From Kingston Sound Systems to Reggaeton
How Kingston's studios and sound systems produced dub and dancehall, and how one dancehall riddim became the pulse of Puerto Rican reggaeton.
- 11968-1980 · Kingston, Jamaica
70s Dub Reggae
In 1970s Kingston, King Tubby, Lee Perry, and other engineers turned the mixing desk into an instrument, stripping songs back to drum and bass and rebuilding them with echo and reverb. That habit of remaking a record in the studio is where the remix begins.
Read the issue - 21979-1995 · Kingston, Jamaica
Jamaican Dancehall
From the late 1970s, Kingston's sound systems moved away from roots reggae toward dancehall, a rawer and more local music of deejays chanting over reused riddims. In 1985 Wayne Smith's 'Under Mi Sleng Teng', built on a Casio keyboard preset for King Jammy, made the riddims digital.
Read the issue (members) - 31985-2017 · Panama City, Panama & San Juan, Puerto Rico
Reggaeton
Steely & Clevie's 1989 'Fish Market' riddim, also known as the Pocoman Jam riddim, carried Shabba Ranks' 1990 hit 'Dem Bow'. Puerto Rican producers sampled a reworked version of it through the 1990s, and 'dembow' became the name for both the rhythm and the young genre that grew into reggaeton.
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