Puerto Rico's Musical Traditions
🥁 Bomba
An Afro-Puerto Rican tradition built around the barrel drum, maracas and cuá (wooden sticks). Dancers improvise steps that challenge the drummer to keep pace — a real call-and-response between music and movement.
🎶 Plena
Known historically as the "sung newspaper," plena used call-and-response verses to spread local news through rural Puerto Rico. Played with hand drums, cuatro, accordion and brass, it nearly disappeared mid-century before a modern resurgence.
💃 Salsa
Popularized by Cuban and Puerto Rican musicians in 1960s New York, salsa developed a distinctly Puerto Rican sound shaped by jazz and big band influences, with sub-styles like the slower salsa romántica.
🔊 Reggaetón
Originated in Puerto Rico in the 1990s, fusing hip hop with Latin American and Caribbean rhythms. It's now one of the most streamed genres in the world — and it started in San Juan.
