Cuban Hip Hop - Marketing of Different Styles

Marketing of Different Styles

The dissemination of reggaeton in Cuba is altogether peculiar and familiar. The guerilla marketing of reggaeton with its homespun production value, bicycle taxi advertising and the informal mass distribution in urban areas has led to its accessibility to the Cuban community at large. This rings familiar with US music industry marketing strategies. The peculiarity of reggaeton's dissemination is raised when contextualized within the nationalistic Cuban hip hop scene. Socially conscious hip hop was nationalized into Cuba "as a process of engagement between artists and audiences mediated by the state, rather than by the music industry or by recording technology." This stark contrast between the sources of support and means of dissemination is just one of several reasons of conflict between the two genres in Cuban popular music.