Inside the Core - Bad Bunny
Monday, March 31, 2025
Professor Stephen G. Adubato
Inside the Core, we are happy to host a presentation on "Bad Bunny, Celebrity Culture and the Cracking of the Religious vs. Secular Paradigm" by Stephen G. Adubato, adjunct professor in the University Core and editorial fellow at Compact Magazine. This wonderfully interesting topic links many areas of interest – religious faith and secularism (and how they intersect), faith and music, culture and music and, overall, celebrity culture and its impact.
Why Bad Bunny? Professor Adubato explains:
Bad Bunny
Though Bad Bunny never explicitly delineates the central beliefs of his so-called “Nueva Religion,” his music and public persona are spiritual signposts in themselves, guiding his fans and spectators through our “disenchanted” postmodern age. Though many write off postmodern thought as being determinedly “secular,” the musical oeuvre of Benito Ocasio Martinez testifies to the fact things may not be so black and white. His knack for playful performativity, generating sensational public spectacles and taking the cult of celebrity to new heights, sheds light on how postmodern culture can become a space for highlighting the tension between the sacred and profane.
Professor Adubato will be presenting these themes which are covered in the chapter he contributed to in The Bad Bunny Enigma: Culture, Resistance, and Uncertainty, published recently by Rowman and Littlefield.
Adubato has also published two articles on Bad Bunny:
If you are a fan of Bad Bunny or someone who has never heard of him but is intrigued by this topic, either way, please join us. As many Seton Hall people know, the Core lost our wonderful Maribel Landrau this past Thursday, and with all her many interests, from systematic theology to teaching Core classes, she also was a huge fan of Bad Bunny. She will be smiling down on this event. Please join us, in-person in the Core Center (Mooney 339) or on Teams on April 1 at 2 p.m. for this event.
Categories: Arts and Culture
