I've been noticing Reggaeton with the modern Latin genre. I always thought Reggaeton originated with the Jamaicans, but it seems it's a central to South American music genre?
Excellent question, Silver.
I can't really claim to be an expert on the subject, but I believe reggaeton originated primarily in the barrios and dance clubs of Puerto Rico (and Panama?). I believe that's where most of the original reggaetoners hail from, including Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, Wisin & Yandel, Plan B, De La Ghetto, Tito El Bambino, Tego Calderon, Ivy Queen, Zion & Lennox, Jowell & Randy, Baby Rasta & Gringo, Alexis & Fido, etc...
The style has since spread to many other parts of Latin America though. So it is now essentially a "pan-American" phenomena. And there are popular reggaeton artists from other places as well, including Colombia (Maluma, J Balvin, Karol G, Kevin Roldan...), Cuba (Gente De Zona), Panama (Joey Montana), and the continental US (Pitbull, and to some extent Becky G).
I may have been mistaken about Nicky Jam being Colombian btw. I actually ran into him a couple years ago. And when I asked where he was from, he said "Colombia". I believe he was part of that whole scene in PR though, and may have been referring to where he lives now... Extremely nice guy btw.
The "dunk-kadunka" dembow riddim(s) in reggaeton originated in the dancehall music of Jamaica though. So although the styles of reggae and reggaeton differ, there are some close ties between the two. It is not unusual for reggaeton tracks to incorporate or overlay more
reggae-like riddims on top of the more reggaeton-ish dembow riddims, for example.
Wikipedia can elaborate more on the connections between the two...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggaeton
I use the term "dembow" as a general descriptor for other kinds of music with "dunk-kadunka" rhythms similar to reggaeton, btw. Especially if they do not already have another common name (like "kuduro" in Africa/Portugal, or "chalga" in Bulgaria, for example). Alot of "world music" falls into that general dembow category these days. And you can't really call all that stuff "reggaeton", because it's not the same as the style of music that originated in PR. Nor is it necessarily derived from it. Others will use the term "tropical" (which is a little vague imo), or sometimes "bhangra".
Edit: "Moombahton" has also become an increasingly common term for this style in alot of popular music. I have also seen the term "tresillo" used occasionally. The Dominican Republic also has a more up-tempo variant of the reggaeton style, called either "dembow Dominicano", or just plain "dembow". The most well-known artist in this style is El Alfa "El Jefe".
^Nice tune by Nacho & co.
