Reggae seems critically underrepresented on this board, and all threads concerning the genre appear to inevitably deteriorate into dismissals of reggae wholesale, save for dub, with a rare sprinkling of contributors who actually know what they're talking about. This is an attempt to change that.
I love educating and talking with people about this kind of music, and hopefully we can enrich ourselves and each other by participating in this thread. Questions about where to begin with reggae, what the evolution of musical genres is in Jamaica, recommended elements and more are of course welcomed.
To start off I'll be giving some links that, I think, are a nice-sounding taste of what is an incomprehensibly expansive and diverse art form (discussion of genres such as mento, ska, and rocksteady, all of which technically aren't "reggae", is of course not only allowed but encouraged).
Please school me on reggae, dub, their influences, and their influences on the music we usually listen to
Justin Campbell
You got it user, just give me a second to grab a snack. Glad someone's expressing interest in the material.
Adam Wright
I'd like to learn more about the influence that Jamaican music and soundsystems had on Britain's electronic music scenes.
Lucas Gomez
Alright, thanks for bearing with me. I'll be taking your points on one by one.
Reggae as a distinct genre emerged in the late 1960s (about 1968) after the decline of the preceding genre, rocksteady. Bob Marley is clearly reggae's preeminent proponent, but groups like Toots & The Maytals, Burning Spear, and U-Roy are all valuable and underrated contributors to the flowering of the art form. Reggae has several subgenres, including dancehall, which has its own subgenre in the form of raggamuffin (or ragga for short, which is just digital dancehall, popularized after the February 1985 release of Wayne Smith's seminal hit "Under Me Sleng Teng").
Not to mention, dub was popularized as an additional subgenre of reggae but titans such as King Tubby (pic related), Lee "Scratch" Perry, and scientist, whose work began to blur the line between "producer" and "artist" (even though these dub masters got their tracks from their house bands, they are still credited as the main contributors in the credits, for their mastery of the controls). Dub actually emerged out of poverty. It was much cheaper to, on a 45 RPM record, simply have a group record a song and have the same song, with its vocals stripped, be placed on the B-side. Eventually this came to take on a life form of its own, hence the dub we know today.
It's often thought that without these dubmasters, and the innovation that is dub to begin with, there would be no rap music, and no predominantly European techno genres like jungle, grime, d&b, etc. Dub also brought to the fore the range of options bequeathed to the producer by the mixing booth, which popularized such effects as reverb and delay to a greater worldwide scale.
So yeah, the influence is all around us. If you have any more questions or if you want me to elucidate in areas I'll be more than glad to.
Adrian Long
Post favorite albums
Jonathan Martin
Ostensibly, this story truly begins with Britain's colonial roots in Jamaica, as a number of Jamaicans left the island in the 1960s for opportunity in England, perceived in some way as the "mother country". Expatriate West Indian communities began to form, specifically in London and especially in Brixton, and along with them they brought their musical culture. Aswad, Steel Pulse, Tippa Irie, and more owe their establishment to the pre-existing Jamaican communities in England.
Ska had taken many English youths by storm, who coalesced and formed the subculture known today, quite disparagingly in some circumstances, as "skinheads". Disenfranchised from their Jamaican roots, many West Indians merged with the expanding native English sounds being popularized later on in the 80s and 90s and formed such things as jungle, grime, and d&b, all of which were in turn too influenced by American advents in breakbeats and turntablism (which itself was influenced by reggae and dub).
Jackson Allen
Dub soundsytems were basically the precursors to most electronic dance music we find today The first dubbing was just taking instrumental tracks and dropping certain instruments in and out. Essentially the first remixes. It was originally done because Deejays noticed people enjoyed to dance to and sing the songs themselves. Eventually you get dub engineers adding delay, high pass filters and spring reverb and all kind of other innovative, and often home made, sound effects.
like he explains quite nicely, they basically introduced the notion of the producer, or engineer, as an artist in it of it's self. Eventually reggae backing bands would lay down tracks specifically for dub artists. Jamaica had a huge migration to the UK in the 1960's and 70's. Dub was never actually huge in Jamaica itself. But it became popular in the UK with Jamaican immigrant soundsytems in the 70's catching the ears of working class brits and punk musicians. From there it branched off and evolved into Dancehall, Dub Techno, Downtemp, Dubstep, Two-step, Jungle, Grime, Ragga, etc.
