![]() Before there was reggaeton, there was reggae en Espanól - a wave of Panamanian records that, as the name implies, mainly translated Jamaican boom tunes directly into Spanish to create local hits. What sort of side effects the shot will have remain to be seen but, if nothing else, let’s take the ubiquity of “Despacito” as a good excuse for a brief history lesson of the sound and its essential tunes, not to mention the different dance cultures that have fed it, from Panama to Jamaica to, um, Bollywood. Mostly centered in Puerto Rico (and New York) the reggaeton sound has, for the most part, been bubbling along off the radar of pop culture since the last time Daddy Yankee cracked the charts circa 2005. ![]() Leaving aside the profound question of whether this pop-chart diversity could somehow be a counterweight to an emboldened nativist movement afoot in the streets, it has definitely been a shot in the arm for reggaeton, the Latin Caribbean’s particular take on dancehall reggae. By late July, it was the most streamed song of all time. In May of this year Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” became the first Spanish-language hit to crack the No. ![]() ![]() ![]() Photo-Illustration: Maya Robinson/Vulture and Photos by Getty Images ![]()
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