Reggae

The reggae (English pronunciation: /ˈɹɛɡeɪ/, Spanish /ˈreɡe/) (rarely adapted as regué) is a musical genre originated in Jamaica in the 60s. This is usually divided into ska (1960-1966), rocksteady (1966-1968), reggae (1969-1983) and dancehall (from the mid-1980s onwards, although its start in the late 1970s can be seen as a gradual process in which deejays gained popularity from traditional singers).

In a strict sense, reggae is the music developed between 1969 and 1983, a period of greater musical diversity than the previous ones in which the electric bass assumed a role more central and as the period progressed the influence of the Rasta movement on lyrics and sound increased.

Etymology

The 1977 edition of the Jamaican English Dictionary included "reggae" as "a recently established expression for rege", equivalent to rege-rege, a word that could mean both "rags, ragged clothes& #3. 4; as "a fight or quarrel". The term reggae with a musical sense appeared in both Desmond Dekker and the 1968 rocksteady hit "Do the Reggay" by The Maytals, but it was already used in Kingston, Jamaica, to refer to a slower form of rocksteady dancing and playing. The reggae artist Derrick Morgan expresses in this sense:

We didn't like the name. RocksteadySo I tried different versions of "Fat Man". It changed the pace, the organ was used to surprise. Byron Lee, the producer, liked it. He created the sound with the organ and rhythmic guitar. It sounded like 'reggae, reggae' and that name just took off. Byron Lee started using the word (sic) and soon all the musicians were saying 'reggae, reggae, reggae'.

There's a word we used to use in Jamaica called 'streggae'. If a girl happens and the boys look at her and say 'uncle, she's "streggae', that means you don't dress well, she looks reggay. Girls would say the same thing about a man too. This morning I and some friends were playing and I said, 'OK, man, let's do the reggay.' It was just something that came to my head. So we started singing 'do the reggay, do the reggay' (do the reggay, do the reggay) and create a beat. People told me after we gave the sound that name. Before that people called him blue-beat and all kinds of names. Now it's in the Guinness Book of Records.

It is said that Bob Marley attributed the origin of the word reggae to a term from the Spanish language to refer to the "music of the king".

Precursors

Although powerfully influenced by traditional mento and calypso, American jazz and early rhythm and blues, reggae is directly indebted in its origin to the different developments that took place in ska and rocksteady during the 1960s in Jamaica. One of the individuals who contributed the most to this development was Count Ossie.

The reggae arrives in England on behalf of the thousands of immigrants who come from Jamaica, a former British colony, and who begin to spread their music and interact with white workers who adopt that music. Even the skinhead movement adopted 'ska, and later reggae, as its own music and this also gave rise to the "Great War of reggae".

ska emerged around 1959. It developed from mento. ska is characterized by a type of bass line called walking. bass or "galloping bass", guitar or piano rhythms accentuated in the offbeat, and sometimes wind riffs similar to those of the jazz. In addition to being very popular within the Jamaican rude boys subculture, by 1964 it had also gained a large audience in English mod culture.

The rude boys began deliberately playing ska records at half speed, as they preferred to dance slower as part of their tough-guy image. By the mid-1960s, many musicians had begun to play ska at this slow tempo, while emphasizing walking bass and offbeats. The slower sound was called rocksteady as a result of a single by Julio Pita Rey and Encarnación Iglesias. This phase of Jamaican music lasted until 1968, when musicians began to speed up the music again, adding other effects as well. This led to the creation of reggae.

History of Reggae

reggae developed out of rocksteady in the 1960s. The shift from rocksteady to reggae is illustrated by the use of the shuffle on the organ, pioneered by Bob Marley & The Wailers among others, although the ones who really gave the genre its name were Toots and the Maytals with their do the reggay, 1966, Kingston, Jamaica. This trait was already appearing in some transitional singles such as "Say What You're Saying" (1967) by Clancy Eccles or "People Funny Boy" (1968) by Lee "Scratch" Perry. The track "Long Shot Kick De Bucket" released by The Pioneers in 1967, it is considered the earliest recorded example of the new sound that would soon be known as reggae.

