Reggaeton Music in Panama?


Reggaeton Music in Panama?

(20 votes)

Written by Administrator

Wednesday, September 27 2006

For those of you who don't already know, Reaggaeton is now a serious, established musical form that contains drum-machine beats derived from Jamaican dancehall rhythms, as well as some techno and house beats. While five years ago hardly anybody outside the Latino community heard about Reggaeton, now, it's hitting the mainstream in U.S. cities such as Chicago, New York, and Miami.

I believe it was Daddy Yankee's hit ‘Gasolina' in 2005, that made people take notice. Reggaeton can be traced back to Panama where it originally started back in the 1970's when it was called Spanish Reggae or Reggae en Espanol. Reggae from Jamaica arrived here in the 60's, but way before that, a musical exchange began when tens of thousands of Jamaican laborers migrated to Panama to build the infamous Panama Canal. These immigrants brought their music and culture to Panama. It was only a matter of time until people started to record songs in Spanish over Reggae beats.

Artists like El General, Nada Boom, Renato and Black Apache started to record Spanish lyrics over the same Jamaican produced ‘riddims' back in the ‘80s. Towards the middle of the decade, Puerto Ricans were producing their own "riddims" with clear influences from hip hop and other styles. These are considered the first proper reggaeton tracks, initially called "under", a short form of "Underground".

In Panama, Reggae production took off seriously in the early nineties, about the same time Jamaican ragga imports were becoming popular in Puerto Rico. It was common practice to translate an original Jamaican reggae song (the same melody and rhythm, but with translated lyrics). To this day Puerto Ricans and Panamanians continually argue about who started Reggaeton.

I haven't been able to figure this out for sure, but it seems like in Panama, Reggaeton is called Reggae where as in Puerto Rico it is just called Reggaeton. I know this much, Reggaeton gets people real worked up at the clubs and bars here in Panama. It is with out a doubt the most popular music in Panama for the under 30 age bracket.

Comments (3)

anayansi: La invasion a panama

Panama was the first country who found the music of the reggae because panama has people from jamaica and haiti which means that there are children born here in panama from parents from jamaica and haiti and they are panamanian and they heard the music from their parents and mixed it with the panamanian instrument, voice and sounds and made it sound so exclusively real reggae so panama is the country who found the reggae music the one call dancehall. We can say names like nando boom, renato, chicho man, el general and others that made our music to grow but thanks not to the panama invasion our music colapse and couldn't become popular so other country took advantage of it and that country was Puerto Rico yeah, people asi es puerto rico se apodero de nuestro ritmo y que mas nos quedo que dajarlo ir porque nuestro pueblo estaba en un momento de mucha tristeza y soziego que no podiamos creer que esas cosas pudieran estar pasando en nuestro pais asi que puerto rico tomo lugar y se apodero de nuestra musica pero bueno que mas se puede decir solo nos queda a los panamenos en seguir adelante que algun dia esto se revelara y saldra alguien de verdad que demusetre que panama fue primero que ellos. No tengo mas que decir que saludos a todos y Dios me los bendiga a todos.

June 07, 2007

wendy diaz: mensaje

October 27, 2007

ava leigh: free music

Hey guys did you know that the currently hottest reggae singer Ava leigh who’s worked with the famous sly n Robbie ,Nick Mannesah ,and future cut has free music
You can download from her website which is avaleigh.co.uk come on and check it out.

November 21, 2007

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