What is Reggaeton? Reggaeton Explained in 2 Minutes (Music Theory)

Originated in Puerto Rico during the '90s, Reggaeton fuses different styles of music (reggae rhythms, hip-hop and Latin music) It has now expanded far beyond its places of origin to become a global genre that regularly tops the charts all over the world But how does it work? The "hearbeat" of this genre is the clave (="key pattern") Here you can hear the "son clave" the most common clave pattern in Cuban music) composed of two rhythmically opposed cells Now let's keep only the first rhythmic cell This rhythmic pattern (the first three strokes of the son clave pattern) is called "tresillo" Tresillo is the most fundamental rhythmic cell in Latin American music Let's replace the clave with a snare sound…

…and add a kick drum in 4/4 time There we are! We got the basic rhythmic block of the Reggaeton: the "dembow" You will hear it in every Reggaeton song…! Now let's complete the beat after the…..break Let's add a melodic hook Like this! the Reggaeton influence can be heard in all kind of songs! No Reggaeton song would be complete without rap lyrics Finally we need some Spanish lyrics to … sing! Played worldwide Reggaeton has been increasing its popularity…..until….."Despacito" became the most viewed YouTUbe video of all time Now do you feel like dancing? :).

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