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stardustizuku · 3 months ago

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So I really don’t like Encanto’s music

That’s a lie.

I actually love “We don’t talk about Bruno” and I will always cry about “Dos Orugitas”.

But, Familia Madrigal? Don’t like it.

Waiting on a Miracle? Don’t like it.

Surface Pressure? Don’t like it.

What Else Can I Do? On thin fucking ice.

And that’s apparently a very controversial opinion. I was a bit baffled to see that everyone universally loved songs that I would consider objectively bad. I’ve seen musical experts make extensive videos on how good it is, which for the longest time deterred me from even saying how much I disliked it.

But like, I really can’t stay quiet about it anymore.

Okay, so first of all, we have to talk about accents.

Lin Manuel Miranda is from Puerto Rico. If you’ve ever heard them talk, you notice people from PR have a distinct way of talking. They put a lot of stress at the end of every syllable, and they talk very very fast. No, really. They talk very fast. There’s an inside joke among Latino people that most of us can’t understand Puerto Rican Spanish because it’s so fast and has what I can only describe as a “choppy pronunciation”. This is to say, they cut off their words off, use a lot of contractions and put the stress of a syllable always in the same place.

You can watch this interview with Bad Bunny to see what I’m talking about.

You can hear it, it’s extremely fast paced with even intervals of stress in their words. When they sing (again any Bad Bunny song can work to prove my point) you can hear that same style. Fast paced, with even intervals in the stress of their syllables.

This is their accent, coming through their music. It makes marvelous songs. Puerto Rican have a very distinct accent and their music gave way for this new wave of reggae music we see. One filled with rap and hip-hop beats. This is because their accent makes rapping the most comfortable medium for them to sing in.

And. When you put that side by side with Lin Manuel’s music, you’ll realize that it’s exactly the way he writes music. Most Puerto Rican musicians sing and rap in Spanish, for obvious reasons, but Lin does it in English! That is why it piqued a lot of Americans’ interest. His style was common in Spanish but innovative in English.

What Lin Manuel did is truly amazing. He mixed hip-hop, rap and Puerto Rican instruments to create his breakthrough musical In The Heights. This mix was a hit because of how well these three mix.

Lin Manuel raps, not only because he’s a lyrical genius, but his own accent gives him a natural advantage. It works best in his first musical because it is about his own struggles and lived experiences, growing up in Washington Heights.

In Hamilton, he leans more to hip-hop culture, mixing more African American styles of music. He’s using that same Puerto Rican intonation and style, and mixing it with hip hop, to tell a white story.

The juxtaposition of them both creates something unique. Founding Father history is boring, white and frankly tired. Giving it this new spin, mixing all types of sounds and voices, creates an idea that THIS history belongs to everyone; not just white people.

But. That doesn’t work in Encanto.

The problem with Encanto is that he’s trying to do the same thing he did in both previous musicals - but there is no reason for Puerto Rican inspired sounds to dominate the soundtrack (And boy do they dominate it)

This is about Colombian music and Colombian stories.

Like, people from the USA and who grew up there, adopt the same view of culture: The idea that all Latino cultures are extremely similar, should be melted together, and that everyone is allowed to contribute to part of it. It makes sense. Latinos form a community in a foreign country, where everyone is brothers and sisters, shoved into the same places and spaces.

But that only happens in the USA. In Latinoamérica, because everyone (for the large part, and excluding political refugees) has their own country where to create their own country style. So, while we are all friends - we’re not roommates, we’re neighbors. So people intruding into their culture, seems more of a bad taste.

Colombia is Colombia. They have a cultural identity almost separate and foreign to any other country (EXCEPT those that formed La Gran Colombia in the years of old). It makes no sense for a story or movie about it to have Puerto Rican sounds, Mexican sounds, Chilean sounds etc.

And Lin Manuel doesn’t seem to notice that his music, at its purest, is Puerto Rican sounds mixing with the environment. So, when he got put in charge of Encanto’s music, he used his style to create it- which leads to this huge problem where two entirely different sounds and style get put in a hotpot and what comes out is…

Odd.

Why did this happen, again?

