Reggaeton is a form of urban music that became popular in Latin America in the 1990s, involving rapping, singing, and hip hop over drum machines and bass. While it developed from Jamaican reggae, influencing Spanish reggae in Panama from where it spread, it also evolved and gained prominence in Puerto Rico, leading to debate over its origins. The music gradually spread in Puerto Rico, while reggae recordings were first made in Panama in the late 1970s under Jamaican influence from canal construction, so its origins are considered to be in both Panama and Puerto Rico.