Dubstep And Beyond: The Electro Reggae Connection To World Music

Unbeknownst to many fans, Electro Reggae saturates the world's musical landscape. Even before Sly and Robbie coined the term "Electro Reggae" for their 1986 Taxi Gang LP release, they had begun experimenting with dissonant, electronic sounds. Random, computer-generated blips and electric percussion permeated the Black Uhuru albums the duo produced. A year earlier they would claim Reggae's first Grammy on the heels of such innovation.
The 1990's would see a migration in the music with Reggae-related styles becoming as varied as the population. As Drum and Bass took hold, fans of the music never forgot its roots. UK soundsystems and producers would incorporate the MC skills of heavyweights like MC Conrad, Skibadee and The Ragga Twinz. The part they played in the evolution of the music was magnified by the growth of the internet. The scene was no longer confined to a geographic region. Roni Size even conquered the American music marketplace with his 1998 "Reprazent" release on Universal Records.
Around the turn of the millennium, UK producers began building on their more insular genres such as two-step and grime. As Reggae-Dub had by then permeated the cultural landscape, it was included to create a new sound. The result, characterized by a tempo of 140 bpm and syncopated high hats, also placed a heavy emphasis on Electro bass line permutations. It would not be formally recognized or called by its name "Dubstep" for several years after its inception. Championed first by BBC radio host John Peel and Mary Anne Hobbs afterwards, the new form of Reggae-Influenced Electro music took the world by storm.
After 2008 Dubstep began a move to the mainstream, but the Electro-Reggae innovation continued. An XLR8R Magazine acknowledged the contributions of America-based Reggae artists like Trinidadian Dub Poet Juakali, Jamaica's Lexie Lee, Panama's MC Zulu, and DJ Collage. Juakali spent years as the host of New York's Dub War introducing Dubstep sounds to an eager fanbase. MC Zulu and Lexie Lee would both collaborate with Electro-Reggae luminaries South Rakkas Crew, with Zulu taking the modernization to the extremes. Wildly experimental and defiant in his approach, MC Zulu created new cadence structures, incorporated weighty lyricism, and can even be heard singing backwards on some releases.
The commercial success of Dubstep finds fans of Electronic music at odds with one another, separated into camps of those who remember the roots, and those who have no idea. Balance that against the continuing innovation in the production, and you will find genres such as Baile Funk (Carioca), Moombathon, Kuduro beginning to move to the forefront. Each of them are suitable vehicles for Reggae lyrics, with fans from the corresponding areas more readily identifying with Reggae's quasi-political, globalist leanings. Reggae MCs who sing in different languages are emerging.

The movement is now commonly described as Global Bass with new, innovative compositions flooding the net on an almost daily basis. Regardless of their region of origin however, the influence of Jamaica's music is often quite prevalent.

Reggae Music and New Orleans' Legacy

In 2008, the month of February was declared, officially, Reggae month in Jamaica, to be observed annually, with not only a series of parties and stage shows but, "...a month where we bring together our academic resources..." the Jamaican Prime Minister told a local paper.

In February, the city of New Orleans, Louisiana celebrates Mardi Gras: the culmination of a variety of festivities beginning in January.

In the spirit of this festive month, I am obliged to enlighten reggae enthusiasts of the little known relationship between the two cultures, formed out of the integration of the music of New Orleans with the early development of Reggae Style music.

In the late 1800's, an early style of Jamaican folk music played by musicians fusing African and European musical traditions was called Mento.

During the 1950's Mento surged in popularity largely due to the birth of Jamaica's recording industry in 1954, which allowed musicians to record Mento songs of different varieties and styles and made them available on records.

Despite the popularity of Mento locally, it was considered "street music" by local radio station operators, in those days, and so the music was passed over for the more "palatable" American Pop and Jazz music.

American Rhythm 'n' Blues records, were heavily imported by "sound system" operators to provided an alternative to the Pop and Jazz tunes that were being played on local radio. These sound systems were mobile entertainment systems and the disc jockeys or "selectors" who played the records were the entertainers.

The popularity of American Rhythm 'n' Blues grew, with the availability of inexpensive transistor radios to the Jamaican population. Listeners who were less than happy about the American Pop and Jazz tunes, tuned in to super high-powered AM radio stations broadcasting from New Orleans and Miami, powerful enough to reach Jamaica.

Subsequently, a rhythmical shift in Mento music began and musicians began incorporating the American southern accented Rhythm 'n' Blues into Mento music. Bands that played a blend of New Orleans' Blues and Caribbean music, called "Bluebeat" groups, became popular and, eventually, a new rhythmical up-tempo style of music emerged known as Ska.

Ska enjoyed a brief period of popularity in the later part of the 1950's an early 60's then eventually transformed into the next stage of the development of Reggae music called Rocksteady.

Dancehall Reggae - The Music and the Culture

The dance hall style has developed tremendously over the years from the 80's to the 90's and new millennium and is continuing to grow with a speed unimaginable. The first to introduce this new style as digital music was the famous Jamaican producer known as King Jammy. It quickly took over the hearts of the Jamaican youth and started to spread throughout the Caribbean then to the Americas and now to the world. Everyone seems to know this music now and has become die hard fans. The music itself is an up-tempo and addictive sound making you want to dance and enjoy yourself as Caribbean people so love to do and are so famous for doing so.