Well, many reasons: in part bcs cause Disney is Disney and doesn’t see Latino countries as their own thing, in part bcs I believe Lin was filled with hubris of his own success and in part bcs I think he just didn’t understand what a fumble he was doing; but that doesn’t change the fact that - they simply do not fit here.

I genuinely believe that, Disney being Disney, assigned their only Latino musical man to write the music for their Latino musical. Ignoring the fact that Lin Manuel has only one type of musical style, which is at complete odds with Colombian music or stories. Disney (in my opinion) waved their hand and let the Latino do their Latino stuff without bothering to check if they were the RIGHT type of Latino - and so, we ended up in this mess.

And Moana at least had Somoan artists writing alongside Lin Manuel to at least, reign in some of Lin’s more obvious attempts to make this Hamilton 2.0. But in Encanto? He had one artist writing alongside him whose only other connection to Latinoamérica was Coco.

And listen, I’m not here to say white people can’t write compelling music - Coco is a great example of white people stealing and replicating the aesthetics of a culture so well its scary - but it is iffy.

So, yeah. Encanto has Lin Manuel’s style all over itself like it’s In the Heights 2.0

The problem?

This is not about you Lin!

His style becomes horrendously apparent when he tries to mix in Colombian Music with lyricism genetically engineered to fit Puerto Rican Vocal Cords. Add to that that the fucking Main Character is voiced by a Puerto Rican artist and what you get - is music that signals one thing, and a voice that signals other.

Causing this entire thing to sound, not only convoluted - but also so off the beat you would think a white man wrote it.

Okay, so let’s take Familia Madrigal, and I’m gonna use it to point out the obvious:

Stephanie Beatriz is NOT COLOMBIAN.

Which, by the way, fucking shows. Her accent kills any indication you may have that Maribel is actually Colombian.

I know, that people from the USA failed geography in kindergarten and don’t even know that people from Latinoamerica are separated into countries - but surprise surprise they do. And they ALSO have extremely different accents.

Someone from Colombia speaks differently from someone from Argentina, or Mexico etc. So when Maribel opens her mouth, imagine my shock when, what I hear, isn’t a Colombian accent but a Puerto Rican one.

And while you think it can’t - it shows very much in the way people sing too.

It’s like a show brightly saying “this is a movie dedicated to London culture and it’s set in London using London narratives to tell it”.

And the main character starts speaking - and she has a fucking Texan accent.

Like, genuinely, from the bottom of my heart:

Why did Disney hire a Puerto Rican person to voice act their Colombian character…?

I get that they did something similar in Coco, but two things 1) Guatemala is pretty close to Mexico. 2) The sound design is so Mexican it’s scary. You CAN hear that there’s some missing timber and accent in some songs, but you just assume it’s due to Disney purposely flattening the more “ugly” parts of Mexican music (aka, this breathy raspy tone you use for some ‘corrido’ and mariachi music) because even the Spanish version is missing it.

But because Encanto was written by Lin - he’s writing lyrics with an undeniably Puerto Rican accent. THEN, you make the girl singing it a Puerto Rican girl, with a heavy PR accent.

And you’re left with this…song. That has lyrics genetically engineered to favor Puerto Rican pronunciation with Colombian Music in the background. It makes this weird, jarring sensation that, to me, feels like nothing I’ve heard before.

Which, if this were a new experimental musical, I would probably find it interesting.

But for fucks sake, Lin. This is a Colombian story. You’re supposed to be channeling COLOMBIAN vibes. Not whatever this is.

Okay, want an example? Compare “Familia Madrigal” to another Colombian artist (that isn’t Shakira) Bacilos: I think that Mi Primer Millón is the closest thing I can think of.

You’ll notice two things:

1) The voice that sings is so slow. It doesn’t rush every single sentence, the way it’s very characteristic of Lin. This is very common in Colombian music. It’s not fast paced. It’s lively! Fun! But not quick-paced the way Puerto Rican is. It’s relaxed.

And

2) The words drag. It’s not each syllable being stressed, but everything sorta drags and blends with the word in front of it.

It’s completely different from Family Madrigal - even if the music is kinda similar.

