REGGAETON may be running out of \o7gasolina.\f7
Radio stations that flocked to the thumping Latino hip-hop style have seen their ratings slip in recent weeks. In at least three markets -- Las Vegas, Dallas and Miami -- stations that gambled on the music's growing popularity have since switched back to more traditional musical formats. And in perhaps the most worrisome sign yet, turnout was disappointing for a reggaeton concert last month at the Forum in Inglewood, headlined by Daddy Yankee, the genre's superstar, and rapper Snoop Dogg.
One year after the genre exploded onto the scene with Yankee's revved up hit "Gasolina," reggaeton is suffering from a lack of new artists and fresh material. The same handful of performers -- Yankee, Tego Calderon, Don Omar, Luny Tunes, Ivy Queen -- have dominated radio play lists, sales charts and concert lineups for more than a year, an eon in pop music terms.
"There's only the same five songs on the radio and the same five artists on all the compilations," says Boy Wonder, the New York-based producer of "Chosen Few," the hit 2004 reggaeton documentary. "People need to hear more new stuff."
Although most of the world didn't discover reggaeton (pronounced reggae-TONE) until last year, the brash and sexy genre dates almost two decades. Rooted in Panama and cultivated in Puerto Rico, the music mixes Latin hip-hop and salsa styles over an insistent, programmed rhythm based on the dembow beat of Jamaican dancehall.
During the last decade, the music survived as a mostly underground phenomenon with raw lyrics reflecting the rough-and-tumble reality of Puerto Rican barrios. The music broke big in 2005, with polished productions and a spruced-up image, to become the biggest Latin music sensation since Ricky Martin led the Latin crossover wave of 1999.
But reggaeton's sudden international success is also the source of its current troubles. The rap on reggaeton has always been that it's too repetitive. Without a deep catalog of hits to fall back on, new reggaeton radio stations found themselves stuck with a relatively small set of records to program. To critics and skeptical newcomers, it all started sounding like one long song being played 24/7.
"Radio launched these stations from nothing: Today you're playing cumbias, tomorrow it's reggaeton," said Gus Lopez, who heads the genre's leading label, Machete Music. "In order for them to go from 0 to 60 overnight, they ended up playing 'Gasolina' 80 or 90 times a week."
