The Latin American sound known as neoperreo turns 10 this year. As Ana González Vilá reports for De Los, in a story produced with the Trans Journalists Association, artists like DJ Lizz and Tomasa del Real built it as a reimagining of reggaeton, by and for cis and trans women, and for the frikis from Latin America’s punk and alt scenes who never fit the mold.

Born in Chile around 2016, the style strips reggaeton down to colder, laptop-built beats and metallic vocals. Tomasa del Real’s “Bien y Mal” and Ms Nina’s “Tu Sicaria” became early anchors. The name itself came from a radio slip: not the new reggaeton, but the new music you can perrear to.

The internet community and the Santiago parties that followed offered a lifeline, and the movement has since grown into a global network of DJs, festivals, and queer nightlife. Tomasa del Real has said the sound is “too weird” to go fully mainstream, “and that’s fine. The weirder, the better.”

For many listeners who felt unwelcome in conventional reggaeton, neoperreo is still home.

Original reporting: Ana González Vilá, De Los / Los Angeles Times, October 22, 2026. Produced in partnership with the Trans Journalists Association.

Photo credit: Photo illustration by Diana Ramirez / De Los; photos by Elisa Espinoza De Vera.