That’s what I mean when I say that Stephanie Beatriz’s accent kills any illusion of Maribel being Colombian. The way she sings would be PERFECT for a reggae song, or set in the nebulous America where all Latino culture is a melting pot.

But it doesn’t sound distinctly Colombian. It sounds - fucking American. And Disney American at that. Because there’s no hard defying Colombian aesthetic, but more of vaguely Latino sound.

The same happens in Waiting on a Miracle.

So, this works on two levels. First is the Disney “I want song” ballad, like Part of your world, I cannot stress how quickly it’s going, and how little it conveys.

As Colombian music - I heard Lin say that they’re using a Bambuco, a type of music known to have ¾ rhythm instead of 4/4 to symbolize Maribel. All family members sing in 4/4 while Maribel, the odd one out, sings in a ¾.

Except, when I heard this I was like:

What the fuck do you mean this is a Bambuco?

I was genuinely confused because Waiting on a Miracle does not sound like a Bambuco, not even in the Spanish dub, where like half the problems I have with the music are fixed.

But then you listen to background music without the vocals, and you’re like oh. Yeah, that kinda is a Bambuco!

The lyrics ruin it tho.

A popular Bambuco song is “El Barcino” which, when put side by side with Waiting on a Miracle, show that the lyrics ruin any pace the song is creating.

El Barcino uses letters that end and starts on vocals, and are short, to make sure that it has the least amount of syllables, even when it’s using quite a bit of words. It helps everything sorta blend together, with the harshest sounding letters like “r” and “ll” being left to the end. With that last word being the one that drags on the most.

Esta es la historia (4)

De aquel novillo (4)

Que había nacido (4)

Allá en la tierra (4)

Compare that to Waiting on Miracle that seems to do the opposite. It uses constant consonants that purposely break the sound, with no long words to drag at the end. In FACT it seems like the last word is the one that gets cut abruptly. With the middle of the sentence being the one that drags a bit.

I can’t heal what’s broken (6)

Can’t control the morning rain (7)

Or a hurricane (4)

Never mind that each line has a different syllable number.

The Spanish dub tries to fix this, and that’s why I say it’s much better. The actual VA attempts to sing in a way that mushes together the first few syllables, and puts stress on the last word - and the Spanish writers are fighting for their lives to shorten the syllables by using as many vocals as they can.

But genuinely, there’s just so much they can do, when Lin’s writing comes bashing with a hammer with its stupid tempo.

And I’ve heard people say that “well, Mirabel sings so different because she’s the odd one in the family”, which-…

Do you think that? Then why didn’t they hire a Colombian VA? Or a South American VA? Someone who could more closely emulate the type of accent Colombian people have?

My opinion, they wanted Stephanie because Lin is KNOWN to work with people from previous projects, in this case Stephanie was in his production of In Height Movie. I think he wanted her to land the job at Disney. Disney saw a big name with big backing and decided to cast her as the Main Character. And when this happened, Lin started writing her songs in a way that she felt more comfortable, or molding Mirabel’s character around parts of Stephanie herself (which is not unheard of, or even a bad practice. But it effectively ruins a pretty good song for me).

Less than Lin choosing Stephanie to sing this way bcs Maribel sings this way, I think it’s more of a Mirabel sings like this bcs Lin chose so, bcs it fits Stephanie better.

But again, it ends up sounding nothing like Colombian Bambuco. I don’t even know what it sounds like.

The problem I think, lies in the fact that three things are fighting like crazy in this song - Lin’s lyricism that has no business being here, a Disney Formula that was on its way to becoming so tired it ended up as “Wish”, and actual Colombian music that is sitting here being yanked and stretched to fit whatever these two idiots decide is best today.

As an “I want song” ballad, it also fails massively. I’m gonna go ahead and show an actual song in English to prove my point - Shakira. I’m using her first album in English (because it’s the one that is less touched by outside American influences), and picking the one that sounds the most like an I Want ballad throughout. It’s not a 1:1 but I hope it proves my point.

