Music and dance as complementary performance arts

Reggae Music

In 1968, a new form of music, blended from a religious movement, Rastafarian, and numerous musical influences such as rhythm and blues, rocksteady, African, and ska, emerged in Jamaica and spread quickly throughout the world. This music, known as reggae, defined a nation of people for centuries and helped develop various musical movements worldwide. This paper will discuss the history of reggae, the major artists of the art form, and how the art has changed, both in its original nation as well as how the music has been altered for American audiences.

Reggae began as a blend of ska and rocksteady, and thus, to understand the history of reggae, one must explore Jamaican music history on a whole. Ska, the first form of reggae, was born around 1960 from a blending of American R&B and traditional mento music. The emphasis of Ska was on the guitar afterbeat, which the music industry had not previously seen. At the time, Jamaica had received her independence, and national pride was at its highest. Anything seen as unique to Jamaica was sought after, and the Ska music of the time was the perfect backdrop to a changing culture. Since Ska was generally made by the working class of the country, the music was seen as an art form of the people (Everything Jamaican, 2).

By 1964, Ska had become the primary music of Jamaica, and was closely tied to the identity of the country. Having taken hold with the Jamaican population of England, Ska also became a world-wide phenomenon (Everything Jamaican, 3). At the time, a group of Briton youths, known as the Mods, were operating in an underground movement. Simultaneously, Jamaica was experiencing a similar generational uprising in youths known as the rude boys. With shaved heads, good clothing, and pork pie hats, the rude boys were fashionable, stylish, of the working class, and loved strong dance music. The fashions spread overseas, but as the rude boys began to find themselves caught with no work and no money following Jamaican independence, their image began to change. Now living in the ghettos and turning to crime as a means of survival, the rude boys shortly became part of local political groups. Living in society's fringes, and expressing themselves through art, the rude boys disliked the fast pace of Ska, and wanted a slower beat (Everything Jamaican, 3).

In response, musicians slowed the beat of Ska, resulting in a new music form termed rocksteady. The music, similar to that of Ska, was slowed to about half the time, and was again popular among Jamaicans and British alike. The skinhead movement of Briton, an adaptation of the Mods, soon took rocksteady as their music of choice (Everything Jamaican, 4).

However, by the close of 1967, the rocksteady beat was becoming too slow, and again the people sought a new style. With the addition of organs, rhythm guitars, and a change of beat, the music of reggae was born. Historian Barrow credits producer Clancy Eccles with coining the term, claiming it to be an adaptation of the street slang word for a loose woman, "streggae." The music was faster than rocksteady, but with a tighter organization and a higher complexity than Ska (Everything Jamaican, 4).

In the beginning, reggae music embraced much of the Rastafarian faith, and included many political themes. Reggae lyrics spoke of Ethiopia and Mount Zion as the musicians began to sport the traditional Rastafarian hairstyle of dreadlocks. Reggae was distinctly a new style, with increased use of Jamaican patois, a combination of English and African language (Bays, 46).

Reggae was also used to promote the spiritual pleasure of marijuana, as well as to promote other concepts. The lyrics served to remind Jamaicans about their history as slaves, and to promote traditional Rastafarian beliefs of peace and unification. The music also served to create an image for the Rastafarian, which was one of an aggressive, warrior type individual, who conquered the enemy with more aggressive political action. Reggae voiced a prelude to repatriation to Africa (Bays, 47).

In the beginning, rocksteady music producers were disappointed with reggae's identification with religious connotations, but other producers such as Lee Perry and Edward Lee pushed the new sound forward with political backdrops. These producers had a drastic impact on the direction of the music, as rhythms were slowed to allow listeners to hear the message (Bays, 54). This increased both the ability for recorders to spread their message and the ability of listeners to truly comprehend the words.

By 1968, reggae music was nearing the international scene, but lacked a sponsor willing to push it to world status. The industry found such a vehicle in Chris Blackwell of Island Records. Blackwell created Trojan Records distinctly for the purpose of pushing reggae to international fame (Connell, 175). Early success was found with Jimmy Cliff's release of "Wonderful World, Beautiful People" in 1968, and Bob Marley's writing of the Johnny Nash song "I Can See Clearly Now" (Bays, 54).

However, reggae music was highly criticized by the Jamaican government. For years, although reggae was immensely popular, live performances within Jamaica were nearly impossible to attend. The concerts were generally banned and the Jamaican Broadcasting Corporation could only broadcast after midnight. For many, the music was known as "rum culture," since tourists hearing the music would never experience the ghettos and slums of which the music often portrayed (Connell, 175).

In the early 1970's, reggae finally hit international fame with the release of the soundtrack for the film the Harder They Come. The 1972 Perry Henzell film examined several aspects of the Jamaican recoding industry, and showed the lack of royalties, copyrights, and other issues that plagued the industry at the time. Further, the movie showed clearly the victimization of the Jamaican musician. The soundtrack, however, pushed reggae to the international scene by providing a wide sampling of early reggae music (Winders, 232).

Perhaps the most well-known reggae artist, however, is that of Bob Marley, and his band, the Wailers. In 1972, the Wailer's first international album, Catch a Fire, was released to the world to resounding popularity. The Wailers discarded the rude boy image of Jamaican music and replaced it with Ethiopian color and dreadlocks. The music, including such famous works as Get Up and Stand, were militant in their lyrics, and showed a passion for political change (Connell, 175).

However, this is not to say the music of the Wailers and other important artists were accepted outright. Blackwell felt the original recordings on Catch a Fire were too heavy for white audiences on an international level. In a Kingston studio, Blackwell modified the works to improve Bob Marley's vocals, and to tone down the reggae beat. Further, the music was smoothed by the addition of British guitar soloist additions (Connell, 175).

Further, Blackwell believed international audiences would be unable to grasp the lyrics of Marley, and thus printed the lyrics on the sleeve of the labels when distributed for international release. The Jamaican patois, Blackwell believed, would be unintelligible for white audiences. Even more drastic, Blackwell increased the speed of the tracks for release in the United States, knowing the market at the time depended on a faster beat than traditional reggae (Connell, 175).

Ultimately, however, it was the covering of reggae songs by traditional white musicians that popularized the music for mainstream release. While Bob Marley was extremely influential in popularizing the genre, it was British musicians who pushed the music forward. Tracks such as Jamming and Could You Be Loved, originally created by the Wailers, were later covered by the band Third World from Kinston. The remakes blended the original thematics of reggae with a faster beat, allowing the music to appeal to dance halls and discos. The British group UB40 made a career of covering reggae music for white audiences. Perhaps most famously, British rocker Eric Clapton's cover of Marley's I Shot the Sheriff in 1974 was hugely successful, propelling reggae into British and American pop culture permanently (Farred, 257).