Reggaetón
Authors: Rivera-Rideau Petra R. 
Published: July 2017

Reggaetón (also spelled reggaeton, reguetón, and regeton) is a popular music characterized by rapid vocals and a steady “dembow” beat. While early reggaetón was often described exclusively as a rap-dancehall hybrid, more contemporary versions of reggaetón incorporate elements from other genres of music such as R&B, vallenato, bachata, merengue, pop, and electronic dance music, among others. Scholars and fans alike debate reggaetón’s origins. Some argue that reggaetón began as reggae en español (also called plena) in Panama. Others claim that the genre developed first as underground on the island of Puerto Rico. While these debates may never be resolved, what is certain is that reggaetón is indebted to multiple streams of migration, including (but not limited to) West Indians to Panama, Dominicans to Puerto Rico, and West Indians, Dominicans, and Puerto Ricans to the United States. These transnational movements not only exposed people to different musical genres, but also offered possibilities for cultural exchange that impacted local ideas about race, diaspora, and nation. For example, several scholars write about representations of race, particularly blackness, in reggaetón. Many of the musical genres that influenced reggaetón, such as hip-hop or dancehall, come from predominantly black communities in the Americas. These genres influenced not only reggaetón’s sound, but also the fashion, style, vocabulary, and aesthetics associated with it that spoke to the experiences of mostly poor, urban, and non-white youth. A second major theme in scholarship about reggaetón is gender and sexuality. Critics have admonished reggaetón for its misogynistic representations of women in lyrics and music videos. Some articles also address how reggaetón reinforces or challenges certain notions of black and Latino masculinity. Related to broader issues of gender, scholars have explored race and gender in reggaetón across different communities and various time periods from the 1980s to the present. Most reggaetón scholarship focuses on Puerto Rico, home to many of the most popular artists and producers. Panama has also received some attention from scholars given the crucial role reggae en español played in reggaetón’s development. Another place that has been the focus of reggaetón scholarship is Cuba given the island’s unique music scene and, especially, the tensions between reggaetón’s unabashed consumerism and the ideals of the Cuban Revolution. While reggaetón circulated in Puerto Rico and elsewhere beginning in the 1980s, in 2004 the genre broke into the mainstream Latin music industry with Daddy Yankee’s hit, “Gasolina,” from his album Barrio Fino. Several scholars thus explore the representations of Latinidad in reggaetón, particularly in the United States, as well as the music’s crossover into Latin pop markets. Despite its international popularity, reggaetón has received relatively little attention from scholars, and many aspects of the music are ripe for research. However, generally, reggaetón scholarship emphasizes themes such as race, gender, nation, diaspora, and the politics of representation that speak to larger debates in ethnic studies, women’s and gender studies, and cultural studies, among others.