With only three months left in 2025, the themes of nostalgia and change on Benito Martínez Ocasio’s (Bad Bunny) sixth studio album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” (I Should Have Taken More Pictures) endure as powerful ideas in the music world. Released on Jan. 5 this year, one day prior to Three Kings Day, Bad Bunny honors the Puerto Rican holiday, comparable to Christmas in the U.S.
The album, complete with 17 tracks and a short film, distinguishes itself from his other works with the fusion of traditional sounds like pleña and salsa blended with modern-day Latin pop and reggaeton. In doing this, he connects the older generation of music with the new, strengthening the message of the album.
Monobloc chairs, an iconic symbol of Puerto Rico, are featured on the album cover, and they allude to the treasured memories spent in those plastic chairs with loved ones. Some interpret the meaning of the empty chairs to his message throughout this album that focuses around lost memories and culture. This visual depiction, alongside the title name itself, frames a nostalgic message that was heard and felt universally upon the record’s debut.
The penultimate track on the album, “DtMF,” has reached over a billion streams on Spotify. The track, which is an abbreviation for the album’s title, accomplishes Bad Bunny’s fundamental theme of the desire to go back in time. Bad Bunny reminisces about his time spent in San Juan and comes to the realization that he can no longer go back to the same place it used to be.
“DtMF” was featured in the short film where Bad Bunny illustrates the consequences gentrification has had on Puerto Rico with diverging cultural identities. In the film, an older man struggles to communicate in the new dialect to buy a pastrami sandwich with “queso de Papa” unfamiliar to what once was a local baker’s shop. This moment portrays the changing landscape of Puerto Rico through a simple sandwich, but it represents the changing cultural symbol of home.
Another track, “TURiSTA,” is framed as heartbreak over an old love, and it serves as a metaphor for tourism. Lyrics “Y no te tocaboba a ti curala’, viniste a pasarla bien,” translated to “it wasn’t your place to heal them, you came to have a good time,” describe tourists that visit without caring about the place or people. Following a similar message, “BAILE INoLVIDABLE” features core sounds from salsa and instruments from students of La Escuela Libre de Musica in Puerto Rico. Bad Bunny evokes nostalgia through sound and imagery deliberately to honor his culture as well as to call attention to the not-so beautiful aspects of life on the island.
Despite his refusal to tour in the United States, praise for this album has seeped itself into the classrooms of Emory and Yale University with its strong political and social messages. The two universities have created courses focused on Bad Bunny and his impact on Puerto Rico’s economic and employment trends over the years. After performing 30 shows in Puerto Rico, he has generated a $200 million boost for the economy with the heightened tourism to the island. The courses will analyze how his musical artistry has transcended from the medium of music to a capitalizing movement.
“DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” serves as a sentimental guide for him, but it also teaches others how to navigate through nostalgia. It is one thing to sit and reminisce, but even he concludes that this will not change anything. Confronting regret and nostalgia is a universal feeling that Bad Bunny encapsulates through the record, and its reach has been felt around the globe. A viral TikTok trend emerged using the “DtMF” chorus that translates to “I should have taken more photos while I had you.” In this, users often shared fond photos of loved ones and places with this chorus in the background. All this to say, people in and beyond the Latin community connected with his message that calls them to savor the present and remember their roots. This album digests the bittersweet feeling of nostalgia, yet it also prompts action seen through his impact on Puerto Rico and the globe. So, with only a few months left to embrace in 2025, “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” reminds us to take more photos of our loved ones and to look back often on past ones.