Glenn Francis via Wikimedia Commons

This fall, Yale College will offer a new course on three-time Grammy award-winning artist Bad Bunny. 

The course, titled “Bad Bunny: Musical Aesthetics and Politics,” will explore Bad Bunny’s impact on culture and how his music can be used as an avenue to understand the Puerto Rican diaspora. 

In an interview with the News, associate professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, Race & Migration Albert Laguna — who will be teaching the class — said he was inspired to teach the course after listening to Bad Bunny’s newest album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.” Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, sparked Laguna’s interest because of the recent album’s depth and cultural resonance.

“I was walking around New Orleans, caught up in the Caribbeanness of the city, just listening to the album over and over again,” Laguna said. “I was taken by how every song opens up avenues of exploration in relation to topics that are important to me.”

Laguna plans to focus his course on Spanish-speaking Caribbean culture, popular music, migration and politics. He expects his course will intrigue students by answering questions about history and the evolution of genre through the lens of a relevant and exciting modern-day artist. 

“DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” is Bad Bunny’s sixth studio album. It features a 17-song tracklist, including collaborations with artists RaiNao, Los Pleneros de la Cresta and Chuwi, and topped the Billboard US 200 in January of this year. The album was largely marketed as an ode to Puerto Ricans and Nuyoricans, individuals of Puerto Rican descent who reside in New York City. It highlights issues such as gentrification and exploitative travel culture.

The first song on the album, “NUEVAYoL” — which samples “Un Verano en Nueva York” by salsa group El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico — was the song that stood out most to Laguna when creating the syllabus for the course.

“It’s no coincidence that that’s the first song,” Laguna said. “You cannot tell the story of Puerto Rico from the 19th century to the present without New York and the movement of people and cultural production back and forth between both places.”

Laguna hopes that by studying the album, Puerto Rico and colonialism, his students will appreciate the socially conscious choices Bad Bunny makes in his art. In a similar vein, he hopes to teach his class about the genres that have influenced Bad Bunny, including bomba, plena, salsa and reggaeton.

“Of equal importance will be our engagement with how musical genres and aesthetic choices manifest these histories and challenges as well,” Laguna said. “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.”

Juli Martinez ’27 was excited about the course when looking into classes to take for the first semester of her junior year.

“Bad Bunny’s music got me through middle and high school and is now getting me through college,” Martinez said. “I actually eat, sleep and breathe his music. I wrote about Bad Bunny in one of the Yale supplemental essays because he’s influenced my life in such a positive way, and this class digs deeper into his music. I think it’s amazing that it’s being taught at Yale.”

Aiden Tumminello ’28 said that the study of Bad Bunny’s discography is “highly beneficial” for students on campus to broaden their understanding of Puerto Rican culture.

Diego Paz ’27 echoed Tumminello’s sentiment, adding that the course’s presence on campus is a sign that traditional scholarship is beginning to embrace popular culture.

“Through this, students can trace the political roots of reggaeton and uncover how these songs can cradle memory, grief and power,” Paz said. “This class is being taught 100 years following the annexation of Puerto Rico by the United States, and Benito Anotonio Martinez Ocasio is using music to confront the enduring colonial violence and using it as a refusal to be silenced.”

As of April 21, 44 students have registered to take the course.

Update, April 22: This article has been updated to include a longer quote from Laguna.