a Z z R a e L

Reggae is an African Caribbean style of music developed on the island of Jamaica and is closely linked to the religion Rastafarianism, though not universally popular among its members. The origins of Reggae can be found in traditional African Caribbean music as well as US Rhythm & Blues. Ska and Rocksteady are 1960's precursors of reggae. Bob Marley, who later popularized the style on a world-wide basis, also recorded Rocksteady records early in his career. The style of reggae he made famous is called roots reggae or roots rock reggae, and is still used by many artists such as Black Uhuru, Burning Spear, Culture, Israel Vibrations, The Skatalites and Toots and The Maytals from Jamaica and UB40 from the UK.

In Jamaica however, new styles are more popular, among them Lovers Rock, Dancehall and Raggamuffin. Dub is an instrumental sub-style of reggae. Mixing techniques employed in Dub probably influenced Hip hop, Drum and Bass and other styles. In any case, the toasting or dee jaying of raggamuffin reggae - first used by artists such as Dillinger or Yellowman - had a world-wide impact because Jamaican DJ Kool Herc used them as he came up with a new style later called Hip hop or rap music. In the Jamaican sense of the word, a DJ is an MC or rapper, whereas the DJ is called (music) selector in Jamaica. Therefore what is called dee jaying or chatting in Jamaica is called rapping in most other parts of the world. --http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggae [2004]

Reggae Coined in 1968

The American Influence

There is an inescapable link between Jamaican reggae and US soul. Since the late 1950s, which saw ska born out of American R&B, the Jamaican reggae fraternity has always had a strong affiliation towards US soul, and later on, funk. --Chris King, amazon.co.uk

The European Influence

Reggae is a product of the union of West African rythms and European melody and harmony.

Homophobia in Reggae [...]

Three reggae stars nominated for a Mobo [Music of Black Origin] award may be arrested at the prize ceremony next week because the lyrics of their songs allegedly incite the murder of gays and lesbians.

The gay rights group OutRage had presented Scotland Yard's hate crime unit with a dossier of evidence against Beenie Man, Bounty Killer and Elephant Man, three of the biggest stars of the Jamaican dance hall scene, which is notorious for its homophobia.

The gay rights group OutRage is calling for their prosecution in the light of the crown prosecution service's crackdown on threatening behaviour towards homosexuals and an initiative by the Metropolitan police to encourage gay people to report abuse and harassment.

OutRage's leader, Peter Tatchell, who was beaten by angry reggae fans when he protested against two of the singers outside last year's Mobo party, said: "My request for a prosecution will test whether the police and prosecutors are sincere in their pledge to get tough with homophobic hate crimes."

Chris Wells, editor of the black music magazine Echoes, said OutRage might be shooting itself in the foot by picking a fight with singers whose work would normally pass mainstream audiences by.

"You are never going to stop this - no matter what you do - because Jamaica is a very religious society, and unfortunately, for all sorts of reasons, homophobia is deep there," he said. --The Guardian, September 19, 2003

Dub [...]

Around 1969 Kingston-based reggae producers started to issue singles with instrumental "versions" on the flipside of vocal releases, which were actually the basic riddim tracks. To these "versions" one could add further instrumentation or deejay accompaniment. Within a year the inclusion of instrumental versions on the flipside was common practice among the majority of Jamaica's producers. In 1971 the first real dub recordings began to appear, with The Hippy Boys' "Voo Doo" - the version to Little Roy's "Hard Fighter", which was mixed by Lynford Anderson a.k.a. Andy Capp - now widely acknowledged to be the first recording in the genre. But it was pioneering sound engineer and sound system operator Osbourne Ruddock who did more than any other to popularize and develop the sound. He explored the possibilities of sound from his small studio, located at the back of his home, at 18 Drumilly Avenue, Kingston 11. -- Teacher & Mr. T.

Jamaican Jazz

The spiritual leaders of the new movement were the likes of Cluet Johnson, Roland Alphonso, Tommy McCook and Rico Rodriguez, all of whom had graduated through the ranks of the dance bands in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Included in this second generation of great Jamaican instrumentalists were bassist Lloyd Brevett, trumpeter Johnny 'Dizzy' Moore, drummer Lloyd Knibbs and guitarist Jah Jerry. Many of these Jamaican Jazz pioneers were also old boys of the Alpha Catholic School, a reform school for poor and/or wayward children still operating in West Kingston. It was at Alpha that Tommy McCook, Lester Williams, Rico Rodriguez and Don Drummond learned the rudiments of music and music theory by way of Classical European method. The nuns discouraged the boys from playing the base tunes they heard on the radio. They paid no heed. --Lloyd Dewar [...]

History of Dub

In Jamaica, during the seventies, the sound of reggae was being reinvented by studio producers such as Lee Perry and King Tubby who used echo and delay effects to create a sound known as dub. With vocals removed from tracks of dance songs, DJs began talking over the music, a technique that was known as toasting. Dub and toasting were later transplanted to New York City, where they formed the basis for rap music in the eighties. [...]

Riddims

A rhythm, riddim in reggae vocabulary, is a rhythm pattern. It's basically a bassline and usually a special drumpattern is used with the bassline. Sometimes a short melody is associated with the riddim, but the main ingredient is the bassline. In other musical contexts it would be called a groove, and that pretty well sums up what it is about. Most riddims have originated from a hit tune, and usually the riddim has been given the name of that tune. [...]

Ganja, Marihuana

Herbal cannabis had always played a part in the medicinal and mystical rituals of ancient Africa and was probably well known to the slaves who worked the West Indian sugar plantations, but anthropologists contend that the herb didn't arrive in Jamaica until after slavery was abolished there in 1838, when it was brought by contract workers from the Indian sub-continent who were drafted in to fill the subsequent labour shortage. Certainly, the Jamaican term for herbal cannabis, 'ganja', is a Hindi word meaning 'sweet smelling', but also 'noisy'. Which is not a bad description of roots reggae. [...]

