Bad Bunny and His Lasting Impact on Miami Culture

By Veronica Carbonell // Contributing Writer

It’s no secret that Bad Bunny and his music have taken over the world and it’s impossible to deny his impact on the music industry. With his first big solo hit “Soy Peor” in 2016, to his latest hit “Yonaguni,” the list goes on and his fame only continues to grow. Instead of focusing on his worldwide impact however, I want to discuss what Bad Bunny’s music has done for the city of Miami and how deeply it has permeated the culture.

From Brickell, to Wynwood, to Calle Ocho, clubs are playing Bad Bunny’s music non-stop and Miami can’t get enough. So much so that he had to add two additional Miami shows to his 2022 tour, “El Último Tour del Mundo” after the first show sold out in record time. According to Billboard, “El Último Tour del Mundo” became the fastest selling tour since Beyonce and Jay-Z’s “On the Run Tour” in 2018, selling 480,000 seats in under a week. 

Bad Bunny’s influence on Latinos is evident, but his music has transcended language so much that he has gained a sizable non-Hispanic following as well. FIU student Karl-Hanz Cienas said, “As a non-Spanish speaker, Bad Bunny definitely got me into not only listening to Spanish music but learning the language as well, and in Miami, Spanish is almost as important as English.”

In terms of his social impact, many have praised Bad Bunny for taking a stand against toxic masculinity or machismo in the Latino community and not conforming to the gender roles that are expected of Latino men, many of which have been brought from Latin America to Miami. 

“The Puerto Rican reggaetonero has impacted Miami culture on his own terms. His unique message about empowering women continues to challenge machismo in the Latino community”, said FIU student Juana Saavedra. 

Fighting these gender norms not only includes coloring his hair and painting his nails, but also singing lyrics that portray women as the ones who are in control with songs like “Yo Perreo Sola” where he sings about how women don’t need men to have fun on a night out and can “perrear” all by themselves. Not to mention, he absolutely shatters the patriarchy by dressing in full drag for the music video. The song has become every Miami girl’s go-to empowerment anthem.

Mariana Restrepo is a music production professor at Broward College and here at FIU. With a Master’s Degree in music production, Mariana currently produces her own music, and she says that she sees Bad Bunny as someone who is truly one of a kind. 

“Bad Bunny has a production style that is to the point and has a very unique sound with a lot of personality. You hear a Bad Bunny song and you know it’s him. He is no longer an artist, he has become a brand. He has an urban style that he wants to stick to and it has impacted Miami tremendously, even in the way artists dress and speak,”explains Restrepo.

She also goes on to highlight the influence he has had on other artists in the industry. “He has become an icon of Latino urban artists in the way he continues to shift the culture and has influenced artists such as Farruko, J Balvin, and Nicky Jam. People want to do what he’s doing and they want to sound like him.” 

What Bad Bunny does so well, is that whether or not people like what he’s doing, he is making an impact regardless. He is shifting the culture in a way that fights gender norms and embraces urban culture in all its forms and we are seeing his influence in Miami every single day in clubs, on the streets, and in our own homes.