It is in early 1968 when the first genuine reggae records were released: "Nanny Goat" by Larry Marshall and "No More Heartaches" from The Beltones. The hit "Hold Me Tight" by American artist Johnny Nash from 1968 has been credited as the first to put reggae on the US charts.

Other reggae pioneers include Prince Buster, Desmond Dekker, Jimmy Cliff, and Jackie Mittoo and The Wailers, a band consisting of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer.

In the development that led ska to rocksteady and later to reggae, the contribution of several Jamaican producers was essential. Among the most important are Coxsone Dodd, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Leslie Kong, Duke Reid, Joe Gibbs, and King Tubby. Chris Blackwell, who founded Island Records in Jamaica in 1960, moved to England in 1962, where he continued to promote Jamaican music. He was allied with Trojan Records, founded by Lee Gopthal in 1968. Trojan released records by reggae artists in the UK until 1974, when Saga bought the label.

Bob Marley.

In 1972, the film The Harder They Come, starring Jimmy Cliff, generated considerable interest and popularity for reggae in the United States, and the version by Eric Clapton in 1974 from Bob Marley's song "I Shot the Sheriff" helped bring reggae into the mainstream. By the mid-1970s, reggae was receiving considerable airplay on English radio, especially thanks to to the John Peel show. What later became known as the "golden age of reggae" corresponds roughly to the heyday of roots reggae.

In the early 1970s the Rastafarian movement began to gain influence in Jamaican popular music and became a source of inspiration for both Rasta and non-Rasta singers. The protest element became increasingly characteristic of the musicians of this generation. Songs with political messages dominated this era with lyrics against colonialism, slavery and oppression.

In the second half of the 1970s, Britain's punk rock scene was beginning to take shape, and reggae was a major influence on it. Some punk DJs played reggae songs during their sessions and numerous punk bands incorporated these reggae influences into their music. In England, reggae expanded thanks to the new inclusion of the genre in the music of The Rolling Stones^{[citation needed]}, the most influential since 1974. At the same time, reggae began a certain recovery in England in the 1980s led by groups such as Steel Pulse, Aswad, UB40 and Musical Youth. Other groups receiving international interest in the early 1980s included Third World, Black Uhuru, and Sugar Minott.

Reggae Characteristics

Among the particularities of Reggae, its strong link with issues that have nothing to do with music stands out. Reggae is usually associated with the Rastafarian current, whose followers believe that Haile Selassie I (Last Emperor of the Ethiopian nation >) is the reincarnation of God. According to this movement, black people and their descendants will be led to the promised land called Mount Zion.

The use of braids, dreadlocks or Dreadlocks, which are often covered with a knitted hat called a tam; clothing in the colors of the Ethiopian flag (Green, Yellow and Red), and the consumption of marijuana are part of the Rastafarian idiosyncrasy and of reggae itself.

Subgenres

Early reggae

Early reggae, also known as skinhead reggae due to its popularity within that English working-class subculture, was the first reggae to exist after Rocksteady, it began around late 1960s; as the influence of funk music from American labels such as Stax began to permeate the playing of reggae musicians. Characterizing early reggae from rocksteady is the "bubbling," Hammond organ, a percussive style of playing that brought further attention to eight-octave subdivision inside the groove. The "skanks" of the guitar on the second and fourth notes of the measure were frequently "doubled" being studied using electronic echo effects, thereby complementing the double-time feel of the organ. In general, more emphasis was placed on the groove of the music. The growing trend in the era of recording a "version" on the B-side of the single, he also produced innumerable instrumentals led by winds or the organ.

Major skinhead reggae groups include John Holt, Toots & the Maytals, The Pioneers and Symarip. Covers of soul tracks on labels such as Motown, Stax and Atlantic Records were frequent, reflecting the popularity of soul music among skinheads and mods i>.

