The New Old Sound of Plena

Artists like Daddy Yankee and Don Omar have made reggaeton, the musical blend of reggae, salsa, meringue and other Latin music influences, a popular form of music in all of North America. Reggaeton became extremely popular in Puerto Rico in the early 1990s and spread like wildfire to the United States with the song “Oye Mi Canto” by Daddy Yankee and Nina Sky in 2004. While other artists and songs were known in some areas of the United States, this song spread nationally and was the first reggaeton song to break the Spanish-English barrier. Despite all the popularity surrounding reggaeton and its artists, there are other forms of music and artists in Puerto Rico who are not getting the recognition they have earned. They need a voice to spread their music and the soul that lies behind it.
Saxophonist Miguel Zanón has recently released a new album based on the classical Puerto Rican plena and for the first time has combined it with the All American jazz sound. Plena is a classic folklore originated in Puerto Rico and rose to popularity in the 1920s.

It uses drums, maracas, tambourines, guiros and other wooded instruments to create a very rhythmic and soulful sound that is native to the island. While it is not gaining popularity in the United States yet, it is regaining its strength in Puerto Rico after modern music like reggaeton had recently taken over. Not only are artists like Miguel Zanón recovering some of Puerto Rico’s nationalism through this type of music, but they are introducing new music to Puerto Ricans, jazz. Despite these two music forms always having similar sounds, they have never been combined before, and artists are beginning to create a new sound, just like what was done with reggaeton, without losing the island’s individuality and roots.
Plena is the music that originated on the streets of the poorest towns in Puerto Rico. It isn’t the type of music that is played in a club where partners can get together and dance to it. This has probably attributed to the loss of interest in such important cultural music. Today, the people of Puerto Rico and the United States want music that they can create their own dances to, such as the “perreo” associated with reggaeton. Dancing associated with plena usually involves line-dancing or large groups gathering to listen to the music more than dance.
Plena is not well-known in the United States, and it lost its popularity in Puerto Rico for some time, but to the natives of the island, the “cool thing” to do is go to a street corner and listen to a man sing and play music with a bottle of rum about the good or bad in his life. With the incorporation of new jazz sounds, artists are hoping to gain the popularity of people all over the world, but they do not need it. The most beautiful thing about this form of music is that the artists are not money-driven. They will not set aside their pride or defy their Puerto Rican roots to satisfy the needs of listeners. Plenazos, as the artists are called, are changing and experimenting new sounds such as jazz to create new traditions for the island so that the music can be preserved for eternity.