Take Waiting on a Miracle vs Underneath Your Clothes (granted, at this point Shakira still uses rock in her music (RIP Shakira rockera you will be missed) so I acknowledge the music is different. I’m focusing more on her voice rn)

You can definitely see the difference in the accent and way I’m so genuinely offended they hired Stephanie (her talent be damned, I want my Colombian artists to be given a chance)

You can hear the way Shakira sorta Just sings? There’s no choppy attempts to fit syllables into the right tempos. She dances with the music, instead of forcing herself through it.

Like, the “I can’t control the morning rain or a hurricane” sounds like it’s cut in pieces. But “And all the things that I deserve” just doesn’t. It stays in the beat with the music.

What's even weirder, tho is that recently, Shakira used Reggae and Puerto Rican style music to mix with her music.

Bizzarap may be an Argentinian musician but in her song with him she, well, raps and used that similar choppy style of lyrics that Lin uses - just that the background music is obviously not Colombian - but hearing her you can hear how different it is from Maribel’s singing.

And it’s a great example that my problem isn’t PR girls singing - cause honestly the song slaps - but that they’re doing it in Colombian story ; set in Colombia, where honestly PR culture has no business being here. Like, Venezuelan inspire music, Panama inspired music, or even Ecuador music wouldn’t be weird…But Puerto Rican? They weren’t even part of La Gran Colombia.

But okay, not everything is awful.

I actually love We don't talk about Bruno, because for all the reasons why Lin Manue style does not fit Colombian Music - musicals DO fit Colombian Music! And when done RIGHT, you get this masterpiece. They do everything right

Tia Pepa IS voiced by a Colombian girl! (Who also sung the Spanish dub, oh my god Carolina Gaitan the woman you are!)

The lyrics are repetitive and simple. Which allows people to actually sing! You can hear her drag the last word really nicely when she sings, it’s such a delight to the ears.

It’s followed by Dolores doing a RAP! A proper rap, to which they have a Puerto Rican rap singer!! No wonder she’s the highlight of the song! This was built for her, and she nailed it! Oh, my god, you see how amazing something can sound if you just know what you’re doing??? The Colombian girl who does the Spanish dub doesn’t pull it as good as the English dub.

The sudden change from Dolores to Camilo is great.

The ensemble is amazing. If Lin can do something good is an ensemble where everyone is singing their own verse.

Like I cannot stress how amazing everything fits for this.

What Else Can I do?

I say this is on thin ice because it shows that the problem isn’t just Lin lyricism but the fact that both Maribel and Luisa are voiced by Puerto Rican Voice Actresses.

That said, oh my god the Spanish dub is like 10x better. In English, they hired a PR VA for Maribel. But in Spanish? The entire cast is ACTUALLY Colombian!

(Fun fact! When I was listening to the Spanish Dub of this song I thought it was Mexican Inspired because the choppy Lin Style changed slightly to mix with someone singing with this melodic type of intonation - sounds extremely like a Tatiana song. Her version of the “Won’t Say I’m In Love” sounds so similar to this song. If you still think not, “Gotita de Amor” has such big vibes with “Inspiración” (Aka WECID but Spanish), it’s actually funny.)

It sounds really fun. But it’s again, not something I find ground breaking, The song is finally one that doesn’t put too much emphasis on the choppy Lin style - but that’s probably because THEY HIRED AN ACTUAL COLOMBIAN VA.

That said, this could have been a great way to introduce some Colombian rock - given that they ARE using an electric guitar in the background and she’s supposed to be breaking the idea of the ‘perfect daughter’ - but sure, let’s go for the generic Disney Princess Rebel sound. Sure, whatever, who cares about any sort of cultural references at this point, anyways.

(Never mind that THE Shakira started out as a rock girlie and her original albums could have been a great fit for Isabela - like Donde Estas Corazón or Si Te Vas)

Okay enough, at this point you either got what I was saying, or are still pissed that I don’t like the music.

Either angry that I don’t give Stephanie the flowers she deserve, that I’m too harsh on Lin, or that I have a vendetta against PR.

I think she’s an amazing actress, I think she has a great voice. I love In the Heights, I had a Hamilton phase, and was super into 21 Jump Street until I realized it’s copaganda (we don’t have time to discuss you). And I don’t think there’s someone who appreciate having reggae songs being put in the club downtown more than me, because seriously WHITE PEOPLE NEED TO STOP PUTTING ABBA TO SIGNAL THAT THE PARTY IS ENDING.

