Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is famous for an unbroken line of influential music: the Afro-Boricua roots traditions of bomba and plena, the salsa explosion of the 1960s and 70s, and the birth of reggaetón in 1990s San Juan. Today the island leads global urbano and Latin trap through stars like Bad Bunny. Few places of its size have shaped popular music worldwide as profoundly.

Yes. Reggaetón took shape in the underground clubs and housing projects of San Juan in the 1990s, fusing Panamanian reggae en español and Jamaican dancehall with hip-hop over the dembow rhythm. Pioneers like Vico C, DJ Playero, and later Daddy Yankee and Ivy Queen built it into a genre, and Puerto Rico is universally recognized as its birthplace.

Bomba and plena are Puerto Rico's core folk traditions. Bomba is the island's oldest music, an Afro-Boricua drum-and-dance form built on a dialogue between dancer and drummer, rooted in towns like Loíza and Ponce. Plena, which emerged in early-twentieth-century Ponce, is a narrative song form nicknamed the sung newspaper for chronicling everyday life, driven by handheld pandero drums.

Across eras the giants include salsa legends Héctor Lavoe, Ismael Rivera, Cheo Feliciano, Willie Colón, and El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico; reggaetón pioneers Vico C, Ivy Queen, Daddy Yankee, Tego Calderón, and Don Omar; and today's global stars Bad Bunny and Rauw Alejandro. The roots bandleader Rafael Cortijo is considered the blueprint for the whole tradition.

Puerto Rican music is overwhelmingly sung in Spanish, from salsa and plena to reggaetón and Latin trap. Some contemporary urbano artists mix in English for crossover tracks, but stars like Bad Bunny have famously reached the top of the global charts recording almost entirely in Spanish.