Ways to Preserve Nature

Marchellet Atkins
Westchester Community College
Assignment 4
Reggae music

Professor Linda T .Kalfayan
Voice and Diction

Reggae Music

Reggae, a Caribbean music developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s, one of the most influential styles of world popular music. The style often associated with political protest, combined elements of Jamaican folk music, Afro-Caribbean music and American R&B, reggae music primarily originated from the progressive developments of rock steady and ska. Bob Marley, a popular reggae musician, said that the term reggae came from the Spanish term for “the king’s music”. Today, reggae music continues to be a significant influence on many other genres such as black music, soul music and chill out music.
Reggae has its roots in Jamaican musical styles such as mento, ska, and rock steady. The origins can be traced to the 1940s and the emergence of mento, a hybrid folk-song genre that combines folk music traditions with calypso, the national music of Trinidad. Mento features rhythmic, syncopated guitar strumming and lively, topical lyrics.

In the 1950s Jamaican musicians began to experiment with drum and bass patterns, inspired by the R&B broadcast by radio stations in the United States. By the 1960s R&B and mento had fused into an upbeat style of dance music known as ska. Influenced by American jazz, ska was predominantly instrumental. Rhythmically it stressed the second and fourth beats of a measure. Ska was popularized in the communities by sound systems, van equipped with record turntables that traveled the slums of the Jamaican capital of Kingston, playing the latest hit recordings.

By the mid-1960s a mellower version of ska, known as rock steady, became the more popular form. In contrast to ska, the sparse, slower rhythms of rock steady allowed the vocalist to play a greater role. This encouraged the formation of a number of Jamaican pop vocal groups. Rock steady also put more emphasis on the bass lines, and its song lyrics reflected a growing awareness of injustice. Soon rock steady was combined with traditional mento rhythms to produce reggae music. "Do the Reggay" (1968). Reggae inverted traditional rock music by allowing the guitar to handle much of the rhythmic emphasis, often playing chords on the offbeat while the bass laid down melodic patterns. Jamaican singer Jimmy Cliff became the first reggae performer to achieve international popularity, largely because of his lead role in the motion picture The Harder They Come (1973), for which he also performed the title song. The film featured a powerful reggae soundtrack.

Bob Marley, one of the most prolific and influential reggae artists, was the next to rise to international popularity, and he eventually became reggae 's biggest star. The Jamaican singer, songwriter, and guitarist combined soulful melodies with strident lyrics that were informed by the Biblical mysticism and Afro-Caribbean awareness of the Rastafarian religion. During the 1970s, Marley and many other Jamaican musicians sang about black unification and liberation while advocating the smoking of ganja (marijuana) as a religious sacrament. Marley and prominent members of his band the Wailers, such as Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston, openly embraced the "rebel" image that their music acquired over time. Marley gained mainstream recognition with his 1975 album Natty Dread. By the time of his death from cancer in 1981, Marley and the Wailers had won worldwide respect for their highly melodic, spiritually moving, and politically militant pop songs.
Music did end there as time progress the music industry branches on a broader spectrum dance hall . I will just give a little insight about it. Dancehall was emerges somewhere around the 1980’s. In this period of dancehall the music moved away from the sound system style to instead be more artiste focused, this is marked by the rise of artistes such as Papa San, Shabba, Bounty Killer, Buju Banton, Beenie Man, and Spragga Benz (among many others). The early 90’s were a time when the music was focused on women and relationships. Today dancehall reggae is very popular and his known for its various dances such as pon di river, duty whine, bruck it dun among many others. Dancehall , is a worldwide music that keeps on becoming a big hit in the Caribbean with many new artiste emerging almost yearly, in 2012 a lot of new artiste are on the rise just to name a few Popcorn, Tommy Lee, Vybz Kartel , spice Pamputae and many others. In Jamaica and the Caribbean music plays a pivotal role because it comes with benefits to the community and the country at large, music helps to bring people together and helps to keep crime at bay. If you really want to feel and experience the real reggae music and dancehall you could go to Jamaica each and every night in Jamaica there is a party on the street somewhere in the 14 parishes besides that you have a lot of freedom to dance and express yourself you can free style, stands on your head, whine on your partners or just move your body to the beats if you are interested and wants to learn more about reggae is log on to YouTube, Pandora, and also 93.5 fm.

Dancehall reggae is my favorite kind of chill out music because whenever I am down or lonely it helps me to cope and every artiste that I listen to have something that I can connect to my life.

Works Cited
http://www.reggaemovement.com/rm/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6&Itemid=17

Cited: http://www.reggaemovement.com/rm/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6&Itemid=17