Reggaeton is a Spanish-language urban genre built on the dembow rhythm, a syncopated “boom-ch-boom-chick” drum loop. It started in Panama in the late 1980s as Spanish-language reggae, took its shape and its name in Puerto Rico in the 1990s, and went global in 2004. It sits under the wider rap subgenres family because the early Puerto Rican scene rapped and toasted over those beats, but its engine is rhythm, not the boom-bap or trap drums.
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The dembow: the rhythm that runs it
The beat comes from Jamaica. Per Berklee, the duo Steely & Clevie first used the riddim on Gregory Peck’s “Poco Man Jam” in 1989, released on the B-side as “Fish Market.” Around 1990, Shabba Ranks voiced “Dem Bow” over it on the album Just Reality. Bobby Digital produced that record, with Steely & Clevie credited as writers. The song’s name became the rhythm’s name.
Dennis the Menace reworked the same riddim as “Pounder (Dub Mix II).” Wikipedia’s Dem Bow entry says elements of these two versions appear in over 80 percent of reggaeton productions.
The pattern itself is simple. A kick drum lands on all four beats of a 4/4 bar. Over it, the accents fall in a 3+3+2 grouping, a tresillo, which is where the lopsided “boom-ch-boom-chick” feel comes from. Producers loop it, add bass and a synth hook, and the dance follows from there. The Dominican style also called dembow is a faster, harder cousin that grew from the Puerto Rican sound.
Where reggaeton came from: Panama, then Puerto Rico
Ivy Queen put the argument plainly on her podcast Loud, in a segment carried by NPR affiliate LAist: “to tell the story right, we have to start in Panama.” The people who built the Panama Canal included Jamaican and other English-speaking Caribbean workers, and their descendants kept the music. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Panamanian artists such as El General, Nando Boom and Renato began chatting in Spanish over Jamaican riddims. Renato’s “El D.E.N.I.” addressed the discrimination Black, English-speaking Panamanians faced.
El General is the pivot. He spent time in Brooklyn, where Panamanian and Jamaican immigrants shared neighborhoods and played dancehall in both languages in basements and auto shops. His “Tu Pum Pum,” a Spanish take on a 1990 dancehall song, found airplay in the US.
Puerto Rico took the sound from there. By the mid-’90s the dembow loop dominated the island’s underground, spread on cassette mixtapes by DJ Playero and DJ Negro. Playero’s 37 introduced Daddy Yankee. A San Juan club, The Noise, gave the scene a room. In February 1995, a government campaign raided six San Juan record stores and seized hundreds of cassettes under obscenity laws, and schools banned the music. The tapes got more popular, not less.
The name itself is disputed. One account has Daddy Yankee saying “reggaetón” while freestyling on Playero 34 in 1994. Another points to DJ Erick’s Reggaetón Live Vol. 1 in 1995, a blend of “reggae” and “maratón.” Grammy.com credits the producer Michael Ellis.
I think the Panama-versus-Puerto-Rico argument has a boring resolution: both are true. The sound is Panamanian Spanish-language reggae. The genre, as a name and an industry, is Puerto Rican.
The 2004 crossover
Daddy Yankee’s Barrio Fino and its lead single “Gasolina” came out in 2004 and moved the sound from the island to the world. Luny Tunes (Francisco Saldaña and Víctor Cabrera) produced “Gasolina.” Per Berklee, it has since been sampled 15 times. Grammy.com calls it the first reggaeton song nominated for Latin Grammy Record of the Year. The producers’ stamp mattered here: Luny Tunes also co-produced about half of Don Omar’s The Last Don, home of “Dile” (2003).
Tego Calderón’s El Abayarde gave the scene its other pole. His “Pa’ Que Retozen” (2003) set bachata-style guitar under his rapping and was one of the first reggaeton hits in the US. Ivy Queen, the genre’s “Queen,” was already there with En Mi Imperio (1997), writing from a woman’s perspective in a room run by men. Wisin & Yandel followed: their Los Extraterrestres debuted at No. 14 on the Billboard 200 in 2007, and Daddy Yankee’s El Cartel: The Big Boss (2007) set a first-week sales record for a reggaeton album.
That is why 2004 is the inflection point. Before it, reggaeton was a regional underground. After it, it was a format with stars, producers and a US radio slot.
