It is true that a hit-song-making formula is still inexistent, nonetheless, there are particular combinations of rhythms and rhymes which appeal to the masses, and the global hit “Despacito” has these to spare. The romantic reggaeton track has been reproduced on diverse platforms over 7 billion times in total, which makes it the most played song of all time. By now you might be wondering what made “Despacito” so special?
For starters, the upbeat track is composed of a variety of mainly dance oriented latin musical genres, such as salsa and cumbia, which were adapted to help build a reggaeton (also known as the new latin pop) song. In Henry Jenkins et al “Introduction: Why media spreads”, the concept of “spreadability refers to the technical resources that make it easier to circulate…content”. The unusual joint of genres present in the track, besides being a key factor of its “fresh” sound, is additionally targeting a greater audience.
Moreover, the song was written and voiced by a popular ballad singer, Fonsi, who was returning from a long musical break, with a new image and a renewed musical approach. The perfect opportunity to redeem his fans with his latest creations. Likewise, the work included the collaboration of one of the most influential rappers of latin America, Daddy Yankee.
The song was indeed spread across Hispanic and several European nations, topping the music charts in countries where Fonsi and D. Yankee had amassed significant audiences throughout their careers. For the contrary in the U.S, the track occupied the 44th place of the Billboard hot 100. The song was definitely being reproduced, but the American audience was not engaging with it.
According to H. Jenkins et al “The need to create content that attracts audience attention and engagement” is encompassed in the concept of “stickiness”. In order for the song to stick the audience had to be able to relate to it. Thus the inclusion of a globally known anglophone singer like Justin Bieber allowed the American public to do precisely so, resulting in the song’s leap to the 1st position of the Billboard hot 100 singles, one week after the JB “Despacito remix” was released, and which it reigned for 16 consecutive weeks.
Ultimately, it can be said that the “Despacito” phenomenon, achieved such success by balancing spreadability and stickiness, which allowed the song to be exhaustively reproduced worldwide during a considerably long amount of time. Today, even if the songs virality has ceased, its contributions to the increasing popularity of the reggaeton genre have stuck.
References
Video: Making Of Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” Feat. Bieber With Andrés Torres & Mauricio Rengifo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMiLUt3tfuQ
Genius Luis Fonsi interview and song lyrics: https://genius.com/Luis-fonsi-and-daddy-yankee-despacito-remix-lyrics
Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, and Joshua Green. “Why media spreads”, New York. New York University Press. (2013-01-21).
Reading your delightfully interesting article about the hit song ‘Despacito’ made me analyze and hear this song in a different way from how I did before.
The main emphasis of your analysis came down to the fact that this song became a worldwide sensation due to the various multitudes of genres introduced into this one song. I found it really intriguing how you used H. Jenkins’s idea of “stickiness” and engaging the audience in the content as a means for it to reach a variety of audiences, and related it to, arguably, one of the most popular songs of our generation. Moreover, your point of having big names such as Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Just Bieber all adding up to the success of this song was well written. However, it is fascinating to think of the fact that without any “famous” people on the song, would it be at a similar popularity level to what it ultimately achieved ?