![]() ![]() Now, reggaeton is a multibillion-dollar industry: Bad Bunny, currently the genre’s biggest star (who has also branched off into other styles), has been the most streamed artist globally on Spotify for three years running. When reggaeton was first developing, it had little economic value, and few of its progenitors had any idea that it would one day become one of global pop’s most significant forces. “The underground scene in San Juan that gave rise to reggaeton was inspired by Jamaica’s sound system tradition of using popular instrumentals to propel new, live, local performances,” says Wayne Marshall, an ethnomusicologist specialising in social dance music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. In Jamaica and Latin America, reuse and sampling of instrumental tracks without fear of being taken to court is common practice. Thousands of other songs that use a dembow rhythm could be considered in breach of copyright, and this action could also set a precedent for future copyright claims based on foundational pop rhythms. (Representatives for Bieber and Stefflon Don declined to comment the Guardian has contacted representatives for Alejandro.)Ī win for Steely & Clevie could have massive implications not just for reggaeton, but for pop music in general, which has increasingly looked to Latin American music for inspiration over the past decade. A swathe of featured artists and co-writers are also named as defendants in the lawsuit, including Bieber, Stefflon Don and rising Puerto Rican singer Rauw Alejandro, as well as publishing companies and record labels. Steely & Clevie Productions’ lawsuit cites 56 songs, including some of reggaeton’s biggest hits, such as Fonsi and Yankee’s Justin Bieber collaboration Despacito and Yankee’s Gasolina, many of which have amassed hundreds of millions, or even billions, of streams. The label on the 7” single of Fish Market by Steely & Clevie
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