Web
www.impoetryious.com
Join the Mailing List
((CLICK HERE))
TO SUBMIT EMAIL
Search Impoertyious
WWW.IMPOETRYIOUS.COM
![Text Box: Reggae Music: is a music genre developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term is sometimes used in a broad sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, including ska, rocksteady and dub. The term is more specifically used to indicate a particular style that originated after the development of rocksteady. In this sense, reggae includes two subgenres: roots reggae (the original reggae) and dancehall reggae, which originated in the late 1970s.
Reggae is founded upon a rhythm style characterized by regular chops on the back beat, known as the skank. The beat is generally slower than that found in reggae's precursors, ska and rocksteady. Reggae is often associated with the Rastafari movement, which influenced many prominent reggae musicians in the 1970s and 1980s. The songs lyrics deal with many subjects, including faith, love, sexuality and broad social issues.
Jimmy Cliff was one of the first reggae artists to achieve worldwide recognition for his success as a reggae musician. Reggae's popularity exploded around the world after Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley created music that drew crowds from around the world. Reggae music is not only Jamaica 's favorite passion, it is also how they choose to express and define themselves.
The Success of Reggae Music is an irresistible offbeat shuffle and bouncing bass lines. It has influenced almost every culture on earth
and continues to increase in popularity with artists such as Sean Paul and Shaggy topping the charts. Its upbeat rhythm fits well with other musical styles and artists around the world have incorporated it into heir music.
Roots Reggae: is a sub-genre of reggae music which evolved in Jamaica from Ska and Rocksteady and was made famous outside the Caribbean by the legendary singer/songwriter Bob Marley. Roots reggae is an inherently spiritual Rastafari type of reggae music, the lyrics of which are predominantly in praise of Jah Ras Tafari Makonnen — Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia the Emperor of Ethiopia.
Recurrent lyrical themes include poverty and resistance to the oppression of government. The creative pinnacle of roots reggae is arguably in the late 1970s, with singers such as Johnny Clarke, Horace Andy, Barrington Levy, and Lincoln Thompson, teaming up with studio producers including Lee 'Scratch' Perry, King Tubby, and Coxsone Dodd. The experimental pioneering of such producers within often restricted technological parameters gave birth to dub, and is seen by some music historians as one of the earliest (albeit analogue) contributions to modern dance music production techniques.
Roots reggae is an important part of Jamaican culture, and it has found a small, but growing, niche globally. Some of the most popular artists on the Jamaican scene currently are a new generation of roots artists such as I Wayne, Richie Spice, and Jah Cure.
Dancehall Reggae: is a type of reggae that was developed in the early 1980's. It is a style that is characterized by a DJ singing and dancing to danceable reggae music also known as riddims. Dancehall has been accepted internationally due to its unique style and upbeat rhythms.
Dancehall music retains a role wherever Jamaicans have migrated overseas in large numbers including New York , Miami , Toronto , and London . It originally referred to any large room where people gathered to dance, then in the early eighties, it became the name of a reggae genre. Today, dancehall is one of the most popular styles of music in the industry.
Artists of Dancehall
Sean Paul is the first dancehall artist to top the charts and go platinum using singles from dancehall shows. There are many incredible dancehall artists that have represented this reggae style music to the world including Bob Marley, Beenie Man, Wayne Wonder, Elephant Man, and Shabba Ranks to name a few. They offer some of the best rhythms and rhymes in the music industry today.
The main purpose of dancehall reggae music is to dance. Energy is found within the music through the DJ's ability to portray his talents to the audience. Dancing is made possible from the rhythmic vibrations that come from the music.
Ska: is a type of Jamaican music combining elements of traditional mento and calypso with an American jazz and rhythm and blues sound. It is notable for its walking bass line, shuffling, scratch like tempo, accented guitar or piano rhythms on the offbeat and more frequently in later revivals, jazz-like horn riffs.