Lee Perry

The amount of work that Scratch has been involved with over a 35 year career is nothing short of staggering. Scratch's story is more or less the story of Jamaican music: from humble beginnings, the groove takes root, grows strong and wide, and contains many branches. From the ska era to the first wave of reggae and the magnificence of the 1970s, Scratch was there all the way. Yet, there seems to be some confusion about Scratch's career by people who aren't hip to all of the periods he's done work in. Most people know him for his Black Ark masterpieces, others only know his later, more eccentric work, and some have never heard his early ska scorchers. As a reggaeologist, I started thinking about all of the distinct periods in Scratch's career, and therefore present the following seven eras for your consideration: [...]

King Tubby

Today the remix and dub version are commonplace in popular music; less widely appreciated is the fact that these techniques were pioneered in a tiny studio a Kingston, Jamaica district called Waterhouse. That pioneer of dub was an electronics engineer and sound system operator named Osbourne Ruddock, but to the crowds who flocked to his dances, and the countless singers and record producers who utilised his skills, he was known as King Tubby. [...]

DJs

It is generally forgotten that the very first DJs were Jamaicans operating the mobile sound systems during the fifties and sixties. At that time, the DJ was the person talking live over the records, the 'selector' spinned a selection of American black dance music from the South and East of the United States. It was only when American radio started broadcasting rock 'n roll - a genre the Jamaicans liked less - that the Jamaicans started to produce their own music, ska in the early sixties, then rocksteady and by the end of the decade, reggae. DJ Kool Herc is credited with bringing this to the United States, when he left for New York in 1967, creating rap music in the proces.

Reggae and Disco

There is a link between reggae and disco that may not be that obvious, but which started when Kool Herc moved from Jamaica to New York and started to spin funk records in stead of his Jamaican hits. Later still, Larry Levan played an eclectic mix (including reggae) at the Paradise Garage. There is however, one decisive studio-moment where reggae and disco meet: The Padlock EP on Garage records, mixed by Larry Levan from original Island material by Sly and Robbie. "Seventh Heaven", "Peanut Butter", "Getting Hot", "Hop Scotch" are hybrid disco-reggae tracks played by Jamaican musicians, recorded at the Compass Point Studio with late Gwen Guthrie on vocals. [This EP is not available on CD in its entirety, but the Seventh Heaven track is available on Mastercuts classic mix vol. 1]

Postmodernism

Studio One

Studio One was and still is one of the leading labels in Jamaican music industry. Its owner and founder Clement Seymour Dodd started producing music in late 50's. The 60's was the golden era of Jamaican music - the foundation of modern reggae music was laid inside the Jamaican Recording Studios - the studio owned by Mr. Dodd. Ska, rocksteady, reggae - all these types of music were literally created in the same premises - in that tiny studio located in 13 Brentford Road in Kingston. Many of Jamaica's leading artists have been part of Coxsone's musical family in some stage of their career, for example Bob Marley & The Wailers, Horace Andy, Bob Andy, Dennis Brown, Freddie McGregor, Lee Perry etc. In addition to that many of Jamaica's top session players cut their teeth at Studio One's School Of Music.[...]

Wackies

That dub got some serious recognition in the 1970's is well documented. Sound systems made and played out their own tunes from their own studios. Initially these studios and many of their representative soundsytems were from Kingstown Jamaica and much of the technology and techniques in today's contemporary dance and club music scene is clearly and for the most part honestly derived from many of techniques and styles employed by those running their own studio and sound. The following article on the Wackies label is part of the story of the dub sounds which emanated outta New York. -- Smart Monkey [...]

Disco Mixes

During the [late] seventies in Jamaica the 12" mix of popular songs became the vogue. The vocals and dubs were mated for a musical extravaganza. As a result of the popularity of these 12" singles Coxsone Dodd compiled and released some "Showcase" albums. - jo moenen for amazon.com

Always a hit factory, [Studio One] came close to completely dominating the Jamaican dance floor with the emergence of the long-playing 12-inch “discomix” in the [late] 1970s. Studio One capitalized on the extended discomix format, successfully recycling some of its best material from the 1960s. Older hits were updated simply by mixing in lengthy instrumental endings. The popularity of the discomix allowed the label to prolong its reign, even after its most creative period had passed. Because a discomix filled up an entire side of a [12"] record, a hit song had the power to keep competing records off the DJs turntable for a good long time.

Punk [...]

Here comes Johnny Reggae... Punk and Reggae poles apart one would think. Heavy slow bass driven toons versus tinny white boy thrash. Quasi mystical ganga based black man beat versus white swastika toting amphetamine driven nihilsm.. Punk and reggae became intertwined beecause to two of punks influential stars, Mr Rotten and the boys in the Clash, reggae was very much a part of their musical scene and growing up and each vied to say they loved it more than the other as an influence. -- Paul Marko

Dancehall [...]

Somewhere late in 1979 the Roots Radics laid down the riddims for Barrington Levy's first tunes for producer Junjo Lawes, credited at the time as the Channel One Stars. No one could envisage the importance of these sessions, but with hindsight we can point back to them as the inception of Jamaican dancehall music.

Jackie Mittoo

Jackie Mittoo is the unsung hero of reggae music. Playing keyboards professionally from the age of thirteen, he went on to become the musical director at Clement 'Coxone' Dodd's Studio One label from 1965-69. The music he created there is as seminal a body of work as Berry Gordy's at Motown or Rudy Van Gelder's at Blue Note, and the classic rhythms he composed at this time are the foundation of dancehall reggae and still rock any session. Phil Darby [...]

Origins of Reggae