Tecnololailo: trash or Mozart in the age of Bad Bunny?
Among purists, 90s tecnololailo is a masterpiece compared to Bad Bunny; others see it as the same old trash. The debate is back.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Tecnololailo, the 90s reggaeton that divides opinion again
That today's reggaeton is trash gets repeated even by people who don't listen to it. But when the old tecnololailo tapes – that poor cousin of reggaeton that played in the 90s – get dug up, the debate flares up: was it really better, or is nostalgia clouding the judgment?
Purists of the genre argue that that sound, with acts like Los Sobraos, El Azukita or Camela in their early days, had authenticity. "Compared to Bad Bunny, this is Mozart," some go as far as saying. Against them, another camp holds that tecnololailo was always trash – it's just that back then the degradation hadn't reached today's basement level. "Reggaeton and Latin pop have always been trash at their core," they argue; what changes is the degree of vulgarity.
The discussion runs into an awkward fact: tecnololailo was never a mass phenomenon, but a regional byproduct now looked at with condescension. Those who grew up with it defend it as part of a street culture that has been fading away. But its objective quality – prefab beats, lyrics without complexity – doesn't stand up to much scrutiny.
With Bad Bunny as the perfect enemy, tecnololailo has become a symbol of resistance for those who long for less overproduced music. Yet time is against it: what was marginal then now seems outright forgettable. Perhaps the only consensus is that, compared with today's reggaeton, the old stuff at least had the honesty of not pretending to be anything else.
Fary's son, who was hustling in those years, would surely have something to say. But his name has been lost, like most of tecnololailo's hits.
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That today's reggaeton is trash gets repeated even by people who don't listen to it. But when the old tecnololailo tapes – that poor cousin of reggaeton that played in the 90s – get dug up, the debate flares up: was it really better, or is nostalgia clouding the judgment?
Purists of the genre argue that that sound, with acts like Los Sobraos, El Azukita or Camela in their early days, had authenticity. "Compared to Bad Bunny, this is Mozart," some go as far as saying. Against them, another camp holds that tecnololailo was always trash – it's just that back then the degradation hadn't reached today's basement level. "Reggaeton and Latin pop have always been trash at their core," they argue; what changes is the degree of vulgarity.
The discussion runs into an awkward fact: tecnololailo was never a mass phenomenon, but a regional byproduct now looked at with condescension. Those who grew up with it defend it as part of a street culture that has been fading away. But its objective quality – prefab beats, lyrics without complexity – doesn't stand up to much scrutiny.
With Bad Bunny as the perfect enemy, tecnololailo has become a symbol of resistance for those who long for less overproduced music. Yet time is against it: what was marginal then now seems outright forgettable. Perhaps the only consensus is that, compared with today's reggaeton, the old stuff at least had the honesty of not pretending to be anything else.
Fary's son, who was hustling in those years, would surely have something to say. But his name has been lost, like most of tecnololailo's hits.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (17 replies).
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