Colombian singer Jose Alvaro Osorio Balvin became famous all over the world as J Balvin and broke many musical records. During the 16 years of his career, he has released seven discs, sold 35 million copies of singles and 4 million copies of albums (Katler). Besides, the singer has become popular on social networks. The number of his subscribers amounts to 65 million (Katler). In 2018 and 2019, Balvin was acknowledged as one of the most popular artists on Shazam (Katler). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the career and musical style of J Balvin.
Jose comes from a middle-class nonmusical family, therefore, he has sought his style without the help of his parents. The would-be singer was born on May 7, 1985, in Colombia (Katler). As a child, Jose listened to rock groups, such as Nirvana and Metallica; their music encouraged the boy to start a career as a singer (Katler). The star admits that he has used the grunge aesthetics in his style (Katler). To mark the great role that Nirvana played in his life, J Balvin made a tattoo with the name of the group (Katler). Aged 16, the young man participated in the exchange program in the US. Although he was generally disappointed with the experience for the country did not meet his expectation formed by Hollywood movies, Joe was fascinated by show business. Balvin liked the business approach of rappers, such as P. Diddy and 50 Cent (Katler). That is why he moved to the US and in 1999, started creating songs (Katler). Shortly after the beginning of his musical career, Jose switched from rock to hip hop because apart from being a gifted singer, he also has a dancing talent.
In spite of the fact that J Balvin incorporated several styles as a singer and musician, the main one is reggaeton. It appeared in the 90-s; however, it was Balvin who brought reggaeton to a high level, giving the style a new impetus for development (Katler). Many experts in the modern music industry believe that the popularity of reggaeton is largely due to Balvin’s professional approach, creativity, and talent (Katler). In public, the style descried is also mainly associated with J Balvin. To date, the musician has recorded about reggaeton 30 songs (Katler). Hence, it might be noted that in his style, the star incorporated several musical genres such as Latin pop, urbano, and hip hop, uwith reggaeton being dominant over them.
Speaking about J Balvin’s songs in detail, in most of them, such instruments as dembow and sampler are used. Moreover, in his creations, the star combines singing and rapping; in fact, these features are typical of the whole genre (Katler). Some of Balvin’s songs demonstrating the peculiarities are Verdi, Vibras, and Mi Gente. In the latter song, Balvin states that he makes music that entertains and his songs have people dancing strong (“Mi Gente: Official Video”). Soon after the release, Mi Gente reached 1 billion views on YouTube (Katler). This might be regarded as a great success all over the globe.
To sum up it is significant to press the point that Jose Alvaro Osorio Balvin, a Columbian singer known under the stage name of J Balvin is first of all associated with reggaeton. However, his style in music has been influenced by other genres and trends, including rock, hip hop, urban, and others. To compose music and perform, the star employs dembows, samplers, singing, and rapping. The singer has become one of the most popular artists of the 21st century and due to the Internet, acquired a large number of fans all over the world.
Works Cited
Katler, Bailey. “The Rise of the Latinx Pop Star.” digitalcommons.lmu, 2019. Web.
“Mi Gente: Official Video.” YouTube, 2017. Web.