Some of the first dance hall artists to come about were Wayne Smith, Shabba Ranks, and Super Cat to name a few, Shabba Ranks being the first to be premiered on MTV and Super Cat for being the first East-Indian dancehall artist. These artists made a massive impact on the music scene in America and laid the foundation for major artists such as Shaggy, Mavado, Sean Paul and Elephant man to name a few. There are also artists from Europe and all over the world like Collie Buddz, Ill Inspecta and Cali P. These new artists are quickly improving and changing the sound of dancehall music keeping it fresh and up to date for the younger generation.

Dancehall music being a worldwide genre is still most popular in the Caribbean at its home where most of the artists and producers come from. It gives the younger generation a chance to fulfill a dream and to make a career of it. It is more than just music but a passion and a lifestyle to people. If you have not yet heard dancehall then make it a must to do so, it is captivating and unique and you will surely fall in love with it and would see why it is being so wide spread today.

Jammin' In Jamaica - The History Of Jamaican Dub Music

Around the explosive, political and musically transitional period of the late '60s, America, Jamaica and England were affected by a new production technique that first reared its head in Jamaican studios. Special effects units like delays, echoes, and reverbs had gained popularity through producers like Osbourne (King Tubby) Ruddock, who owned a sound system and cut acetates at Duke Reid's Treasure Isle Studio. By accidentally leaving out parts of the vocal mix to a song, Ruddock stumbled upon a new formula that offered more options for performing studio magic. He took this new mix with him to a dance, and played the recognizable version first. Then he played his 'accident,' and the dub mix was born. Not only did he blow the people away that night; he ran back into the studio to do it again.

In the 1970s when a single was released, it was often answered by another record that gave the second artists' commentary on the first record. Sometimes, many spin-off versions came out of this technique, known as toasting. This form of rapping caught on later in the United States via the concrete jungles of New York City. On many Rap mixtapes and CDs, artists would modify toasting by 'dissing' each other when they had beef among themselves. Though some of the product was hard to find, fans ate up the resulting, often-exclusive releases anyway. Toasting utilized catch-phrases that incorporated the sharp Jamaican dialect--it added a rhythmically expressive, deep melodic quality to Reggae music. When many of my fellow Jamaicans speak, their accents often make them sound like the music: quite rhythmic, quite expressive, quite melodious, quite harmonic, and quite textural. Some popular Jamaican phrases follow:

Babylon - hard living, trouble My yute - homeboy

Bwoyfren' - boyfriend N'yam - eat food

Cool runnin's - it's all good 'Ole on a likkle - wait just a minute

Cho' - never mind Oonu - you all

Diy'yah - over here Pickney - children

Frock - a dress Redi dress - showing out

Is fi' mi - it's mine Roll tide - keep it moving

Good good - that's fine Selectah - a DJ

Gweh - get out of my face S'mody - somebody

Gwine - going Soccamibassa - dressed poorly

Gyalfren' - girlfriend Tegereg - troublesome; a P.I.T.A.

Leggo beas' - wild, unruly Tump you - hit you

Maahgah - skinny Whe' mek? - why?

Dialects of Jamaican 'patois' can be spoken fast, slow, or moderately. Some of the diction is easier to understand than others because it may depend upon which region of Jamaica one is from. Some people may have emotional inflections in their speech patterns, while others may have musical ones. One thing for sure is that unless you can't hear, you will definitely know it when a person from the islands is talking or singing...'yah, mon.' But even without vocals, this underground Dub music of Jamaica was still shaping itself into a more defined entity. By 1973, 'King Tubby' Ruddock was experimenting with instrumental versions of songs by manipulating sounds on the tracks. His equipment contained a disc-cutter, mixing console, tape machines and effects units. He worked with the top producers on the island to compose and release the dub album "Blackboard Jungle."

Instrumental versions of songs soon showed up on the B-sides of singles, called 'dub mixes.' Whether tracks were abruptly punched-in with buttons or smoothly faded-in with the sliding fader, they were still given a heavy dose of sound effects. In some cases, interesting effects were created by running a looped tape over the heads of a tape machine. To facilitate this method, a section of the tape was identified for 'surgery' or 'splicing.' Splicing occurs by putting the section of tape on a 'chopping block' with vertical and diagonal grooves etched into it. The grooves guided a razor blade as it sliced the tape at the beginning and end of the section to be cut. The two ends of the isolated tape were then taped together and run through the tape rollers, which passed the tape over the three heads (erase, record and playback) in a repeated, looped manner.

The playback head picked up the signal and played it till the 'stop' button was depressed. If the splice wasn't precise, this procedure could become tedious and time-consuming. This method may not have caught on in the fast-paced world of 'put it together quick' Rap music, but sampling sure did. Electronically-made sounds and sampling went on to become worldwide phenomena. Like tape looping, Jamaicans used sampling to create new music such as Dancehall Reggae. You'll want to see the chapter "What Makes Music" in the forthcoming "Musicology 102" for more on sampling. If the info in that chapter tweaks your interest, we'll be covering more studio techniques that you may find interesting in the sequel to that book, "Musicology 103."

