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previa

Previa

Argentina · 2010s
DancingHappyIntenseSentimentalEpic

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Description

Previa is a contemporary Argentine pre‑party DJ style built around high‑energy edits, bootlegs, and mashups designed to kick off the night. The name comes from the colloquial “la previa,” the pregame gathering before going out, and the music’s job is to turn familiar Latin pop, reggaeton, and regional hits into floor‑ready, faster, harder versions.

Sonically, previa lives between tech‑house tempo and reggaeton sensibilities: hooks are sped up, drops hit with big sidechained bass, and builds are short and dramatic. DJs chop sing‑along choruses, stack hypechants and FX, and slam dembow or four‑on‑the‑floor kick patterns under recognizable vocals. The vibe is extroverted, party‑starting, and unapologetically functional—made for mass sing‑backs and immediate dancing.


Sources: Spotify, Wikipedia, Discogs, Rate Your Music, MusicBrainz, and other online sources

History

Origins and context (early–mid 2010s)

“Previa” crystallized within Argentina’s pre‑party culture, where friends meet to drink and warm up before clubs. Local DJs began speeding up and re‑arranging the biggest Latin pop and reggaeton hooks, aligning them to club‑friendly grids around 124–132 BPM. The approach drew on existing bootleg/mashup culture and moombahton/tech‑house tools, but the mission was strictly pragmatic: take songs everyone knows and make them slam early in the night.

Platform era and codification (late 2010s)

As YouTube, SoundCloud, and later short‑form video exploded in Argentina and neighboring countries, a distinct sound coalesced: quick intros, chopped vocal teasers, tight builds, then impact drops with chunky kicks and sidechained bass. The edits traveled virally via DJ sets, party videos, and shareable “previa” playlists, helping standardize arrangement tropes (hook‑first intros, call‑and‑response one‑shots, FX swells).

2020s: From niche to default pre‑party fuel

During the 2020s, previa became a near‑default soundtrack for Argentine “la previa,” feeding club peak hours with sped‑up sing‑alongs. It runs parallel to (and often overlaps with) RKT/turreo and Latin tech, but keeps a broader pop remit: anything with a big chorus can be re‑framed for the pregame. The scene remains DJ‑led and edit‑driven, with constant refresh cycles following new chart hits.

A functional micro‑ecosystem

Previa’s ecosystem is built on rapid turnover, recognizable hooks, and crowd utility. It’s less a catalogue of canonized original tracks and more a shared language of edits that travel between parties, channels, and cities—where popularity is measured by instant sing‑backs and how quickly a room moves from chatter to dancing.

How to make a track in this genre

Tempo, groove, and structure
•   Target 124–132 BPM. Many edits sit around 126–130 to bridge pop/reggaeton with tech‑house energy. •   Use either a tight four‑on‑the‑floor kick or a dembow‑leaning reggaeton groove. Keep low‑end punchy, sidechained to the kick. •   Structure for utility: 8–16 bar DJ‑friendly intros, a quick teaser of the hook, a short build (snare rolls, noise risers), then a hard drop. Aim 2–3 minutes per edit so it’s easy to mix and keep the room hot.
Harmony, melody, and vocals
•   Start from a well‑known hook (Latin pop, reggaeton, cumbia, or regional viral songs). Time‑stretch/pitch to key and tempo. Minor pitch‑ups (+1 to +3 semitones) often increase excitement. •   Keep harmony simple—loop a I–V–vi–IV or similar pop progression with stabs or plucks so the vocal remains the focus. •   Chops and call‑and‑response: isolate the catchiest words/syllables and stutter or echo them right before drops.
Sound design and drops
•   Bass: sub‑to‑mid “donk” or rounded house bass with strong sidechain. Layer with a transient‑rich kick. •   FX: white‑noise sweeps, impacts, tape stops, quick snare builds. Use short reverses to spotlight vocal inlets. •   Drops often switch rhythm from straight 4/4 to reggaeton (or vice versa) between first and second drops to keep interest.
DJ utility and finishing
•   Leave 8–16 bars of clean drums for intro/outro. Print cue‑point‑friendly markers (pre‑hook, drop, post‑drop). •   Loud, clean masters (but avoid harshness on sped‑up vocals). Prioritize translation on small party speakers. •   Crowd cues: one‑shots (“¡Ehh!”, “¡Wuh!”), filtered fake‑outs, and micro‑breaks that prompt sing‑backs.
What to remix
•   Anything with a massive chorus that locals know: Latin pop anthems, reggaeton hits, regional classics. The more familiar the hook, the better the previa impact.

