Dancehall

Dancehall is a style of Jamaican Music music that developed from Reggae in the late 1970s, when the music of the previous Roots Reggae era became more stripped down, with an increased emphasis on pure rhythm. From then on, both singers and deejays performed primarily over pre-recorded rhythms, with the same rhythms employed on numerous songs. The lyrics became generally more lightweight and more oriented towards local dancehall audiences, compared to the political and Rastafarian themes of roots reggae. Sexually explicit lyrics (known as "slackness") and violent themes became increasingly prominent during the shift away from reggae. During the early dancehall era, Deejays became more prominent than singers. An important shift happened in the mid-1980s, when producers like King Jammy started employing digital (electronic) rhythms, rather than the full bands of reggae. This sound is referred to as Digital Dancehall, while a more aggressive and musically less melodic style, which came to the fore in the early '90s, is called Ragga. Later dancehall became increasingly influenced by Hip Hop and Contemporary R&B, while itself making occasional crossovers to American and European music charts.