Reggaetón Music Research Paper

Words: 556
Pages: 3

Reggaetón music is at type of Latin urban music that evolved from various musical genres with influences from many countries. However, Reggaetón music's origin is most closely associated with Puerto Rico where it first gained momentum and was commercially packaged. The Reggaetón music genre spread rapidly throughout the Latin American, North and South America in the 90s and has since gained worldwide popularity. Reggaetón is sweeping the Latin music world with its irrepressible blend of tropical Latin and reggae rhythms. Today many of the most popular reggaetón artists come from Puerto Rico, but you can't keep this music from sailing out to the rest of the world. The distinctive sound of today's reggaetón is a mix of Jamaican dancehall rhythms, derived from reggae, and Latin merengue, bomba, plena and sometimes salsa. Reggaetón music can be distinguished by its controversial Spanish lyrics, either rapped or sung, the heavily percussive beat is called "dembow", (which relies heavily on the snare drum and was first made popular by Shabba Ranks in 1991), is very easily recognized and comes from …show more content…
Reggae and Reggaetón are often confused, Reggae first developed in Jamaica and evolved by adding new sounds and rhythms. By 1985 Chico Man was performing Spanish Reggae in Panama, around the same time that Spanish rap appeared in Puerto Rico, performed by Vico C. A new Latin musical movement had started that would evolve and spread throughout North and South America. By the 1990s, in Puerto Rico Spanish and Jamaican Reggae as well as Spanish rap were all popular, laying the foundation for what would eventually evolve into Reggaetón music. As the mixture of hip hop, rap and reggae caught the imagination of urban youth in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Latin cultural centers in the