Best playlists

The Sound of Previa
The Sound of Previa
Every Noise at Once
Previa
Previa
Chosic
Best of Previa
Best of Previa
volt.fm
Best user-generated playlists
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Influenced by
Moombahton
Moombahton is a dance music genre that fuses the high-energy, synth-driven sound design and build‑drop structures of Dutch/electro house with the slower, syncopated dembow rhythm of reggaeton and dancehall. Characteristically sitting around 108–115 BPM (often ~110), it emphasizes heavy, swung percussion, off‑beat stabs, and midrange lead synths, while retaining Latin/Caribbean groove and call‑and‑response vocal hooks. The result is festival‑ready EDM power at a slower, body‑rolling tempo that feels both tropical and club‑focused.
Cumbia
Cumbia is a syncretic dance-music tradition from Colombia’s Caribbean coast that blends African rhythmic heritage, Indigenous (especially gaita flute) melodic practice, and Spanish colonial instrumentation and forms. Traditionally performed in a moderate 2/4 (often felt in 4/4 today), it features interlocking hand-drum parts (tambora, alegre, llamador), guacharaca or maracas for steady texture, and long cane flutes (gaita hembra and gaita macho) carrying call-and-response melodies. As it spread in the 20th century, orchestras and dance bands added accordion, horns, piano, bass, and later electric guitar and synthesizers, creating urban and pan–Latin American variants. Harmonically simple and rhythm-forward, cumbia places groove, ostinati, and vocal refrains at the center, making it both ceremonial in origin and enduringly popular on social dance floors across the Americas.
Mashup
Mashup is a genre and production technique in which two or more pre‑existing recordings are combined to form a new track, most commonly by placing the vocal (a cappella) from one song over the instrumental of another. It relies on beatmatching, harmonic mixing, and careful editing to create the illusion that disparate sources naturally fit together. Unlike a traditional remix (which typically reworks stems from a single song) or a medley (which plays songs sequentially), a mashup emphasizes simultaneous overlay and interplay between multiple songs, often highlighting humor, contrast, or surprising continuity. The style rose to prominence in the early 2000s UK “bastard pop” scene and spread via file‑sharing, blogs, and video platforms; it remains popular in DJ culture, pop culture countdowns, and internet meme communities, while inhabiting a legal gray area due to copyright.
Latin Electronic
Latin electronic is a broad umbrella for electronic music that fuses Latin American and Caribbean rhythms, instrumentation, and timbres with modern production techniques. It blends house and techno beats with cumbia, salsa, and afro-diasporic grooves; layers samplers and synths over hand percussion; and weaves field recordings and folk melodies into club-ready structures. Across the scene, you’ll hear the swing of cumbia’s 3–3–2 feel, the dembow/reggaeton cadence, dub-informed space and bass, and Andean or tropical motifs reimagined through contemporary sound design. While geographically diverse, the style coalesced in the 2000s through DIY labels and collectives in Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Bogotá, and Lima, and later spread globally via digital culture and boutique festivals.
Reggaeton
Reggaeton is a contemporary urban dance music that blends the dembow rhythm of Jamaican dancehall with hip hop’s MC culture and Caribbean–Latin melodic sensibilities. Its hallmark is the propulsive, syncopated “dembow” drum pattern, typically around 85–100 BPM (often felt in half-time), which powers energetic verses and catchy, sung hooks. Lyrically, reggaeton is most often in Spanish or Spanglish and centers on dance, nightlife, flirtation, romance, and street life, with a performance style that alternates between rapped bars and melodic chorus lines. Production emphasizes tight, punchy drums, rolling 808 sub-bass, percussive plucks or stabs, and bright, hook-forward toplines—crafted for the club and tailored for crowd participation and perreo.
Tech Trance
Tech trance is a hybrid of techno’s percussive precision and trance’s large-scale breakdowns and euphoria. It emphasizes driving, mechanical grooves, tough kick-and-bass synergy, and crisp, repetitive percussion while still deploying atmospheric pads, tense builds, and streamlined hooks. Typically in the 132–140 BPM range, it is darker and more utilitarian than uplifting trance, yet more melodic and expansive than straight techno. Expect rolling basslines, snappy 909-style hats and claps, acidic sequences, filtered sweeps, and short, functional riffs that culminate in powerful drops designed for big rooms and festival floors. The genre became a staple in late-1990s to mid-2000s European club culture, especially in the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, and Italy, and remains influential in modern hard dance and “tech-lift” strands of contemporary trance.
Dance-Pop
Dance-pop is a mainstream-oriented pop style built for both radio and the dancefloor. It blends hook-driven songwriting with club-ready rhythms, typically using a steady four-on-the-floor kick, bright synthesizers, and punchy, polished production. Tempos usually sit in the 110–128 BPM range, and arrangements emphasize memorable choruses, clear verses and pre-choruses, and concise structures suitable for radio edits. Compared with club genres like house or techno, dance-pop prioritizes song form, vocal presence, and accessible harmonies, while still retaining an energetic groove. The sound palette often includes layered synths, sampled or electronic drums, tight bass lines, ear-catching toplines, and modern production techniques such as sidechain compression and stacked vocal harmonies.
Funk Viral
Funk viral is a contemporary, platform-native strain of Brazilian funk designed to explode on social media feeds and short‑video apps. It emphasizes instantly catchy hooks, hard‑hitting drums, sped‑up edits, and micro‑arrangements tailored to 15–30 second danceable segments. Sonically it lives close to the 150 BPM "mandelão/rave" end of funk, with booming 808 subs, clipped claps, sharp tom fills, risers, vox chops, and meme‑ready catchphrases. Producers frequently tag tracks as MTG (montagem), signaling mash‑up/remix techniques and quick cut transitions, or lean on automotivo aesthetics for extra sub and car‑sound‑system impact. Culturally it sits at the intersection of baile funk’s street party tradition and the algorithmic dynamics of TikTok/Reels, where choreography challenges, sped‑up versions, and DJ IDs travel fast. The result is a highly portable, hook‑first dance music that cycles rapidly through trends while remaining rooted in Brazilian funk’s grooves and vocal delivery.
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