Reggaetons unrealized dream

“Is the reggaeton boom burning out?

Reggaeton, the sexy and inescapable Latin hip-hop style that many said would transform Latin music, has hit a plateau. The question is whether its the leveling off before it falls off the music map, or a necessary breather before it vaults to new heights.

In 2005, Daddy Yankees Gasolina was burning up the airwaves, normally cautious radio stations were falling over themselves to play reggaeton, record labels were leaping to sign every act who could sling the right Puerto Rican slang and the booty-shaking genre seemed poised for domination. Or at least thats what the artists, producers and DJs of a style that had labored for years in an underground Puerto Rican scene proclaimed. And many sales-starved music executives and ratings-hungry radio programmers were only too happy to agree.”

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