2017 to now: the second wave
The second wave was streaming. “Despacito,” with Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, hit one billion YouTube views in 97 days. Daddy Yankee became the first Latin artist to top Spotify’s global chart, on July 9, 2017. The Justin Bieber remix spent 16 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100.
Then Bad Bunny widened the lane. His label, Rimas Entertainment, released his debut. X 100pre arrived in December 2018, and “Mia,” with Drake, peaked at No. 5 on the Hot 100 that year. Un Verano Sin Ti debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in May 2022 and spent 13 non-consecutive weeks there. In July 2023, Spotify confirmed it as the platform’s most-streamed album ever. It was also the first Spanish-language album nominated for Album of the Year.
Karol G, Rauw Alejandro and others filled out the pop end. Karol G’s “Provenza” (April 2022) mixes reggaeton with afrobeats and Latin pop. Rauw Alejandro’s “Todo de Ti” (May 2021) peaked at No. 2 on Spotify’s global chart.
On February 1, 2026, Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos won Album of the Year at the Grammys, the first entirely Spanish-language album to do so, according to Guinness World Records and Wikipedia’s account of the ceremony. A week later he headlined the Super Bowl LX halftime show, performed mostly in Spanish. The album is mostly reggaeton, but it folds in bomba, plena and salsa, and some tracks deal with Puerto Rico’s status as a US territory.
Reggaeton, Latin trap and Latin pop
The three overlap constantly, and artists move between them inside one album. The split is in the drums.
Reggaeton runs on dembow. Latin trap swaps it for the 808-driven sound of US trap, with Spanish lyrics. Latin pop is a broader label for pop songs that borrow reggaeton’s sound but may not use the dembow loop as the driver. A song that sounds like all three, as a lot of Bad Bunny does, is not a mistake. It is the current norm.
The dance
The dance is perreo, also called sandungueo. It emerged in Puerto Rico in the early 1990s as a grinding partner dance, usually with the man behind the woman, and spread through Black urban clubs in that decade. Perreo is physical, close and unapologetic, and it is the part of reggaeton that does not translate into a stream count.
10 songs that show the range
- El General, “Tu Pum Pum” (around 1990). Panama, Spanish-language reggae, a US airplay hit.
- Don Omar, “Dile” (2003). Luny Tunes production, built on a sample of Joe Arroyo’s “La Noche” (1988).
- Daddy Yankee, “Gasolina” (2004). The global breakout.
- Wisin & Yandel, “Rakata” (2005). The dembow at full club volume.
- J Balvin, “6 AM” (2013). Feat. Farruko, from La Familia.
- Bad Bunny, “Mia” (2018). With Drake, a Hot 100 top five.
- Rauw Alejandro, “Todo de Ti” (2021). Reggaeton rebuilt as sleek pop.
- Karol G, “Provenza” (2022). Reggaeton smoothed with afrobeats.
- Bad Bunny, “Titi Me Preguntó” (2022). From Un Verano Sin Ti, which blends dembow, bachata and electro-cumbia.
- Bad Bunny, “Baile Inolvidable” (2025). A six-minute track with a live salsa orchestra from San Juan’s Escuela Libre de Música.
FAQ
Is Bad Bunny reggaeton?
Mostly, yes, but not only. Wikipedia describes him as primarily a Latin trap and reggaeton artist, and Debí Tirar Más Fotos is mainly reggaeton with traditional Puerto Rican styles folded in.
Is reggaeton Puerto Rican or Panamanian?
Both. The Spanish-language reggae sound began in Panama; the genre was consolidated, named and popularized in Puerto Rico.
What’s the difference between reggae and reggaeton?
Reggae and dancehall are Jamaican, mostly sung in English or patois. Reggaeton is Spanish-language and built on one specific loop that came out of dancehall: the dembow riddim.
Why is reggaeton so popular globally?
It is built for dancing, which needs no translation. And its stars arrived in the streaming era, when “Despacito” and Un Verano Sin Ti showed a Spanish-language record can top English-language charts.
For a next listen, start with “Gasolina” and then “Baile Inolvidable.” Twenty-one years separate them, and the loop under both is the same one from Jamaica in 1989. More on where the genre sits among its relatives is on the rap subgenres page.
— Davood Tavakoli, Cyphlore