Reggaeton (or Regueton) is a music genre that bloomed in Panama and Puerto Rico in the 1990's.Although it's one of the most popular and heard genres at the moment, it wasn't always accepted.Reggaeton started off as young people from the middle class in South-America gathering in groups and rapping along to reggae rhythms.People looked down on the genre as the lyrics were mostly profane and/or about poverty,sexuality,and real-life problems. According to Rapeton and Wikipedia The word "reggaeton" "was first used in 1994, when Daddy Yankee and DJ Playero used the name on the album Playero 36 to describe the new underground genre". Ramon Luis Ayala Rodriguez aka Daddy Yankee, is very often called a pioneer of Reggaeton.Although he was not the originator, hes one of the few people who fought for the genre and continued even if people looked down on him.When Daddy Yankee was being recognized, he paved the road for others in the scene.Reggaeton was at a peak of popularity in the 2000's thanks to artists like Daddy Yankee, Ivy Queen, Nicky Jam, Wisin Y Yandel and Tito El Bambino. The main reasons for this were that politicians would use the music to promote their campaigns to young people, young audiences and people of the middle class could relate to the artists and the lyrics and because it was so controversial.The 2000's being A peak of the genres popularity, did not stop it from rising to the top again. In 2017, the song Despacito by Luis Fonsi came out, and it was blowing up FAST. As of February 19,2022 it has over 7.7 Billion views on Youtube and more than 2.2 billion streams on spotify. OneUp Blog states "It was the first song to top the Billboard 100 in Spanish in 20 years."It features Daddy Yankee and it's no doubt that that is the reason it rose to fame QUICKLY. Later that year, on December 1,2017 Te Bote- the remix was released. It has 2.3 Billion views on Youtube. Artists featured on this version of the song like Bad Bunny and Ozuna were on their road to fame and its said that these artists were greatly inspired by Daddy Yankee and that's the reason the genre has been brought back up. Today Reggaeton is one of the most heard genres in the world.
If being a man in the reggaeton scene wasnt easy, it was even less so being a woman.Imagine being a Latina woman in the 1990's or 2000's, trying to sing in a genre "dominated" by men. The mysoginy existed in almost every music genre but being a woman and singing about sexuality,money problems and other things that weren't easy love, was looked down on HARSHLY. If you ask around about who was the first female to break through in reggaeton, you'll most likely hear the name Ivy Queen a LOT! But although according to Work And Money, she is the richest female reggaeton artist in the world, she is not the first.HipLATINA states that "there’s a Latina reggaeton artist who was dropping bars before" Ivy Queen. It was Lisa M. Lisa M dropped her first album "La Trampa", in 1988, when she was just 14 years old.Now THATS got to take some courage. Female, 14 years old, in reggaeton? Kudos to her! Lisa M paved the way for Ivy Queen, and Ivy Queen did the same for many generations of reggaeton women but today, in 2022 is where we see the biggest explosion for them. Artists like Karol G, Becky G, Natti Nattasha and so on, are BOOMING in the industry.