Now. My problem isn’t that. It isn’t even the fact that people from the PR were put in charge of writing a Colombian story.

The music from Coco is Amazing. I have no idea how they managed it, but every single song sounds like one I grew up with. Ernesto’s Remember Me sounds like something my mom would listen to when we clean up a Saturday morning. Juanita sounds like something my grandpa would listen to when he’s drunk and thinking of my late grandma. Llorona sounds like the songs I used to dance to in Folklore Dancing classes when I was a kid.

And it was written by an Italian guy.

I’m not usually one to gatekeep who gets to make music. But I think the key difference here is:

The Italian guy knew he was intruding in a place he didn’t belong. This was not his music he had to replicate, and he had to put extra effort to make sure it sounded authentically Mexican and not Italian.

Lin did not have this approach. At least not when writing the songs. He tried to sample Colombian music, but did not put the effort into making sure his own bias of what music should sound like affect the music he’s writing.

Because Lin didn’t feel like he was intruding on a place! He felt like he was in his own environment, where he could play with the sounds and incorporate them into his own style.

But he wasn’t. He isn’t Colombian. He shouldn’t have felt this comfortable

And no one ever thought to tell him “this doesn’t sound authentic” bcs a) he’s Latino, therefore his music should be authentically Latino (even when, in his case, he’s not Colombian) b) he’s always been able to sell.

It’s a bit of a bummer. Because even after Encanto released, I saw everyone giving him flowers and loving it and streaming it - when all I could do was stare at it and feel like there was something wrong.

It sounded like Lin. It sounded like Disney. But it didn’t sound like Colombia.

It speaks a lot about an issue in Latinoamerican spaces in the USA and Canada that non-Latino people have been trying to talk about for ages, just to be ignored. That is: American-born “Latinos” are not really considered part of the Latino community in full. A lot of the values and perspectives that are considered by the LatAm community as integral to our culture, do not get transmitted to American-born Latinos. They’re raised with a hyper-individualistic mindset, assuming they can take from LatinoAmerican countries, when they have not lived the -frankly- harsh reality of everyday here. They don’t understand the culture, or the language, or day to day struggles - yet they feel entitled grab it and create aesthetics with no regards to the realities of people who have to live those experiences.

A great example is, Lupita in her recent “Emilia Perez” role. She did not care for the actual struggles of people living in Mexico. Even though she’s considered “Latina” by the USA, she’s not considered so in LatAm. Because she lived within the American privilege, she never bothered to understand the culture she is from, and is more than ready to throw away what she believed to be her “community” for a chance at the table.

And while Lin didn’t do something as egregious as to defend Jacques, he still sorta perpetuates this idea. That he’s entitled to take what he wants from LatAm countries because he is “Latino”. Even when he was raised in New York, and should be treating the cultures of other countries with respect and acknowledgement that they are not the same.

Something I need to kudos for is hiring Sebastian Yatra. His contribution to this movie is genuinely the highlight of the entirety of Disney in this decade. Two Orugitas and Dos Orugitas are songs that I think about constantly. He’s a very famous Colombia artist who created some of my favorite songs (Tacones Rojos, Ojos Marrones, Traicionera etc), so I was very happy to see him involved in this movie. In fact, I think it made wonders for his career. His success with Tacones Rojos undoubtedly made bigger with people knowing from this movie.

There’s also Colombia, Mi Encanto. I like that song. I think it’s great.

There was genuine effort put into this movie. And trying to trash it entirely because I think Lin did a terrible job in research, isn’t fair. There are good things about this movie, and musically I’ve heard worse. It’s not…shall I say unlistenable? I do listen to some of these songs. They’re interesting musical theater pieces. And, for all I hate his work on this movie, Lin does have power with the pen. He’s a genius of a lyricist.

But I felt the need to point out that, while Encanto does have good music, it’s surrounded by a very distinct type of internalized American imperialism that no one will care to ever address

#encanto #lin manuel miranda #loli speaks #mini essay

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