El Mundo de Bad Bunny

Impressions of the Super Bowl halftime show

Bad Bunny is such a fascinating phenomenon. The music itself is sort of beyond me, but he captures something important, distills it, channels it. He's all charisma, sex appeal, defiance, intelligence, self-awareness. And a well-deployed generosity of spirit. The halftime show had so many cultural references and touch points, incredibly well put together and choreographed. Unlike a lot of pop culture, it celebrated humble things rather than yachts and fancy cars: the bodega, the casita (home), work, scarcity, kids, old people, young people in love. It nodded at traditional music and classical music made by Latinos. I don't identify with his version of latinidad very much, I'll admit (it's more Caribbean than South American). But it was moving. It felt honest, which is a rarity in pop culture. It included a lot of people in its vision of the Americas, and celebrated them. It was more about them than it was about him. I wonder how a show like that gets made, how many of the chess pieces come from Bad Bunny himself and how many from others on his team. It feels like the confluence of so many ideas. It met the moment.