The world dances to Jamaica: exchange, extraction, and credit

Walshy Fire (Leighton Walsh), a Jamaican-American selector, member of the electronic trio Major Lazer, and co-producer of Koffee's breakout single 'Toast' (2018). A connector between dancehall sound-system practice and global pop production.

LargeUp, a digital magazine covering Caribbean music, fashion, food and culture since the early 2010s, and a frequently cited English-language source on dancehall's global spread, its dances and its aesthetics.

The mid-2010s wave in which dancehall rhythms, cadences and slang surfaced across global pop hits - among them Rihanna's 'Work' (2016), Drake's 'One Dance' and 'Controlla' (2016), Justin Bieber's 'Sorry' (2015) and Major Lazer's singles - bringing the sound to mass audiences while raising questions of credit and labelling.

The lineage connecting Jamaican dancehall to reggaeton and contemporary Latin pop, from the 'Dem Bow' riddim's descent into the reggaeton dembow to present-day chart music. A strand of the broader argument over where credit for these rhythms belongs.

Cycle where Jamaican music travels overseas, overseas scenes reinterpret it, and artists/selectors return to Jamaica for dubplates, dances and renewed legitimacy.

The spread of Jamaican Patois into global pop performance, as non-Jamaican artists adopt Patois phrasing in crossover hits. Discussed both as a vector for the language's global reach and as a contested 'costume' when detached from cultural grounding.

Thomas Wesley Pentz, known as Diplo, an American producer and founder of Major Lazer whose work drew heavily on dancehall; a central figure in discussions of how the genre crossed into global pop and how its Jamaican sources are credited.

A framework, after Paul Gilroy's 'Black Atlantic', for reading the circulation of rhythm, language and performance among Jamaican reggae and dancehall, hip-hop, Afrobeats, soca and Latin genres as reciprocal diaspora exchange. Invoked in debates over influence, credit and ownership.

A two-way fusion of Jamaican dancehall with West African pop (notably Nigerian and Ghanaian Afrobeats), audible in collaborations linking Jamaican and African artists across the 2010s and 2020s. Emblematic of a Black Atlantic exchange rather than one-directional influence.

An electronic music project founded in 2008, at various times featuring Diplo, Walshy Fire, Jillionaire and Ape Drums, whose dancehall-derived singles ('Lean On', 'Light It Up', 'Run Up') carried the sound to mass audiences. A frequent reference point in debates over global pop's use of dancehall.

The social-media dance-challenge format - short, replicable routines set to a track - that has become a major engine of dancehall virality and export, from the #BananaChallenge onward. A modern extension of the dance-and-song feedback loop, raising questions of credit for originating dancers.