William Moore
Excellent taste user. "Bide Up" is my favorite song on Blackheart Man, and I have a framed copy of Super Ape, signed by Lee Perry himself, hung up on my wall. Heart of the Congos is my favorite album of all time, and that Dr. Alimantado is a scorcher, oftentimes in a hilarious way. "Old Marcus Garvey" is my favorite track on that Burning Spear as well. Great favorites, would recommend to any and everybody.
Brandon Lewis
Thanks dude. How’d you get the signed Super Ape?! What are a few of your favs I might not have heard also? Hey triangle :)
Justin Myers
>Dub also brought to the fore the range of options bequeathed to the producer by the mixing booth, which popularized such effects as reverb and delay to a greater worldwide scale. Is this where dub's influence on post-punk is evident, or are there other musical elements from dub that influenced its development?
Bentley Gonzalez
Pic related is one of my favorites for certain, primarily because Nitty Gritty is my all-time favorite reggae artist. The track selection here is great, especially for DJ sessions at house parties and the like. "Sweet Reggae Music", "Run Down the World" (a truly epic, bass-heavy tune) and "Gimme Some of Your Sum'thing", to name a few, are massive scorchers, the first being my favorite of them all.
Jace Baker
>Dr. Alimantado noice
too lazy to make a chart but my top 10 would be: The Congos - Heart of the Congos Keith Hudson - Nuh Skin Up King Tubby - Dub from the Roots Mikey Dread - World War III Scientist - Scientist Meets the Space Invaders Dr. Alimantado - Best Dressed Chicken in Town The Upsetters - Black Board Jungle Dub The Aggrovators/The Revolutionairies - Rockers Almighty Dub Junior Delahaye - Showcase Prince Far I & the Arabs - Cry Tuff Dub Encounter: Chapter III
Brody Williams
>signed by Lee Perry himself fucking jelly I had a chance to see him when he was touring Super Ape last year, should've fucking gone
Isaiah Morris
Anybody else into Wackies' stuff? I've been on a huge kick lately, so lo-fi and spacey
Nitty Gritty is fuckin dope General Penitentiary is my fav Digital danchall record
Noah Walker
hey bud
Bentley Bailey
Excellent contribution.
The signed Super Ape is a treasure I received on January 20th of this year. Lee Perry was performing with Subatomic Sound system in Durham, North Carolina (I think that's where it was), and I actually got to interview him for a music publication. I brought along my copy of the album and he took his gold-ish sharpie and scribbled his trademark on it. It's definitely one of my prized possessions.
A few of my favorites? Because of my demand for new material coupled with my relatively short attention span, I tend to just browse things sporadically. Plus, many hot tracks are released only as singles, probably in part because of the sheer multiplicity of Jamaican artists (specifically in dancehall) who released a relatively small number of tracks. As a result I have few album favorites, but many individual favorites that I thing are very much worth imparting. Like these, for example:
Admittedly, I'm always so focused on reggae that I tend to neglect other genres like post-punk. From what I have heard, yes, dub's influence largely lies in the mixing effects to be applied by the producer. Plus, reggae and punk are surprisingly similar in a number of ways. Bob Marley of course had the track "Punky Reggae Party", which should illustrate a connection in some way.
"Back Weh, "The Conquest", and "Shake the Nation" are all super hot on that Cry Tuff Dub Encounter. My favorite Prince Far I song would probably have to be "Natty Farmyard". The Studio One "Mean Girl" riddim is just too good.
>tfw you get dubs in a dub thread But yes, thank you. I definitely recommend seeing him when you can, I actually almost got severely dehydrated when I went to see him because I danced so hard for so long that I ended up just standing there in a dry daze.
Wackie's is uber nice, his work with Horace Andy and the Love Joys (the latter of which I have) is fantastic. Also glad to see that there are other Nitty Gritty fans out there, he's so massively underrated that it hurts. "Can't Test We" is probably my favorite track on General Penitentiary. I love the enthusiasm he brings to it, I can't hear that kind of crying output anywhere else in his discography, actually.
Lincoln Thompson
>finally a reggae thread.
I know right? By the way, I'm glad that we've been able to maintain a quality thread lads. Glad you're liking what you're seeing. Also, I'd like to impart to you all a very valuable resource:
The extensive musical knowledge contained herein is not only a godsend to folks like us, but it's also very accessible.
Asher Moore
take Jah wobble's bass on PIL's Metal Box. Super heavy and deep, he's pretty much just playing reggae bass lines the whole time. The Slits and The Clash both used a lot of upstrums and reverb and delay. Mikey Dread even produced the clash. And there are a whole slew of underground bands that adapted dub sound effects and production styles into their music.
The specific influences really change from band to band but I'd say it's a combination of both dub production style and reggae instrumental techniques.
