Jamaica > Reggae

Reggae is the heartbeat of Jamaica, and it is as strongly identified wit the island as R&B is with Detroit or jazz with New Orleans.

To Jamaicans, reggae has two distinct meanings: first, it is a generic term for all popular Jamaican music, and more particularly, it refers to specific beat and style popular from about 1969 to 1983.

Reggae evolved from romantic-themed rock-steady but was fired i a crucible of tensions and social protest simmering violently in the lat 1960s and early 1970s. Jamaicans will tell you that reggae mean 'comin' from de people,' a phrase coined (as was the name reggae itself) by Frederick Toots' Hibbert of Toots & the Maytals in the single 'Do Th Reggay' in 1968. The music expresses a yearning for respect, self-identity, and affirmation.

Early reggae was experimental and ranged widely, incorporating the jerky instrumentals of session bands and the sweet harmonies of established vocal groups, while inventing new types of rhythms.

Rebel Music & Roots Reggae

Rastafarians came to dominate the scene by the mid-1970s with their 'rebel music.' Rebel singers such as Max Romeo, the anguished Junio Byles, and Winston 'Niney' Holness forcefully imbued their recording with traditional Rasta chants. Instrumental to their success was the influence of radical producer Lee 'Scratch' Perry, who tinged their music with a slow, edgy mood of 'dread,' a foreboding style suggestive of impending violence that resonated among the island populace.

Perhaps the most profound rebel entree was the eye-popping debut in 1969, of Burning Spear (Winston Rodney), who attained International status in the mid-1970s when his epochal Marcus Garvey album established him as the quintessential rebel singer.

Meanwhile, all three of the Wailers had become Rastafarians and now sported dreadlocks. As disillusion with Manley's PNP government deepened, Rastafarianism gained ground among the general populace. In 1970, Perry began to coach Bob Marley toward a new voice that led to an outpouring of relatively unknown recordings that musicologists acclaim as representing the Wailers at their peak. By the mid-1970s nyahbinghi drumming and Rasta chants were common rhythm elements, played in an updated, in-vogue version of the rocksteady rhythm, known as 'rockers.'

The genre had also earned a new moniker- 'roots reggae' -and was poised for international acclaim (see the boxed text, 'Bob Marley -Reggae Royalty'). Ironically, Marley's songs initially received relatively little airplay in Jamaica, where the music - redolent with menacing social protest- was anti-establishment. (Reggae was actually banned from the airwaves.)

Jamaica's only other self-contained reggae band to reach stardom was Third World (Burning Spear was essentially a solo performer), who also signed to Island Records, as did Black Uhuru, who proved perhaps the most dynamic - and militant - reggae act of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The era was dominated by male performers, although the I-Threes -Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt, and above all, Marcia Griffiths - had solo hits.

By the early 1980s, local audiences were tiring of the socially conscious lyrics that were an integral part of roots reggae, often made for an international audience. Jamaican music was taking a new direction -more in tune with the changing focus of ghetto youth.

An Explosion of Sounds

Some Jamaicans' experiments have also yielded intriguing hybrids. In 1996, the Taxi Gang's 'Western Farm' utilized country and western (even Lady Saw has blended country into dancehall ragga). Buccaneer's outrageous 'Sketel Concerto1 brought opera into ragga. Reggae artist Gibby discovered heavy metal. The venerable Wailing Soul invoked a psychedelic tinge. And Sly & Robbie have created 'Latin reggae,' melding Cuban influences into the music scene.

Jazz has also begun to influence reggae in a big way, beginning in 1995 when jazz-propelled recordings were released by leading artists such as Spragga Benz, Papa San, and Beenie Man. And ska has had an enduring albeit malleable renaissance and, more recently, has been melded with jazz into a style called 'skazz,' a free-form hip-hop/ska/jazz combo, and even Christian ska bands, ska/punk (called 'ska-core'), and a fusion of ska with Latin sounds called 'salska.'

Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers are the most commercially successful of all Jamaican musical acts, with a crossover audience that even Ziggy's dad would be proud of. Ziggy etched his own sound - albeit heavily influenced by his father-aimed at the international market, with little regard for ragga or other evolutions in the dancehall market. He experimented with acoustic reggae in the 1999 album Spirit of Music.

Discuss This Article (Reggae)

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Culture Music

by Jamaica Guest from Texas

I recently visited Montego Bay and Negril - from what I was told Jamaicans like to call Reggae "Culture Music" but on occasion you will hear them call it "Reality Music".

Really beautiful and amazing people and extremely cool, especially when you are interested in their culture.

Congraturations

by Alfred salim mogendy from Kenya

I'm happy and interested if possible to join the Jamaicans musicians, thanks.

Good site

by Vilyamsn from Unknown

Hello! great idea of color of this siyte!

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