Barrio fino
Daddy Yankee · 2004
Barrio fino is reggaeton’s first major export strategy — rhythm-locked, studio-sourced, and genre-flexible where it counts.
The Caribbean
Islands that exported more music per head than anywhere on earth.
- 4
- in music
- 10:56
- average
- 44 min
- in total
- 28
- across the network
All briefs
Calypso
Harry Belafonte · 1956
Calypso is Harry Belafonte's third studio album, released in 1956 on RCA Victor. It features vocal performances backed by guitarists Millard J. Thomas and Frantz Casseus, Tony Scott and His Orchestra, and The Norman Luboff Choir on select tracks. It includes 'Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)', sung from the perspective of banana dock workers awaiting daylight, alongside 'Star-O' as a lyrical variant reprise, and 'Jamaica Farewell', a mento folk song published here for the first time. Production involved multiple producers, a conductor, a chorus leader, and contributors to visual and textual elements of the release.
Natty Dread
Bob Marley & The Wailers · 1974
Natty Dread is Bob Marley & The Wailers' seventh album, released in October 1974. It is their first without Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, and their first with the I-Threes. All songs were written by Marley. Jean Roussel arranged 'No Woman No Cry', 'Natty Dread', and 'Lively Up Yourself'. Personnel included Aston and Carlton Barrett, Al Anderson, Bernard 'Touter' Harvey, Lee Jaffe, and the I-Threes. Engineers were Sylvan Morris and Phil Ault; Sid Bucknor mixed it; Chris Blackwell and The Wailers produced it. The original demo of 'Lively Up Yourself' was recorded in 1973. The original version of 'No Woman, No Cry' was in gospel style, featuring Peter Tosh and unknown female backing vocals, cut for Island in 1973. The album contains 'No Woman, No Cry', 'Lively Up Yourself', and the politically charged 'Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)'.
Exodus
Bob Marley & The Wailers · 1977
Exodus is a reggae album recorded in London in early 1977 by Bob Marley & The Wailers, following their relocation after an assassination attempt in Kingston. Its production is laid-back, featuring pulsating bass beats, piano, trumpet and guitar. It departs from cryptic storytelling in favour of clear themes: religious politics in the first half, making love and keeping faith in the second. Musically, it fuses blues, soul and British rock beneath a reggae façade — sounding unlike contemporaneous Jamaican reggae. The title and title track respond to Michael Manley’s campaign slogan ‘We Know Where We’re Going’.