
Reggaeton's Underdog Story' Told Through Daddy Yankee's Docuseries Wayne Marshall discusses the importance of Reggaeton: The Sound that Conquered the World.
By
Tara Bellucci
October 30, 2024
Courtesy of Peacock
There's no shortage of great music documentaries out there, but here's another to add to your queue. Produced by Daddy Yankee, Reggaeton: The Sound that Conquered the World debuted on Peacock on October 3 and is a must-watch for anyone who loves the genre or wants to know more about its global rise.
The four-part series covers the roots of reggaeton in Puerto Rico and its worldwide takeover in the late 2010s. Faculty member Wayne Marshall, coeditor of Reggaeton, has already shown clips from the series in his class.
Because the class is about DJ cultures and American social dance, the scenes I screened in class were the ones that discussed the importance of DIY house parties in marquesinas as a common coming-of-age experience as well as how DJ Negros the Noise nightclub became a crucible for local vocalists vying for audience approval.
The first episode explains the roots of reggaeton going back to the 1970s. I appreciate that they situate reggaetons emergence in local Puerto Rican history, pointing to Afro-Puerto Rican traditions such as bomba and then to the cultural resonance of salsa in the '70s, hip-hop and house in the '80s, and finally reggae in the early '90s-all of which came to PR via NYC, says Marshall. While reggaetons story is complicated and often contested, the series is careful to give attention to the genres different contexts over the years, from Puerto Rico to New York to Panama to Jamaica and, more recently, Colombia.
Dembow Explained (+19 Songs Featuring the Iconic Rhythm)
How the dembow beat-found in reggaeton, hip-hop, pop, and far beyond-became a global phenomenon.
Read more.
Reggaeton also covers the genre's meteoric rise and the eventual backlash to its success.
Of course, reggaeton is not the first genre to be treated this way-perennial debates in rock and rap come to mind-and the series is interested in presenting reggaetons history as an underdog story, which it is, says Marshall. But I think reggaetons first major commercial breakthrough, back in the days of Gasolina' and Oye Mi Canto, was so remarkable and unprecedented-and industry investment was so heavy, and some might say oversaturated-that people began watching very closely.
When the crossover hits appeared to dry up a few years later, I remember a lot of stories asking whether the genre had run out of gasolina, he adds.
Spoiler alert: that wasn't the end of reggaeton-far from it. Since the record-breaking chart-run of Despacito' in 2017 and then the rise of Bad Bunny as the most-streamed artist in the world, this second wave of reggaeton popularity seems to have confirmed that the genre has lots of life left in it.
Related Categories
News
Most Popular
Jim Lucchese
Image by Kelly Davidson
Jim Lucchese Named Berklee's Fifth President A 20-year music industry veteran and a committed artist advocate with deep Berklee roots, Lucchese sets the tone for a new era at the institution.
Latest
Image courtesy of HBO
What If the Game of Thrones Theme Was Surf Rock? This TikToker Has the Answer Guitarist and TikTok user Cloudchord puts his spin on the epic theme music, originally composed by Ramin Djawadi 98.
Berklee's Signature Series Presents Singers Showcase: One Sweet Day-The Music of Mariah Carey The two-night extravaganza will showcase the craft and artistry of a global cast of more than 80 Berklee students honoring one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
Image by Brittany Benson Lee
Latoya Lee Brings Industry Expertise and Connections to Berklee Career Center Berklee's new director of industry relations has worked on platinum-selling and Grammy-winning projects and will help students build industry-ready skills.
Read All
Subscribe The latest sounds, stories, and ideas, sent to your inbox weekly.
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
22/11/2025
CARSON, Calif. IDX has introduced the IDX CUE-J Series battery/charger kits, including the CUE-J98, CUE-J150 and CUE-J198....
22/11/2025
The NBA has released encouraging viewing and social media data that the beginnings of its $76 billion deal with NBC/Peacock, Prime Video and ESPN are paying off...
22/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has set deadlines for comments on its newest proposals for NextGen TV, aka ATSC 3.0, with comments due on Jan. ...
22/11/2025
Seeking Advice for a New Opera, Laura Kaminsky Consulted the Experts: Her Studen...
21/11/2025
Platinum White Paper: Appear Shares Why Media Exchange Is the Missing Link in So...
21/11/2025
NWSL Championship 2025: CBS Sports To Deploy Two-Point FlyCam for Match Coverage...
21/11/2025
NWSL Caps 2025 Season With Awards Show, Skills Challenge ProductionsA team of 70 is on the ground in California to produce both eventsBy Mark J Burns, SVG Contr...
21/11/2025
USL and NEP Ready for Largest USL Championship Final Production EverThe broadcast from Tulsa, OK, will air CBS and TUDN on Saturday at 12 p.m. ETBy Jason Dachma...
21/11/2025
With Two New Teams, PWHL Boosts Production Workforce and Central Review for Seas...
21/11/2025
Jared Lank and his mother in the '90s...
