Latin music term ‘urbano’ comes under scrutiny in wake of protests

In the wake of the nationwide protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police, and following last weeks music business-led Blackout Tuesday, music executives began to reconsider or eliminate the use of the word urban to define a genre of music. The catchall term has been used for decades to categorize rhythmic music made by Black artists R&B and hip-hop, primarily yet the connotations of its name often serve to segregate those acts from mass-market platforms such as Top 40 radio and often limit the range of Black voices accepted within the genre.
Republic Records, home to Drake, Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift, stated it will no longer use the term when referring to departments, employee titles and genres. And on Wednesday, the Recording Academy announced its decision
to rename the Grammys urban contemporary category to progressive R&B album.
Some influential Latin music journalists have likewise announced they too will be phasing out a similar shorthand. Moving forward, many have said they will no longer employ the umbrella term urbano that is frequently attached to the popular Latin trap, reggaeton and dembow genres, all influenced by hip-hop, made by such artists as Bad Bunny, J Balvin and Karol G.
The term urbano originates from Afro-Latinx communities that first created its music and sounds. It is a response, and also a form of resistance, to the displacement of Black communities within Latin America. However, urbano is now used to describe the modern wave of Latin music that has ties with hip-hop and trap music. Pitchfork, for instance, recently published a list
of 50 essential Urbano songs, stating, Música urbana has always provided space for multiplicity for pleasure, for protest, for romance. It is the soundtrack of struggle and joy.
Eduardo Cepeda of Remezcla, an influential Brooklyn-based Latinx music and culture publication, understands the cultural and musical complexities the term carries. The music editor released an editorial note
on the publications website addressing why it will discontinue the use of the terms urbano and música urbana, and instead replace it with the term movimiento.
These are terms that are inextricably linked to a history of exclusion and segregation within the music industry, wrote Cepeda. Within the recording industry and in award shows, the word [read more] has been used as a way to separate Black artists, while hypocritically allowing many white artists to freely navigate in and out of numerous categories including urban. … Urbano comes with a fraught and problematic history reeking of exclusion and othering.
Cepeda told The Times, Often in Latin America, you read or hear about el moviemiento urbano. Its a common phrase, so it seemed easy to remove the word urbano. Were not necessarily telling people this is what you should call the genre. We just want to make sure people understand that urbano doesnt serve the community.
He hopes the use of movimiento will open up a larger conversation on the exclusion of Black artists within genres such as Latin trap, reggaeton and dembow.
In an article
for Rolling Stone, Latin music editor Suzy Exposito approved of Remezclas decision, writing that urbano is largely a marketing term that does not do justice to the actual music being made which is predominantly by non-Black artists.
White Hispanic artists are more able to hop from genre to genre. Theyre given the room to experiment by audiences and critics, to be all things to the extent that Black artists cannot, Exposito told The Times. We should be consulting Black artists and see how they feel about the term. See if they feel the same way that Tyler, the Creator feels about it.
After winning in this years rap album category at the 62nd Grammy Awards, Tyler, the Creator cited his disappointment with the term urban, saying, Its just a politically correct way to say the n-word.
Reggaeton and Latin trap artists Tempo and Nicky Jam were asked about the term urbano in a Spanish video interview
with Rapetón, a Latin rap media outlet. They responded with their support of dropping the umbrella term in favor of calling each by its stated genre.
For its part, the Latin Recording Academy has modernized the 2020 Latin Grammy Awards, tentatively scheduled to take place in November, adding awards for reggaeton performance and rap/hip-hop song. However, it still uses the term urban or urbano for multiple categories, including urban music album and urban song.