What is dancehall music?

Dancehall music is a genre of urban folk music which came out of Jamaica in the mid to late 1970s and is generally considered to be the direct predecessor of rap. Dancehall music is, in its most basic form, a deejay toasting (or rapping) over a riddim. read more

Dancehall music, also called ragga or dub, style of Jamaican popular music that had its genesis in the political turbulence of the late 1970s and became Jamaica’s dominant music in the 1980s and ’90s. read more

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 saw initial mainstream success in Jamaica in the 1980s, and by the 1990s, it became increasingly popular in Jamaican diaspora communities. read more