21/11/2025
Fans have been counting down the days until the final theatrical chapter of Wicked is revealed. To celebrate the highly anticipated release of Wicked: For Good ...
21/11/2025
Last week, Spotify turned up the volume in Seoul with the return of Spotify Hous...
21/11/2025
Wiesbaden, November 21, 2025. The SGL Carbon site in Meitingen has reason to celebrate as one of its trainees received a special award. Elias Stemmer was honore...
21/11/2025
MELBOURNE, Fla., Nov. 21, 2025 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) has announced this year's LHX Excellence Awards, the company's most prestigious recog...
21/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission by a 3-0 vote opened a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to advance Congress's mandate to clear a minimu...
21/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission by a 3-0 vote adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to advance Congress's mandate to clear a minim...
21/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. Charter's Spectrum has expanded the devices that can offer 4K content on the Spectrum TV app to compatible Apple TV 4K and Roku devices....
21/11/2025
NAPERVILLE, Ill. Media industry employers are continuing their multiyear trend of increasing salaries for all worker segments but lag general industry raises, s...
21/11/2025
WASHINGTON The National Association of Broadcasters said it is accepting nominations for the 2026 NAB Technology Awards, honors that recognize excellence in bro...
21/11/2025
American Amplifier Technologies has released a vector network analysis module....
21/11/2025
The Best Movie Musicals on Every Streaming Platform From Wicked to The Sound of Music, heres where to stream all the classic movie musicals and recent hits on...
21/11/2025
The agreement creates a platform for joint collaboration, technology integration...
21/11/2025
Sky Media's £2m award-winning sustainability initiative crowns its first charity as this year's standout changemakerFriday 21 November 2025
GoodGym nam...
21/11/2025
As COP30 draws to a close, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), ...
20/11/2025
MLB Media-Rights Shakeup: NBC's New Three-Year Deal Covers Sunday Night Bas...
20/11/2025
MLB Media-Rights Shakeup: New Deal Will Bring 30 National Games to ESPN's Li...
20/11/2025
MLB Media-Rights Shakeup: Netflix Lands Opening Night, Home Run Derby, Field of ...
20/11/2025
MLB Media-Rights Shakeup Overview: ESPN, NBCU, Netflix Ink Three-Year DealsESPN gets new 30-game package, MLB.TV; NBC extends Sunday nights; Netflix adds tentpo...
20/11/2025
SVG Students To Watch: Henry Thuss, Indiana UniversityThe Southern California product has his goals set on the front benchBy Brandon Costa, Director of Digital ...
20/11/2025
Done+Dusted's Guy Carrington on Creating the Spectacular League of Legends W...
20/11/2025
FIA Extreme H World Cup Host Broadcaster Aurora Goes Inside the Production of th...
20/11/2025
Platinum White Paper: Amagi Utilizes Cloud Production for Sports Events - Multi-...
20/11/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Marc Herklotz, Steady Hand Behind the Sce...
20/11/2025
NFL Deep Dive: How 32 Cameras at Each Stadium Drive Virtual Measurement, Boundar...
20/11/2025
Charlie Shackleton attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Zodiac K...
20/11/2025
Your playlists are personal. They're the soundtracks to your road trips, your quiet mornings, and your biggest celebrations; collections of memories and dis...
20/11/2025
Spotify, uzun s redir zerine al t T rk m zik k lt r n n ikon haline gelmi ...
20/11/2025
For the first time, Spotify has teamed up with The Hollywood Reporter to cohost ...
20/11/2025
This year's ARIA Awards marked a turning point for Australian music, and Spotify was right at the heart of it. For the first time in the awards' nearly ...
20/11/2025
L3Harris has achieved NSA Cybersecurity Directorate certification for its KSV-650 space hub end cryptographic unit, ensuring secure, adaptable communications fo...
20/11/2025
Left to Right: David Taubman, Regional Managing Director, Central and Eastern Europe; Arek Szalpuk, Poland Sr. Account Manager; Mr. Marcin Wi niewski, President...
20/11/2025
15 March 2012
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Cinegy and Vericom are pleased to announce the recent deployment of Cinegy Archive for production and as...
20/11/2025
6 September 2012
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
FIC Turkey supplies media content to Pay TV under Fox TV Channel brands in Turkey.
At the start of s...
20/11/2025
25 June 2014
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Last month VIVA finalized its Cinegy installation in order to produce and broadcast the World Cup Brazil ...
20/11/2025
1 October 2014
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
With 5 locations spread out around Baden-W rttemberg, Schw bisch Media required a scalable end to end s...
20/11/2025
27 April 2015
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Cinegy, which develops and produces media asset management products that are used in flagship production...
20/11/2025
12 August 2015
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 26 October 2015 - Cinegy, which develops and produces software technology for digital ...
20/11/2025
5 November 2015
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany 3 November 2015 - Cinegy, which develops and produces software technology for digital ...
20/11/2025
12 February 2016
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany 9 February 2016 - Cinegy, which develops and produces software technology for digital...