This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Ivy Queen, known as the queen of reggaeton, will perform at the E Center on Friday.
As a junior high student in the Salt Lake Valley, Guillermo Sacriste mixed dance songs on tapes to sell them to friends.
It was 1996. He had just been introduced to reggaeton - a form of urban music mixing reggae and hip-hop in Spanish - and he was addicted. Since then, he's dreamed of becoming a top executive at a record company.
"I loved the music, but I didn't see anything I could do with it here," said Sacriste, also known as Will Sounds. "I just wanted to make reggaeton big in Utah."
So as a University of Utah student in late 2004, he started La Bulla, a music company aimed at pushing reggaeton in the Beehive state, from compiling CDs with tracks by various artists to producing a radio show.
Sacriste is responsible for this week's appearance of Ivy Queen, known as the queen of reggaeton, at the E Center. It is the first time she has performed in Utah.
Ivy Queen, a 36-year-old Puerto Rico native, started singing urban music in the early 1990s and is one of few female reggaeton artists. Her first solo album was "En Mi Imperio" (In My Empire, 1997).
"She's the one who's been consistently the most popular," said Raquel Rivera, a researcher at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in New York.
In recent years, Ivy Queen has traded her baggy jeans for tight, tiny dresses, Rivera said. Still, she is known for lyrics about women's empowerment in a male-dominated genre.
"She's known for being assertive and strong but also vulnerable," Rivera said.
Reggaeton, while not a mainstream music genre in Utah, has been around since 1980. There is controversy over where it originated, but many people believe it began in Panama with a mix of Jamaican reggae and hip-hop and was later influenced by Puerto Rican musicians, Rivera said.
Reggaeton critics have often complained about lyrics filled with sex, drugs, sexism and poverty, said Rivera, who's compiling a book of reggaeton articles due out in 2009. The music was mostly popular among teens and twenÂtyÂsomeÂthings throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.
"It was really, really raw and raunchy," she said of the music's beginnings.
In 2004, urban artist Daddy Yankee released the Spanish song "Gasolina," making reggaeton a familiar sound on English-language mainstream pop radio stations across the United States.
"At that point, [reggaeton] became a global phenomenon," Rivera said. "It exploded."
At the 2008 Billboard Latin Music Awards in April, Daddy Yankee's "El Cartel: The Big Boss" won Latin album of the year, besting several other Latin genres.
The Salt Lake Valley has no reggaeton radio station, but fans can hear popular reggaeton songs on a handful of FM radio stations.
Sacriste, 25, produced the area's only local reggaeton radio show, La Bulla (meaning noise of the crowd), each Tuesday night on KRCL 90.9 FM. But the show was canceled after two years on the air in a format shake-up.
Sacriste, the show's DJ, said he worked hard to make La Bulla professional, interviewing reggaeton artists and taking requests. But he said the station didn't share his vision for the show.
"If it's not going to be respected, then why keep it going?" he said.
KRCL program director Ryan Tronier said the program and DJ changes are aimed at increasing the number of listeners and donors. Sacriste's show was not canceled because the station didn't value Latin music, he said, although both Latin music shows have been scrapped and there are no plans to replace them.
Still, Sacriste said he's not giving up on La Bulla. "The show's not dead, it's just taking a break." He said he is working on several projects, including bringing other concerts, from urban to rock artists, to Utah.
"Now, it's more about the music industry, it's not about the genre," he said. "If we focused on reggaeton, we would go out of business."
If you go
Reggaeton star Ivy Queen performs for the first time in Utah on Friday at 8 p.m. at the E Center, 3200 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City. Tickets are $40 to $70 at the venue box office or SmithsTix. Crooked Stilo and Down A.K.A. Kilo are also on the bill.
Want to dance reggaeton?
Check out Latin-music nights in Salt Lake City:
* Thursday: Sky Bar in the Red Lion Hotel, 161 W. 600 South.
* Friday: Bliss Nightlife, 404 S. West Temple; Club Karamba, 1051 E. 2100 South.
* Saturday: Bliss Nightlife, Club Karamba, and Studio 600, 26 E. 600 South.