{
  "slug": "dancehall",
  "name": "Dancehall",
  "aliases": [
    "ragga",
    "raggamuffin",
    "bashment",
    "riddim"
  ],
  "description": "Reggae with the band replaced by a riddim and the singer replaced by a deejay. From 1979 the rhythm track became a shared public asset that dozens of records were built on, which is a distribution model as much as a sound.",
  "origin": {
    "place": "Kingston, Jamaica",
    "year": 1979
  },
  "lineage": [
    {
      "genre": "reggae",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/reggae/",
      "inherited": "The rhythms themselves, often literally: dancehall's first decade is largely built on rocksteady and roots riddims recut faster, with the deejay doing the work the vocal group used to do."
    },
    {
      "genre": "dub",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/dub/",
      "inherited": "The idea that the instrumental is the real product. Once a version could carry a record on its own, a riddim could be sold to twenty artists in a season, and the whole economy of the music followed from that."
    }
  ],
  "bpm": {
    "min": 90,
    "max": 110
  },
  "updated": "2026-08-29",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/dancehall/",
  "trackCount": 9,
  "curatedBy": [],
  "playlists": {},
  "tracks": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "trackKey": "sister-nancy--bam-bam",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/sister-nancy--bam-bam/",
      "title": "Bam Bam",
      "artist": "Sister Nancy",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/sister-nancy/",
      "year": 1982,
      "label": "Techniques",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The most sampled record in this list by an enormous margin, and its author was paid nothing for decades. Effortless, funny, endlessly quotable, and it never once raises its voice.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Sister%20Nancy%20Bam%20Bam",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=a9OopCd1gpE",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 2,
      "trackKey": "yellowman--zungguzungguguzungguzeng",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/yellowman--zungguzungguguzungguzeng/",
      "title": "Zungguzungguguzungguzeng",
      "artist": "Yellowman",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/yellowman/",
      "year": 1983,
      "label": "Greensleeves",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A melody so contagious that Biggie, Nas and half of hip-hop borrowed it without discussion. Yellowman turned an unpronounceable title into the genre's most recognisable hook.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Yellowman%20Zungguzungguguzungguzeng",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=X-tfYbRK2OA",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 3,
      "trackKey": "tenor-saw--ring-the-alarm",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/tenor-saw--ring-the-alarm/",
      "title": "Ring the Alarm",
      "artist": "Tenor Saw",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/tenor-saw/",
      "year": 1985,
      "label": "Techniques",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The Stalag riddim's definitive vocal, cut by a nineteen-year-old who was dead within three years. Urgency is easy to fake and impossible to manufacture, and this is the real thing.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-eighties",
          "name": "The Eighties",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/the-eighties/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Tenor%20Saw%20Ring%20the%20Alarm",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=UpjLLw-cVzU",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 4,
      "trackKey": "shabba-ranks--dem-bow",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/shabba-ranks--dem-bow/",
      "title": "Dem Bow",
      "artist": "Shabba Ranks",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/shabba-ranks/",
      "year": 1990,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Included for what happened next: the Bobby Digital rhythm underneath it was recut in Panama and Puerto Rico until it became the default pulse of reggaeton. One riddim, one hemisphere.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Shabba%20Ranks%20Dem%20Bow",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=HkzEZ_pFORs",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 5,
      "trackKey": "chaka-demus-and-pliers--murder-she-wrote",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/chaka-demus-and-pliers--murder-she-wrote/",
      "title": "Murder She Wrote",
      "artist": "Chaka Demus & Pliers",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/chaka-demus-and-pliers/",
      "year": 1992,
      "label": "Mango",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The Bam Bam riddim again, twenty years on, and the record that made dancehall a fixture of British radio. Singer and deejay trading lines is the form's most durable arrangement.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Chaka%20Demus%20%26%20Pliers%20Murder%20She%20Wrote",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=xwamqXYQh-0",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 6,
      "trackKey": "shaggy--boombastic",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/shaggy--boombastic/",
      "title": "Boombastic",
      "artist": "Shaggy",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/shaggy/",
      "year": 1995,
      "label": "Virgin",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Enormously silly and technically immaculate. Shaggy's timing is the reason this works where a hundred imitations did not, and it sold dancehall to people who owned no other dancehall records.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Shaggy%20Boombastic",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=6W5pq4bIzIw",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 7,
      "trackKey": "beenie-man--who-am-i",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/beenie-man--who-am-i/",
      "title": "Who Am I",
      "artist": "Beenie Man",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/beenie-man/",
      "year": 1997,
      "label": "Greensleeves",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The Playground riddim, and a deejay operating at the absolute peak of his powers. Beenie phrases behind the beat with the confidence of someone who knows the rhythm will wait.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Beenie%20Man%20Who%20Am%20I",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=WI-xQ7IksUc",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 8,
      "trackKey": "sean-paul--get-busy",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/sean-paul--get-busy/",
      "title": "Get Busy",
      "artist": "Sean Paul",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/sean-paul/",
      "year": 2002,
      "label": "VP",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The Diwali riddim went to number one in America and took the genre's handclap pattern into pop for a decade. A riddim, not a song, is what actually crossed over.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Sean%20Paul%20Get%20Busy",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=oPQ3o14ksaM",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 9,
      "trackKey": "vybz-kartel--clarks",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/vybz-kartel--clarks/",
      "title": "Clarks",
      "artist": "Vybz Kartel",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/vybz-kartel/",
      "year": 2010,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Three minutes about shoes that reportedly emptied Jamaica's supply of them. Kartel's ear for the specific detail is what separates dancehall writing at its best from a list of boasts.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Vybz%20Kartel%20Clarks",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=aFCTTcLq9H0",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}