There’s a stretch of road in the mountains of Puerto Rico’s lush green Cayey region where whole spit-roast pork sizzles over open coals and salsa beats fill the air.
Locals call it the “Pork Highway” due to the number of restaurants and food trucks that line the road selling crispy lechón. But it’s famed for more than just its food.
It’s late afternoon when I arrive and the coarse rhythm of a güiro, the island’s favoured scrape percussion instrument, carries from the restaurants as families dance between bites. I’m learning quickly that music in Puerto Rico isn’t just a backdrop, it’s the heartbeat of daily life.
Across the island, I find that music can take you from the mural-lined corners of Santurce, San Juan’s art district, where bomba rhythms echo into the night, to the plazas of Ponce, where couples sway to plena under the stars.
Here’s how to experience the island’s soundscape like a local – whether it’s your first time, or you’re coming back to reconnect.
In partnership with Discover Puerto Rico.
For Cultural Storytellers: Bomba and Plena in Ponce
In Ponce, Puerto Rico’s southern cultural capital, music is rooted deep in its history. This is the birthplace of plena – nicknamed el periódico cantado, or “the sung newspaper.” Emerging from the working-class neighbourhood of San Antón, plena gave voice to everything from political unrest to local gossip, using handheld panderetas (tambourines), güiros and cuatro strings to narrate the people’s stories.
Flavors of San Juan Tours
Today, the Festival de Bomba y Plena, a 10-day celebration in Ponce, brings that tradition to life. Dancers in white lace skirts stomp barefoot to the call of barriles (barrel drums), inviting the crowd to clap, chant and move. The festival also hosts drum-making workshops, poetry readings and heritage tours through the neighbourhoods where these traditions were born.
Ponce also has deep ties to salsa, both musically and culturally. The genre blends Afro-Caribbean rhythms with jazz and evolved partly in New York’s Puerto Rican communities, but its real roots lie in cities like Ponce. Here is also the birthplace of Héctor Lavoe, one of salsa’s most iconic singers, who rose to fame in 1970s New York with the Fania All-Stars. His music helped shape salsa’s golden era and connected Puerto Rico’s musical traditions with the wider Latin American diaspora. Today, salsa remains central to community events, radio stations and nightlife in the city.
For Night Owls and City Wanderers: Reggaetón and Jazz in Santurce
Santurce is San Juan’s free-spirited and creative heart, with some of the best places on the island to experience live music. A recent influx of new restaurants, shops, galleries, museums have now made it as much of a draw during the day, but it’s in the evening when it really comes alive.
Santurce, Puerto Rico
Heading down its streets after dusk, you’ll hear those familiar reggaetón beats coming from all corners. On weekend nights, the streets seem to vibrate with perreo – reggaetón’s signature bounce. Step into La Respuesta, a venue-slash-cultural hub where a night could feature anything from Puerto Rican rapper, Bad Bunny, to a tribute act, a drag show pulsing with dembow and trap, to rising stars debuting tracks destined for global playlist.
By day, the neighbourhood shifts into a slower groove. Stroll along Loíza Street, where record stores, vintage boutiques and murals of icons like Lavoe and Tego Calderón draw you in. At Café Comunión, boleros blend with lo-fi salsa as baristas spin vinyl and pour cortaditos with equal care. For something more formal, the Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center stages everything from ballet to jazz quartets (often laced with a Caribbean twist).
For Heritage Seekers and Healing Explorers: Women of the Drum
Once dominated by men, bomba is being reclaimed and redefined by women like Sheila Osorio, who runs workshops on dance and percussion in the coastal town of Loíza at cultural centre Taller Nzambi. She adds to stars like Ivy Queen (aka “the Queen of Reggaetón”) and rapper Young Miko as well as rising Latin pop star Lalah, whose viral TikToks (like “Aquí Vamo”) fight female sexualisation.
These women aren’t just preserving heritage, they’re evolving it into something new, diverging from the traditional dialogue between dancer and drummer to weave in spirituality, unconventional instruments and theatrical performance.
Even the fashion world has taken notice, with Osorio’s choreography appearing in Vogue Latinx and on stages alongside contemporary Afro-Caribbean artists. Whether in a classroom or centre stage, these women are restoring Puerto Rico’s musical roots while at the same time pushing it forward to embrace the future.
For Pop Fans and Global Listeners: Bad Bunny’s Island Anthem
From this July through to September, Puerto Rico will host its first-ever concert residency, with 30 shows by its most famous son, Bad Bunny. Held at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in the capital San Juan, the tour is called No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí (“I Don’t Want to Leave Here”) – and is a love letter to the island.
The streets of San Juan feature in Bad Bunny’s lyrics
His newest album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, is a mosaic of all the music he loves and grew up with. It intertwines traditional jíbaro guitars with house beats. On some songs bomba meets trap, on others, reggaetón is reframed through a folkloric lens. His residency will open with local-only performances before welcoming the international crowd, something that feels like a powerful tribute to the community that raised him. It is responding in kind, with vinyl pop-ups, curated café playlists and guided walking tours through San Juan neighbourhoods that feature in his lyrics.
For Everyone: A Living, Breathing Soundscape
Music in Puerto Rico is immersed in its history and sense of place, but equally it doesn’t sit behind museum glass. It is woven into the fabric of everyday culture, to be heard in every plaza, every song drifting down from balconies, pouring out from every backyard lechón cookout.
Whether you’re dancing bomba barefoot in Ponce, sipping piña coladas to live plena in a beach bar, or losing yourself in a stadium crowd as Bad Bunny thanks his island with a final bow of the night, Puerto Rico plays its heart loud and invites you to join the rhythm.
Lead image: the Festival de Bomba y Plena, a 10-day celebration in Ponce. All image credits: Discover Puerto Rico
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