How to make a Global Dance Hit: Balancing the Exotic with the Familiar in "Danza Kuduro"

MARTIN, ANDREW ; EID, FÉLIX ; GRECO, MARÍA EMILIA; MUJKANOVIC, EDIN ; KASPERSKI, JAKUB

Song Interpretatio. In 21st-Century Pop Music

How to make a Global Dance Hit: Balancing the Exotic with the Familiar in ?Danza Kuduro?

Lugar: Farnham; Año: 2015; p. 231 - 252

This article brings forward an analyses of the single "Danza Kuduro", released on August 15 2010 in collaboration between French pop singer and producer Lucenzo and Puerto Rican reggaeton artist Don Omar, which a few months later became number 1 in pop music charts in many countries throughout the world. In an attempt to understand the different factors that made this particular song a worldwide hit, and furthermore to determine whether this success was fortuitous or by design, the analysis focused on how musical elements such as language, lyrics, rhythm, harmony, form and hooks were handled and combined. However, the cultural and social context of the creation, distribution and consumption of the song are also essential in the analysis of this global hit. Therefore, other issues considered in this article are the appropriation of ethnic musical elements by major record labels, the manipulation, homogenization and transformation of such elements into identifiable stereotypes, the Angolan Kuduro dance after which this song was named, and the impact of the cultural and social baggage embedded in traditional performances of the Kuduro dance. The conclusion reached by this analysis is that musical components of this song were skillfully and deliberately handled in order to break any factors too characteristic of one particular culture or region, thus making it identifiable enough to all audiences in the global market.