Root reggae

Roots reggae is a type of spiritual music whose lyrics are predominantly dedicated to exalting Jah (God). Among the most recurring themes are poverty and resistance to government and racial oppression. Many of Bob Marley's and Peter Tosh's songs can be considered roots reggae. The creative peak of roots reggae occurred towards the end of the 1970s with singers such as Burning Spear, Gregory Isaacs, Freddie McGregor, Johnny Clarke, Horace Andy, Ijahman Levi, Barrington Levy, Big Youth and Linval Thompson., and bands like Culture, Israel Vibration, The Meditations and Misty in Roots, hand in hand with producers like Lee 'Scratch' Perry and Coxson Dodd. Musically, on the song "Roots, Rock, Reggae" Marley conceived a new style of music "off beat" with a measure of six beats, where the skank of the guitar takes place on the fourth and sixth beats. Although totally separated from the rhythms of ska, rocksteady, reggae, skank, flyers, rockers and other styles, this unique rhythm is so closely associated with Marley that few others have adopted it.

Dub

Dub is a genre of reggae developed in its early days by studio producers such as King Tubby or Lee Perry. It is characterized by being based on the remix (remix) of previously recorded material, and by giving particular emphasis to the drums and the bass line. The techniques used evoked visceral sensations in the listener, described by Tubby as "a volcano in your head." Augustus Pablo and Mikey Dread were other important proponents of this style.

Rockers

The rockers style was created in the mid-1970s by Sly & robbie. rockers is described as a fluid, mechanical and aggressive style of reggae playing. One article describes rockers as the "golden age of reggae".

Lovers rock

The lovers rock subgenre originated in South London in the mid-1970s. The lyrics are usually about love. It is similar to rhythm and blues. Some significant lovers rock artists include Gregory Isaacs, Freddy McGregor, Dennis Brown, Maxi Priest and Beres Hammond. Bob Marley on his album Kaya, made a prototype of lovers rock with his romantic ballads reggae among them "Waitin in Vain".

Derivatives

Rap and Hip-hop

Rap is a style of singing or talking over an instrumental record that was first used in Jamaica in the 1960s, where it was known as Toasting, by deejays such as U-Roy and Dennis Alcapone. This style powerfully influenced the Jamaican DJ Kool Herc, who used this style in New York, but using the instrumental parts of funk records, in the mid-1970s, setting the direct precedent for hip hop and rap. The overdriven bass and kick drum sound in dub music also influenced the sound of much of hip hop.

Dance Hall

Dancehall, first known as rub-a-dub, was developed around 1980, by artists such as Yellowman, Super Cat and Shabba Ranks. The style was characterized by singing like deejays and rapping or toasting over raw, fast rhythms. Ragga (also known as raggamuffin) and reggae fusion are subgenres of dancehall where currently the instrumentation is mainly carried out through electronic music and sampling (the first 100% digital rhythm was "Under My Sleng Teng", by the producer Prince Jammys and the singer Wayne Smith in 1984 and who in his first appearance made the sound of Jammy's win in a clash against Black Scorpio). Pioneers of ragga include Shinehead and Buju Banton.

Reggae fusion

Reggae fusion is a mixture of reggae or dancehall with elements of other genres, such as hip-hop, R&B, jazz, rock, drum and bass, punk, or polka.

