Reggae

(Submitted on October 24, 2017)

Up until now my knowledge of reggae music has read more like a word association game. When I hear the word reggae, what comes to mind? Jamaica, Bob Marley, Rastafarianism, marijuana, and, for me, happy memories of sitting at Skinny Legs bar on the island of St. John in the USVI with “One Love” playing in the background. Even though I have really enjoyed any reggae music that I’ve heard, I’ve always thought of it as a sort of “vacation” music, something to be left behind in the islands when you return to winter in New York. So until now, I’ve never taken the time to try and understand the genre from either a musical or cultural perspective. However, I’ve recently completed a course in modern Caribbean history and learning about Jamaican independence, Pan-Africanism, and the rise of the Black Power movement has given me the push that I needed to look more deeply at reggae music.

Let’s start with a song that most people have heard. Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) was first released by Harry Belafonte, an American singer of Jamaican descent, in 1956. The song has been covered numerous times, and often by children’s entertainers such as Raffi, which is one reason why it is familiar to so many of us. The song is an example of Mento, a style of Jamaican folk music that grew from the music created by slaves brought to Jamaica from West Africa. Mento is a vibrant form of music, performed using acoustic instruments and with lyrics that, while they may touch on social issues, are generally light-hearted. Mento music was crucial to the development of genres which came after it including ska, followed by rocksteady and then reggae.

Ska is typically traced to the late 1950s when musicians in Jamaica, who had become interested in the American R&B and jazz genres, fused elements of them with the sounds of mento creating, most notably, ska’s offbeat rhythms. Artists such as Prince Buster, The Skatalites, and Desmond Dekker made ska the most popular style of music in Jamaica in the early 60s. Ska went on to influence a number of future genres, including 2Tone, in which it was combined with punk elements in Britain, but in Jamaica its most direct impact was on rocksteady which had a brief but dominating run at the top of the charts from 1966-68. Rocksteady slowed the tempo of ska and paved the way for reggae, the style’s name being traceable to the song “Do The Reggay” released by Toots and the Maytals in 1968.

To truly understand reggae, it is useful to understand a little of the history of Jamaica and of the political and cultural climate during the 1960s and 70s. Jamaica was a British colony and its former slave and immigrant populations suffered enormous oppression over many years. Independence movements gathered steam in the late 1930s, a period of labor unrest that culminated in violence in 1938, and local political parties gradually developed. Another group denouncing oppression and the status quo was the Rastafari religious movement, which developed in impoverished Jamaican communities as a reaction to British rule. Inspired by proponents of Pan-Africanism such as Jamaican Marcus Garvey, who promoted ideas of social and economic independence for the African diaspora (and who created a longing by many for an African exodus back to the homeland), and Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, to whom they looked as a messiah, the Rastafari condemned authorities and became militant agitators for those in poverty. Rituals of the Rasta movement included music and, famously, the spiritual use of ganja, or marijuana.

Jamaica finally gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1962 and although it was a time of great celebration, the massive inequality which pervaded the island meant that contentment was short lived. Leaders of the independence movements became the political leaders and they faced unrest and renewed calls for change from Rastafari and others. This was a time when the Black Power movement was growing in the US and its messages of pride and resistance were picked up in places like Jamaica. The Rastafari movement gained the support of musicians, including Bob Marley, and Rasta “chants, language, motifs, and social critiques” began to be incorporated into Jamaican music, most specifically reggae music.

Reggae gave voice to the oppressed and Jimmy Cliff, one of Jamaica’s most successful-ever reggae musicians, said of it: “Reggae music is the cry of the people… a cry for recognition, identity, respect, love.”

Reggae music is harmonically simple, often comprising no more than one or two chords. These simple chord progressions give a purposefully meditative feel to the music. Drumbeats may fall entirely on the third beat of the bar (called one drop) and the first beat of the bar may be left completely empty, by both the drum and the bass. In reggae, the bass, in which lower frequencies are emphasized to give a “thick and heavy” feel, is at the forefront of the music and the drum and bass line form what is called the “riddim.” Lead guitar, rhythm guitar and a piano, or often Hammond organ, add to the distinctive style and horns and other percussion instruments are also typically used. The most recognizable reggae music is “roots reggae” which thrived from the early 1970s through the 80s. Roots reggae refers particularly to the message of the music, with its themes of poverty and resistance to oppression. Artists such as Wailers members Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer as well as others including Jimmy Cliff, Burning Spear, Culture and The Abyssinians brought reggae to audiences worldwide and covers such as Eric Clapton’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” originally written by Bob Marley, further broadened its appeal. Marley is generally considered to be “the embodiment of reggae music” both because of his musical and songwriting talent, and because of the Rastafarian and social messages with which his songs were imbued.

Reggae has gone on to inspire more recent genres of music. One of those is “dub” which involves stripping down existing recordings, often removing the vocals, and remixing and reshaping them. Dub is found across many genres of music these days, but it was pioneered by Jamaican music producers and sound engineers including Lee “Scratch” Perry and Osbourne “King Tubby” Ruddock as early as the late 60s. Dancehall music also grew from roots reggae. It is characterized by a “deejay” singing and rapping over riddim track instrumentals. The music is generally more melodic than that of the rap style in the US and the vocals incorporate much Jamaican patois. Dancehall has faced criticism for not being socially relevant in the way that roots reggae had been in Jamaica, as well as for incorporating themes such as materialism and homophobia that many have found offensive. Consequently, a new generation of artists is now turning back to the some of the messaging that had been such an integral part of the original rise of reggae. Well-known dancehall artists include Sizzla, Garnett Silk, Sanchez, Sean Paul, Buju Banton and Capleton.

To see how the rhythm of reggae evolved, I would suggest this short video by reggae guitarist Steve Golding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y9VqtWzUf0