Dancehall pop
By the 2010s dancehall pop became a popular genre used by multiple western music artists and producers, with numerous chart topping songs affirming its mass-audience success.
Dancehall and soca songs such as Kevin Lyttle's "Turn Me On" and Rupee's "Tempted to Touch", both released in 2002 and 2003 respectively, are examples of the early combinations of the digital pop style and Caribbean rhythms into the western music scene.
[11] Sean Paul's collaboration on the album with at-the-time rising pop star Beyoncé, titled "Baby Boy", reached number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
[16][17][18] Drake's dancehall pop and rap inspired track "One Dance" became a best-selling and chart-topping single, giving credit to the genre within the mainstream music scene.
[19] Named as the "song of the summer",[19] the song which features Nigerian afrobeats artist Wizkid and British singer Kyla received 757 million streams on music-streaming service Spotify[20] and spent over two months as number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100,[16] largely contributing to the mass-audience recognition of dancehall pop.
[11] The song received high acclaim and mainstream success, selling over 2 million copies in the United States,[23] and went on to win Best Reggae Album at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards in 2003.
Dancehall pop gained more mainstream attention throughout the 2010s, with a larger number of western artists releasing and featuring on songs influenced by the genre.
[10] Jamaican dancehall and reggae artist Kranium entered the US music charts with his single "Nobody Has to Know" (2013), which featured American singer Ty Dolla $ign, reaching a peak position of #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
[31][32] In 2016, Canadian rapper Drake released his fourth studio album Views, with dancehall pop inspired tracks "One Dance", "Controlla", and "Too Good" which featured Rihanna.
Drake has also stated his musical aspirations of adopting the Jamaican dancehall trend of reworking riddims into the R&B and hip-hop genre, where numerous artists may record their own lyrics over the same beat.
[45] The fusion of electronic dance music and dancehall pop arose in the 2010s under the name "tropical house", a term coined by Australian DJ Thomas Jack in 2014.
[46] Tropical house is characterised by its steady 120 beats per minute, using slower rhythms from the dancehall, reggae, and soca genres to create a "melo island vibe".
[46][10] Pop hit "Sorry" (2016) by Canadian singer Justin Bieber was listed as a "tropical house" dance track by US magazine Rolling Stone because of its "tonal similarities" to some Caribbean music.
[51] The boom in digital production technology is one of the factors which led to the dancehall fusion with pop, in which multiple producers can remix, recreate, and access various types of sounds.
Canadian rapper Drake has been criticised numerous times for his casual use of patois slang in his daily life and song lyrics.
[59] The criticism Rihanna received when her single "Work" (2016) released shared similar sentiments, where numerous magazine tabloids and social media platforms negatively critiqued her use of Barbadian patois.
[10] FUSE author Bianca Gracie claims that this genre title of "tropical house" suggests the rhythms and musical style originated in Europe, and disconnects the cultural connection to Jamaica.
[64] Bianca Garcie also stated that the critiques of Rihanna's Bajan lyrics to "Work" (2016) were wrongly turned into online memes.