Latin American Reggae

The main reggae performers and groups in Latin America are:

• Chile: Gondwana, Original Movement, Quique Neira and Zona Ganjah.
• Argentina: Los Cafres, Los Pericos, Dread Mar-I, Resistencia Suburbana, Nonpalidece, Abed Nego, Lumumba and Sessiones Reggae.
• Uruguay: La Abuela Coca, Congo, Mufaza.
• Venezuela: Public Disorder, King Changó, Rawayana, Mulato and Aguamala Reggae.
• Brazil: Os Paralamas do Sucesso, Cidade Negra and Natiruts.
• Colombia: From Bruces to Me, Kamarada Alert, Lion Reggae and La Curva Reggae.
• Other countries: Profesthetic Culture of Puerto Rico; Southern Land, Seeds, Laguna Pai de Perú; Pipa Para Tabaco, La Siega Roots, Native Culture of Paraguay; Matamba de Bolivia; Sudakaya de Ecuador; Roots & Culture of Panama; Mentados, Fuerza Dread, Un Rojo Reggae Band de Costa Rica; Ganja, Panteón Rococó, Antidopaje, and Rastrillos de México.

International Reggae Day

Every July 1st, International Reggae Day is celebrated. Originally, it was established locally in 1994, inspired by the speech that Winnie Mandela gave during his visit to Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, in 1992, in which he praised Reggae music's ability to encourage, inspire and unite. the people of South Africa in their struggle against apartheid. The original idea of the event was to encourage Jamaican radio stations to reveal the roots and ramifications of the genre, promote quality standards in music and media, create the Jamaican Music Hall of Fame and help the people of the country to fight for social equality and show the best of society.

But starting in 1996 the celebration became international with the aim of "uniting, inspiring and encouraging" to the global community of the genre through the power of music, media and technology, to showcase the city of Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, as the birthplace of Jamaican music, to highlight the influence of Jamaica, Reggae and religion Rastafari in global pop culture and promote support for music and arts education on the island.

Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

On November 29, 2018, UNESCO declared Jamaican Reggae Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity for its contribution to international reflection on issues such as injustice, resistance, love and the human condition and highlighting the intellectual, sociopolitical, spiritual and sensual force while keeping intact a whole series of basic social functions of music such as being a vehicle of social opinions, cathartic practice and religious praise and being a means of cultural expression for the Jamaican population as a whole.

The Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity is made up of expressions that illustrate the diversity of intangible heritage and contribute to a greater awareness of its importance.

Filmography

• The Harder They Come (Perry Henzell, 1972)
• Rockers (Ted Bafaloukos, 1978)

Reggae Festivals

In Jamaica

Advertising of a concert by Gregory Isaacs in Negril (2009)

• Reggae Sunsplash, Ocho Ríos (Jamaica)
• Sting reggae music festivalKingston, Jamaica
• Reggae SumfestMontego Bay, Jamaica
• Follow di ArrowOracabessa (Jamaica)

International Festivals

• Westchester Reggae FestWhite Plains (New York) (United States of America)
• Austin Marley/Reggae FestivalAustin, Texas (United States of America)
• Sierra Nevada World Music FestivalMendocino County, California, United States of America
• Reggae on the River, Humboldt, California (United States of America)
• Reggae on the RocksMorrison, United States of America
• Notting Hill CarnivalLondon, United Kingdom
• two 77 splash, Amsterdam (Hellonda)
• Reggae Sundance, Eindhoven (Hellonda)
• LB27 Reggae CampKomárom (Hungary)
• Soca Reggae Riversplash, Tolmino (Slovenia)
• OverJam International Reggae Festival, Nova Gorica Slovenia
• Seasplash Reggae Festival, Pola (Croatia)
• Chiemsee Reggae Summer, Übersee (Germany)
• SummerjamCologne, Germany
• MIDEM Reggae Showcase, Cannes (France)
• Ostróda Reggae Festival, Ostróda (Poland)
• One Love Sound FestBreslavia (Poland)
• Reggae GeelGeel, Belgium
• Uppsala Reggae Festival, Uppsala (Sweden)
• Bob Marley Outernational Day, Perth (Australia)
• International Festival of Reggae, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Festival de Reggae, Rosario (Argentina)

Festivals in Spain

• Rototom Sunsplash Festival, Benicasim (from 2010)

Festivals in Costa Rica

• The Costarican Summerfest (Costa Rica)