Dancehall music

Dancehall
Stylistic origins	Reggae R&B ska rocksteady dub toasting
Cultural origins	Late 1970s Jamaica, especially Kingston
Typical instruments	Early dancehall: Drums Bass guitar Guitar Organ Modern dancehall: Drum machine Sampler Synthesizer Organ
Derivative forms	grime reggaeton
Subgenres
Ragga Reggae en Español (complete list)
Fusion genres
Reggae fusion Bhangragga Oldschool jungle Tropical house

Music of Jamaica
General topics
Related articles
Genres
Dancehall Dub Dub poetry Kumina Lovers rock Mento Niyabinghi Raggamuffin Reggae Reggae fusion Rocksteady Roots reggae Ska Ska jazz Ska punk Sound systems Toasting
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem	Jamaica, Land We Love
Regional music
Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Aruba and the Dutch Antilles Bahamas Barbados Belize Bermuda Bonaire Cayman Islands Cuba Curaçao Dominica Dominican Republic Grenada Guadeloupe Guyana Haiti Mauritius Martinique Montserrat Panama Puerto Rico St Kitts and Nevis St Lucia St Vincent and Grenadines Suriname Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Virgin Islands

Dancehall (also known as "Bashment") is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably, with digital dancehall (or "ragga") becoming increasingly characterized by faster rhythms. Key elements of dancehall music include its extensive use of Jamaican Patois rather than Jamaican standard English and a focus on the track instrumentals (or "riddims").

Dancehall music saw mainstream success in Jamaica throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. By the 2010s, dancehall began to heavily influence the work of established Western artists producers which has helped to further bring the genre into the Western music mainstream.

Dancehall is named after Jamaican dance halls in which popular Jamaican recordings were played by local sound systems. They began in the late 1940s among people from the inner city of Kingston, who were not able to participate in dances uptown. Social and political changes in late-1970s Jamaica, including the change from the socialist government of Michael Manley (People's National Party) to Edward Seaga (Jamaica Labour Party), were reflected in the shift away from the more internationally oriented roots reggae towards a style geared more towards local consumption and in tune with the music that Jamaicans had experienced when sound systems performed live. Themes of social injustice, repatriation and the Rastafari movement were overtaken by lyrics about dancing, violence and sexuality.

...
Wikipedia