Reggaeton

Reggaeton is a form of dance music with beginnings in Panama, and developed further in Puerto Rico, which has become popular with Latin American youth during the late 1990s and has spread to North American and European audiences during the first few years of the 21st century http://www.askmen.com/toys/special_feature_100/102b_special_feature.html http://www.theworld.org/globalhits/2005/08/25.shtml http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=1326 http://www.iowastatedaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/10/20/4175d284c96d4 http://www.salsaspot.com/index.php?menu=633& http://www.manhunt.com/news/stories/1097853127.html http://www.musicofpuertorico.com/cgi-bin/cutecast/cutecast.pl?session=SVXNZBRTKRLn5ria5D9ZTSUfw7&forum=2&thread=16 . Reggaeton - also spelled Reggaet?n and hispanicised as Reguet?n - blends Jamaican music influences of reggae and dancehall with those of Latin America, such as bomba and plena, as well as that of hip hop. The music is combined with rapping (generally) in Spanish. Reggaeton has allowed the Spanish Caribbean youth, specifically those of Puerto Rico, as well as the Latin American and United States Latino communities, to have a musical genre as a voice. More recently it has become an international movement with the help of many from New York's Latino and Black Hip Hop community.

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While it takes influences from hip hop and dancehall, it would be wrong to define reggaeton as the 'Spanish'- or 'Latino'- version of either of these genres; reggaeton has its own specific beat and rhythm, whereas Latino hip hop is simply hip hop sung by artists of Latino descent. Reggaeton's distinguishing feature is the Dem Bow beat (alternately spelled Dembow), which originated in a song by Shabba Ranks in the mid-1990s.

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Reggaeton lyrics tend to be more derived from hip-hop than dancehall. Like hip hop, reggaeton has caused controversy due to its often explicit lyrics and alleged exploitation of women http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4304185.stm. Further controvery surrounds perreo, a dance with explicit sexual overtones which typically accompanies reggaeton music.

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Dance music: Dance music is music composed, played, or both, specifically to accompany social dancing. It can be either the whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement....

Panama: Panama (Spanish: Panam?) is the southernmost country of Central America. It constitutes the last part of a natural land bridge between the North American and South American continents. It borders Costa Rica to the west and Colombia to the east....

Puerto Rico: The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Spanish: Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico) is a self-governing unincorporated organized territory of the United States located east of the Dominican Republic in the northeastern Caribbean. Puerto Rico, the smallest of the Greater Antilles, includes the main isla...