Dub remixes were released as a standard configuration by the mid '70s, and DJ's constantly played them in the clubs. The open relationship between the United States and Jamaica allowed new styles and trends to drift between the two cultures. By the end of the decade, Rap music made its introduction by creatively looping drum and bass lines with a rhythmic (non-melodic) vocal track and new sounds. Rap brought showmanship to a new level by using the techniques of Jamaican Dancehalls and sound systems, courtesy of innovative DJs like Kool Herc. In case you may have forgotten, we opened up the book chapter by talking about the DJ who brought thunder to the clubs. 'Big ups' to these unsung heroes--they changed the era's musical protocol by breaking down music and remixing it. In America, R&B, Funk, Jazz and Dance music were also broken down and rebuilt; adding anticipation, excitement and exhilaration to physical activity (dancing) and other types of live performances.

Dub music was often fused together in a live setting (people are around), with the mixing board serving as the action centerpiece, as if it were a musical instrument. In the hands of an experienced, partially or totally insane sound engineer or producer, this meant hit records. Besides tweaking the sound processing devices to get a desired or unexpected effect, other studio tricks were also employed. Some techniques include the use of gunshots, screams, sirens, whistles, test tones, mechanical sounds; even physically striking a reverb unit to get a new sound. Therein lays the answer to the exclusivity factor, which was taken very seriously in Jamaican music. Since no one else had the sounds, no one else could play them. To quote pioneering rapper Rakim (of Eric B & Rakim), "I said it before."

By the late '70s, the Imprint label, headed up by top Dub engineer Lloyd James (also known as 'Prince Jammy'), stepped into the limelight to become one of the leading forces in this new wave of music coming from Jamaica. In the meantime, concerts by Jamaican artists were supported by a core group of Blacks and Whites in England and in the United States. The support of British and American recording artists encouraged a curious fan base to listen closer to Reggae. Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton and The Police made hits that hinted at Reggae, while Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder gave their own convincing perspectives. Just take a good listen to groups like The Eagles ("Hotel California") and Steely Dan ("Hey Nineteen") as you dig through hordes of great music tracks to decipher what they and so many others have created during their fabulous careers. More tactical support was on the way when the new Dancehall genre came out of Jamaica. During the late '80s to early '90s, it filtered into the Rap/Hip-Hop culture, by way of transplanted Jamaicans and inner-city Big Apple youth who were already thinking "outside the box."

The loss of Jamaica's musical prophet Bob Marley in 1981 shook the shores of Jamaica and chain-reacted to a worldwide level. Before things improved, things got worse and Jamaica's economics took a nosedive. Political turmoil ran rampant between the Jamaican Labor Party (JLP), and the People's National Party (PNP). Jamaican posses became murderously volatile at home as well as in the States and in the U.K. Well-known activists (including musicians and others) were getting viciously gunned down, left and right. The per-capita statistics were astounding. Something had to give; there was too much trouble popping off on this nearly 150 mile-long island starving for ongoing attention, out in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. Through multiple Prime Minister hand-offs over the years, the bureaucracy of Jamaica (liberated in a year that holds strong significance to me), has passed among seven pairs of hands:

1962 - 1967 Alexander Bustamante (JLP)

1967 Donald Sangster (JLP)

1967 - 1972 Hugh Shearer (JLP)

1972 - 1980 Michael Manley (PNP)

1980 - 1989 Edward Seaga (JLP)

1989 - 1992 Michael Manley (PNP)

1992 - 2006 P.J. Patterson (PNP)

2006 - Present P.S.-Miller (PNP)

Notice anything interesting? It's been said that there's no constant like change: for the first time in history, Jamaica handed off its male-dominated political reigns to another original--the first female Jamaican Prime Minister, in March of 2006. The PNP's own Portia Simpson-Miller succeeded another PNP member, Prime Minister Percival James Patterson.

Over in England, Reggae and Dub artists made successful entrances into the music industry's battle arena by slicing and dicing the studio mix exclusively for the club. By the 90s, the eminent sub-division of Dub music emerged not only from Jamaica, but also the U.K. and U.S. with styles like 'Drum & Bass,' 'Jungle,' 'Trip-Hop' and 'Techno.' International groups from other genres like The Cure, Depeche Mode, Garbage, Living Colour, Nine Inch Nails, and dozens of rappers, producers and DJs tested Dub in their tracks. Dub influences are often heard in recordings with electronic drums, bass, keyboards, strings, and horns in Reggae styles like Dancehall. A popular sound was found in an early form of Reggaeton called Dancehall Reggaespanol, or Spanish Dancehall. This style of music appealed more to people of the Hispanic/Latino societies in Cuba, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and abroad. Spanish Reggae featured Reggae music with Spanish lyrics and catchy horn arrangements. Traditional Latin music may often feature the guitar in songs.