observers might think or the perspective they might take seeing them together out and about. You just see them living life together in intimate spaces. Like laying on the couch with the male partner on top with his head on her chest as they read or whatever.
Cause the music to me feels like a summer night with someone you vibe with. The organs feel like its something sacred. The waves crashing on to the shore and the seagulls singing feel like nostaligic family trips. This song to me feels like a deep tight hug from your lover who smells a little like outside, cologne, and arm pit, but like in the best ways.
It feels intimate. It feels like love.
Dont get me wrong, loving your puppy, or something else is fine. It doesnt have to be a straight love story, or even a monogamous love story. But that’s what I feel. That’s the “touch” that I get listening to this.
The contrast and the cuddles
I think the contrast in the visuals and the music is another piece of the diabolical nature of this media made drug, called Bad Bunny, but it also speaks to the way life is sometimes. Some of my most beautiful moments had dark clouds around them. Like sitting on the couch and cuddling with my cousins after my grandma died. That was beautiful but also deeply painful.
The contract in the vocals also do something that i cant describe in my brain. both feel like a cuddles but in different ways.
The lyrics themselves are calling to a nostalgic love and a softness that is clear by the way the song is sung. Also, as someone who has been deeply in love before, the feeling you get from the act of staring into your lover’s eyes, constructing this universe together, is nuts. Like, can’t explain the intense feeling. I think I chase that feeling of deep connectedness when looking for a partner. Its like open-hearted vulnerability and depth. Which can take time to build, but I yearn for it and this song fills that void for the 4:18 that it runs.