Bad Bunny, bad music

By Tom Quiner, Board President, Pulse Life Advocates

I’m not going to waste too much time on the Super Bowl halftime show featuring Puerto Rico rap artist, Bad Bunny. I offer my humble observations.

I’m not a fan of rap music generally. And I’m not a fan of pornography masquerading as art, a genré in which Bad Bunny seems to specialize. 

He sang/talked his way through a repetitive, anti-woman screed titled “Safaera.” Not sure why feminists aren’t outraged at the profane lyrics which objectify women with pornographic delight. To be sure we understand what’s going on in his songs, he grabs his crotch a lot.

I thought of including an excerpt, but it’s tough to do it in a family-friendly blog, like this one. Bad Bunny sang all of his Super Bowl songs in Spanish, which ticked off a lot of English-only speakers. But the NFL really did us a favor in not making us listen to lyrics which are anti-woman, anti-family, and anti-decency.

I contrast his lyrical efforts with those of his predecessors who contributed great lyrics and music to my list of the 52 Greatest Love Songs Ever.

Compare these lyrics:

Haven Gillespie [from “You Go To My Head”]

“You go to my head,

With a smile that makes my temperature rise,

Like a summer with a thousand Julys,

You intoxicate my soul with your eyes.”

Black Bunny [from “Safaera”]

“Bla, bla, bla, bla, bla, bla

Ayy, yo, yo, yo,

Yo, yo, yo, yo, yah.”

Oscar Hammerstein [from “All the Things You Are”]

“You are the angel glow that lights the star,

The dearest things that I know are what you are.”

Bad Bunny [from “Titi M Pregunto”]

Ey, auntie, asked me if I have a lot of girlfriends, a lot of girlfriends
Today I have one; tomorrow I’ll have another,
hey, but there’s no wedding, there’s no wedding, auntie
Auntie asked me if I have a lot of girlfriends; he, a lot of girlfriends
Today I have one; tomorrow I’ll have another.

Lorenz Hart [from “My Funny Valentine”]

“My funny Valentine,

Sweet comic Valentine,

You make me smile with my heart.

Your looks are laughable,

Unphotographable,

Yet you’re my favorite work of art.”

Bad Bunny [from “Monaco”]:

Drinking lots of champagne, we’re never dry
You’re talking alone, talking with their echo
The money sign is my new zodiac sign
Light up a blunt, the family is in Monaco.

For the reasons stated above, I avoided highlighting Bad Bunny’s most vulgar lyrics. They are just too vile.

More disturbing is the platform they were given. What in the world is the NFL thinking?

The difference in song writers

Bad Bunny writes about sex and what he can take from women, whom he soullessly objectifies.

By contrast, the great lyricists above write about love and what they can give their lover. They delight in their lover, rather demean them as Bad Bunny does.

Ironically, Bad Bunny’s home country, Puerto Rico, struck a major blow against men that abuse women. Governor Jenniffer Gonzalez signed a new law last week recognizing unborn babies as human beings. She said the law “aims to maintain consistency between civil and criminal provisions by recognizing the unborn child as a human being.”

Such a law will make it harder for men like Bad Bunny to exploit women for their own sexual pleasure and coerce them into abortions when babies are inevitably conceived.

Ultimately, love is the antidote to abortion. Beautiful love songs reconnect us with our humanity, softening our hearts and opening doors to life.

Pornographic songs, as produced by the likes of Bad Bunny, disconnect us with our humanity, hardening our hearts and closing doors to life.

My suggestion? Choose love songs.