What is Dancehall?

Dancehall emerged in late 1970s Kingston, Jamaica, named for the dance halls where sound systems played the latest records.^[1] It started as a sparser, more stripped down cousin of the roots reggae that had dominated the previous decade.^[2] Once digital instrumentation took over in the 1980s, the style commonly called ragga pushed the rhythms faster still.^[3]

On Videojam, Dancehall carries 61 public videos, the largest of the five Reggae & Caribbean family genres in the catalog. Artists most represented are Malie Donn and Prince Swanny, with Major Lazer Official among the most represented channels. Dancehall is a child genre of Reggae & Caribbean in the genre config.