The New Science Of The Truly Unstoppable, Impossible To-Resist Summer Jam
Time|September 4,2017

The New Science Of The Truly Unstoppable, Impossible To-Resist Summer Jam

Raisa Bruner
The New Science Of The Truly Unstoppable, Impossible To-Resist Summer Jam

E“ESTO HAY QUE TOMARLO SIN NINGÚNapuro,” Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankeeimplore in the first verse of “Despacito.” Take it slow, in other words.Which makes sense considering that's what despacito means in Spanish. But the track’s rise to becoming the undisputed song of the summer this year— not to mention the most-watched video of all time—was anything but sluggish.

“Despacito,” along with its remix, reigns by every conceivable music metric, topping Billboard’s charts for more than 14 weeks in a row. The Spanish-language hit—created by Fonsi, a classically trained Latin artist, and Yankee, the king of reggaeton, and later remixed by Justin Bieber—was first released in January. By the end of the school year, “Despacito” had achieved the kind of cultural ubiquity that’s made it a must play everywhere from Ibizan clubs and Colombian radio to bar mitzvahs on the Upper East Side.

This story is from the September 4,2017 edition of Time.

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This story is from the September 4,2017 edition of Time.

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