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Reggaeton

Well supported

The Spanish-language genre built on a dancehall foundation: its core drum loop descends from the rhythm of Shabba Ranks's "Dem Bow" (1990), carried through Panama and Puerto Rico into a global pop force by the 2000s. Its debt to Jamaican rhythm-makers is audible in every bar and has been publicly argued over for years.

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At a glance

Confidence
Well supported
Sources
genre histories; documented rhythm lineages.

Coverage areas

Genres, forms & lineages

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Connections

In stories

Story · Well supportedWho owns the riddim?

A rhythm built in a Kingston studio in 1989 travelled to Panama, through New York, into San Juan, and became the pulse of the biggest Spanish-language pop music on earth. A Los Angeles court is now preparing to put the question of who owns it to a jury.

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Compiled and researched by The Jamaica Music Atlas music desk. The sources that informed it are credited above.

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