Yale University To Launch Course On Bad Bunny’s Cultural And Musical Impact

This fall, Yale University is set to offer an academic course focused on Bad Bunny, one of the most influential artists in contemporary Latin music. The course, titled “Bad Bunny: Musical Aesthetics and Politics,” will explore the Puerto Rican superstar’s work as a gateway into broader discussions about the Puerto Rican diaspora, reggaeton’s evolution, and the politics of migration and cultural production. 

According to the Yale Daily News, the class was developed by Albert Laguna, associate professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, Race & Migration. The idea came to Laguna after repeatedly listening to Bad Bunny’s latest studio album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, during a trip to New Orleans. Captivated by its “depth and cultural resonance,” he recognized how each track could act as a vehicle for critical exploration. 

“I was walking around New Orleans, caught up in the Caribbeanness of the city, just listening to the album over and over again,” Laguna shared. “I was taken by how every song opens up avenues of exploration in relation to topics that are important to me.”

The course promises to tackle themes such as Spanish-speaking Caribbean culture, migration, popular music, and the colonial history of Puerto Rico. Through Bad Bunny’s lyrics, soundscapes, and visual aesthetics, students will study how reggaeton and related genres have emerged from and responded to historical forces like mass migration and state policing. 

One track in particular, “NUEVAYoL”, proved pivotal in shaping the course’s structure. Sampling El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico’s “Un Verano en Nueva York,” the song embodies the transnational cultural exchange between New York and Puerto Rico — a theme central to the class.

“You cannot tell the story of Puerto Rico from the 19th century to the present without New York,” Laguna said, “and the movement of people and cultural production back and forth between both places.”

With the new course, Yale joins a growing number of universities embracing pop culture as a gateway to serious academic inquiry — from Beyoncé and Taylor Swift to now, Bad Bunny.