Originating in Jamaica during the late 1950s, it was a precursor to rocksteady and later reggae.[1] In the 1960s, it was the predominant form of music listened to by rude boys, although many ska artists condemned the violent subculture. It is also popular with mods and skinheads, with artists such as Symarip, Laurel Aitken, Desmond Dekker and The Pioneers aiming songs at these groups.
Musical historians typically divide the history of ska into three waves, with a revival in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and another in the 1990s, mostly based in the United States.
Rocksteady: is a music genre that was most popular in Jamaica between 1966 and 1968. The term comes from a dance style that was mentioned in the Alton Ellis song Rock Steady. The rocksteady dance was more relaxed than the earlier, more frantic skanking dance style. A successor to ska, and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was performed by Jamaican vocal harmony groups such as The Gaylads, The Kingstonians, Toots & the Maytals and The Paragons.
Rocksteady differs from ska in that it has a more relaxed tempo, a diminished use of Brass instruments, and a changed role for the bass guitar. With ska, the bass tends to play quarter notes in an even walking style, but with rocksteady, the bass part is more broken-up and syncopated, using aggressive, repetitive lines which were often doubled by a guitar.
Rocksteady arose at a time when young people from the Jamaican countryside were flooding into the urban ghettos of Kingston — in neighborhoods such as Riverton City, Greenwich Town and Trenchtown. Though much of the country was optimistic in the immediate post-independence climate, these poverty-stricken youths did not share this sentiment. Many of them became delinquents who exuded a certain coolness and style. These unruly youths became known as rude boys.
The rude boy phenomenon had existed in the ska period, but was expressed more obviously during the rocksteady era in songs such as Rude Boy Gone A Jail by the Clarendonians; No Good Rudie by Justin Hinds & the Dominoes; and Don't Be Rude by the Rulers. Though Alton Ellis is sometimes said to be the father of rocksteady for his hit Girl I've Got a Date, other candidates for the first rocksteady single include Take It Easy by Hopeton Lewis, Tougher Than Tough by Derrick Morgan and Hold Them by Roy Shirley.
The record producer Duke Reid released Alton Ellis' Girl I've Got a Date on his Treasure Isle label, as well as recordings by The Techniques, The Silvertones, The Jamaicans and The Paragons. Reid's work with these groups helped establish the vocal sound of rocksteady. Notable solo artists include Delroy Wilson, Bob Andy, Ken Boothe and Phyllis Dillon (known as the Queen of Rocksteady).
Rocksteady lyrics mainly dealt with love or rude boys — or were simple dance tunes. Singers sometimes covered hit songs of the United States. Musicians who were crucial in creating the music included guitarist Lynn Taitt, keyboard player Jackie Mittoo, drummer Winston Grennan, bassist Jackie Jackson and saxophonist Tommy McCook. As a musical style, rocksteady was shortlived, and existed only for about two years. For this reason original recordings in this genre are often harder to find that those from the ska and reggae era. In contrast to rocksteady, the ska trend lasted several years while classic reggae lasted for over a decade.
Several factors contributed to the evolution of rocksteady into reggae in the late 1960s. The emigration to Canada of key musical arrangers Jackie Mittoo and Lynn Taitt — and the modernization of Jamaican studio technology — had a marked effect on the sound and style of the recordings. Rocksteady music was often recorded and mastered very poorly but with the advent state-of-the-art recording gear in newer studios such as Harry J's and Channel One in the early 70s, reggae music was able to sonically compete with American and British popular recordings. Musically, bass patterns became more complex and increasingly dominated the arrangements and the piano gave way to the electric organ in the mix. Other developments included horns fading farther into the background; a scratchier, more percussive rhythm guitar; the addition of African-style hand drumming, and a more precise and intricate drumming style. The sound of the records also became more sparse as the dub mix or B-side "version" became popular in Jamaican dancehalls.
