Reggaeton

Whether or not you understand a word of "Gasolina" or "Oye Mi Canto" means nothing. Both songs were understandable sun-scorched standards last summer, bumpin' from customized car stereos with the combustible reggae and rap spirit of reggaeton. There are entire radio stations devoted to the subgenre now, like New York City's La Calle, which maintains a party-on attitude whether songs are moody and menacing ("Suavecito Despacito," "Llego la Hora," "Me Arrepiento") or margarita-worthy ("Dile," Segun Tu," "Noche de Sexo").

Reggaeton is the kind of music that makes people want to drink copious amounts of alcohol, knock over chairs, and dance as if the floor is actually en fuego. Consequently, it's easy to miss the subtleties of its sound — icy, tiptoeing synth lines ("Pa' Que Retocen"); mariachi horn sections ("Quiero Mas"); cinematic strings ("Ay Amor"); the squeezebox effect of an accordion ("Como Yo Te Quiero"); and vocoders worthy of Daft Punk ("Dejala").

And now for an advanced course in the kind of quality reggaeton cuts that only crate-digging DJs know about. "Por Que Tu No Estas" sounds as if it were performed by the Phantom of the Cantina, "Ve Atrevida" revisits synth-pop via the 8-bit videogame era, "Here I Come" fuses a snake-charming flute with steel drums, and "Dem Bow" fires off laser effects like Stormtroopers from Star Wars.

It's getting hot in here, but please don't take off all your clothes. That'll get you arrested, as most state troopers won't accept a broken air conditioner as a reason to strip naked in the front seat. They will, however, have a hard time not nodding along to the neck-snapping beats and spicy Spanish vocals of our Reggaeton Essentials playlist. Featuring such subgenre stars as Daddy Yankee, Ivy Queen, and Noreaga (also known as N.O.R.E.), it barely stops to breathe as synthesizers pump a constant stream of steamy, bouncy effects into the atmosphere like a smoke machine shrouding a slew of basketballs that were just dropped from the sky.