Reggae Music

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. Reggae has its roots in ska and rocksteady, which were Jamaica influenced. Reggae is based on a rhythmic style characterized by accents on the off-beat, known as the skank. Reggae usually accents the second and fourth beat in each bar. Reggae as a musical term first appeared in print with the 1968 rocksteady hit “Do the Reggay” by The Maytals, but it was already being used in Kingston, Jamaica as the name of a slower dance and style of rocksteady. The Legend Bob Marley is said to have claimed that the word reggae came from a Spanish term for “the king’s music.” The Latin regi means “to the king.” Though primarily rooted in ska and rocksteady, reggae also picked up influence from jazz and rhythm and blues. Early 1968, was when the first genuine reggae records were released by such artists as Larry Marshall and The Beltones. As the influence of music on different genres happened, reggae surfaced in other styles of music, particularly rock. An example of a rock song featuring reggae rhythm is 1968’s “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” by The Beatles. The Wailers, a band started by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer in 1963, are perhaps the most recognized band that made the transition through all three stages of early Jamaican popular music: ska, rocksteady, and reggae. The worldwide marketing of reggae owes much to the establishment of Island Records in Jamaica in 1960, which relocated to England in 1962. Island partnered with Trojan Records in 1968, which together released recordings by reggae artists in the UK until 1974, when Saga bought the label. Eric Clapton helped bring reggae into the mainstream with his 1974 cover of the Bob Marley song “I Shot the Sheriff.” The punk rock scene in the UK in the late 1970s incorporated the sounds of reggae into its genre. If you listen to some of the songs by the band The Police, you can hear hints of reggae. Some even christened some of The Police’s songs as “white reggae.” Reggae is either played in 4/4 time or swing time, because the symmetrical rhythmic pattern does not lend itself to other time signatures such as ¾ time. Harmonically, the music is often very simple, and sometimes a whole song will have no more than one or two chords. These simple repetitive chord structures add to reggae’s sometimes hypnotic effects.

Bob Marley was a legend who brought the Rastafari Jamaican religion to the world through his music. His long dreadlocks were a trademark of the Rastafari religion, which took the idea from the Old Testament Nazarite who was set apart to God. Marley said of his Reggae music, “It something really serious, is not entertainment. You entertain people who are satisfied. Hungry people can’t be entertained – or people who are afraid. You can’t entertain a man who has no food.” Marley was the Third World’s first pop-music superstar. The environment in Jamaica that gave rise to Reggae was similar to the environment on the American mainland. Ships would bring slaves from Africa, bringing music. In a climate of brutal oppression, the music helps individuals toughen it out. As in Africa, there is an emphasis on rhythms, and the rhythms have a story to tell and bring people together. As the migration to cities began, the dance music spread into urban dance halls, bars and theaters. There the music encountered the mediums of radio and recording. Suddenly, the rhythms are a pop sensation. Bob Marley was born to 19-year-old Cedella Booker and Captain Norval Sinclair Marley. His parents married, and then the father left the family. Bob Marley grew up in the country in Jamaica, which had many transplanted African values. The exchange of musical influences between the American mainland and Jamaica continued in the 1960s. Jamaican music began to transcend national boundaries. Marley began making records in 1962, drawing on Biblical imagery in his lyrics. He would later form a trio that cut a few records before he formed the Wailers and became an international star. Marley’s lyrics talked of colonial exploitation and the plight of Third World countries. He succumbed to cancer that sprung from an untreated soccer injury, though the details are not entirely certain. Marley’s music speaks to any listener with an open heart, and the Reggae music of Bob Marley is classic. Know the FACTS!