By the early 1970s, as the Rastafarian movement gained in popularity, many songs became focused less on romance and more on black consciousness, politics and protest. The release of the film "The Harder They Come" and the rise of Jamaican superstar Bob Marley brought reggae music to an international level that rocksteady had never been able to reach. Although rocksteady was a short-lived phase of Jamaican popular music, it was hugely influential to the reggae and dancehall styles that followed. Many bass lines originally created for rocksteady songs continue to be used in contemporary Jamaican music.
Dub:is a form of Jamaican music, which evolved out of ska and reggae in 1960s Jamaica. The dub sound is usually accomplished by removing the vocals from an existing music piece, then adding extensive echo and reverb effects, and throwing in snatches of the lyrics from the original version.
Dub music is characterized as a "version" of an existing song, typically emphasizing the drums and bass for a sound popular in local Sound Systems. The instrumental tracks are typically drenched in sound processing effects such as echo, reverb, part vocal and extra percussion, with most of the lead instruments and vocals dropping in and out of the mix. Another hallmark of the dub sound is the massive low bass. The music sometimes features processed sound effects and other noises, such as birds singing, thunder and lightning, water flowing, and producers shouting instructions at the musicians. It can be further augmented by live DJs.
These versions are mostly instrumental, sometimes including snippets of the original vocal version. Often these tracks are used for "Toasters" rapping heavily-rhymed and alliterative lyrics. These are called "DeeJay Versions". As opposed to hip hop terminology, in reggae music the person with the microphone is called the "DJ", or properly "DeeJay", elsewhere referred to as the "MC." (Abbreviating "Master of Ceremonies," "Microphone Commander" or "Mic Control," this term varies regionially and demographically). Additionally in reggae the person choosing the music and operating the turntables is the "Selector" (elsewhere called the DJ).
A major reason for producing multiple versions was economic: A record producer could use a recording he owned to produce numerous versions from a single studio session. Version was also an opportunity for a producer or remix engineer to experiment and vent their more creative side. The version was typically the B-side of a single, with the A-side dedicated to making a popular hit, and B-side for experimenting and providing something for DJs to talk over. In the 1970s whole albums of dub tracks were produced, often simply the dub version of an existing vocal LP, but sometimes a selection of dubbed up instrumental tracks for which no vocals existed.
Dub music evolved from early instrumental reggae music and "versions" that incorporated fairly primitive reverb and echo sound effects. Errol Thompson engineered the first strictly instrumental reggae album entitled "The Undertaker" by Derrick Harriott and the Crystalites released in 1970. This innovative album credits "Sound Effects" to Derrick Harriott.
Whilst some have tried to attribute the "invention" of dub music to just one person, the facts show that by 1973, instrumental reggae "versions" from various studios had evolved into "dub" as a sub genre of reggae. Through the simultaneous efforts of several independent Jamaican innovators, these competitive engineers and producers worked hard to leapfrog each other with each subsequent dub release with no single person being able to claim all the credit for the origination of "dub" as a genre.
In 1973, at least two producers, Lee Perry and the Aquarius studio engineer/producer team of Herman Chin and Errol Thompson simultaneously recognized that there was an active market for this new "dub" sound and consequently they started to release the first strictly 100% dub albums. Lee "Scratch" Perry released "Blackboard Jungle Dub" in the Spring of 1973. It is considered a landmark recording of this genre.
It was not until 1975 that King Tubby was internationally recognized as the premier dub artist/innovator/producer with the release of his two debut albums "King Tubby Meets The Upsetter At The Grass Roots Of Dub" and "Surrounded By the Dreads at the National Arena". He was then immediately hailed as the leading dub music innovator of the day.
Dub has continued to progress from that point to this, its popularity waxing and waning with changes in musical fashion. Almost all reggae singles still carry an instrumental version on the B-side and these are still used by the sound systems as a blank canvas for live singers and djs.
In the 1980s, Britain became a new center for dub production with Mad Professor and Jah Shaka being the most famous, while Scientist](image2103.gif)
