Why would you recommend someone (non reggae fan) to listen to reggae?

[Dubbaddikt]

At a pinch I would put on Best Dressed Chicken In Town by Doctor Alimantado , I challenge anyone not to get up and skank to this one!or if i didnt have that lp it would have to be Reason for Living/Born for a Purpose, also by the good doctor.

[poots]

i wouldnt do that. but if u ask me, its becouse this music is the SALVATION

[Pots n Pans]

The people who claim all reggae sounds the same usually don't understand that the emphasis is on the bass and drum, and not the guitar. it's the opposite of rock music, which emphasizes guitar over bass. it can take a few weeks of listening to reggae for a person to adjust their expectations.

I think there is something in this. A friend and me were listening to a DJ play his way through the Soul Jazz Dynamite series at a student party when he remarked that it all sounded the same.

'You're listening to the guitars, aren't you?', I said. (He was, and still is, mostly a rock fan.)

'Yes.'

'Listen to the bass and the drums!', I shouted.

It didn't click straight away, but he can stand to listen a bit of reggae now and again these days, and has bought a few Bob Marley albums. Pretty much the same way I started, as a matter of fact...

[Iron_Spire]

the most important thing is to play it LOUD on a good system so they can hear the power of the bass.

I find a cheap set of headphones is better than an expensive stereo system a lot of times.

[Star]

I find a cheap set of headphones is better than an expensive stereo system a lot of times.

Even the bass sound better?

[Rootsmanx]

Listen to reggae music preferably over loudspeaker, with headphones you experience the music only via your ears... Something is missing in that case.

In general you have to be a lunatic to like reggae. lyrics about living god, herbs,white slave drivers,.. and slackness. The music itself is very simple and repetitive, with almost hypnotic effects. Engineers modifying the sound into surrealistic soundscapes... The artists themselves are not always very consistant either, making music about peace & love and in the mean time running gangs. Not to mention that some artists seem to come from another planet...

For me it is very hard to explain, why i like it. I fully understand people think i am grazy loving this sound. Reggae is life, like it or not, don't try to understand, you won't...
Its about the heart not the mind...

[George]

From a modern perspective I think alot of people my age (21) are getting into reggae (both vintage roots and modern steppa style) is because of the aesthetic similarities the genre has to hip-hop, jungle and dubstep.

[Marky Dread]

I have a hard time "recommending" Reggae to people - I sound like a fool with my eyes lit up, I just make a CD mix of some late 60's to mid 70's chunes, mixing conscious content with some social content and the rest is EASY. Once they hear that it does NOT "all sound the same", we have a convert! The quality of the music grabs the soul...

[Dubbaddikt]

My partner still makes jokes about my liking for reggae I don't think she GETS it , yet.I'm still trying to convert her...watch this space.What annoys me more is the endless Reggae compilations you see in supermarkets where you know it will be the same re-hashed bands like Maxi Priest, UB40 and stuff which doesnt even fall into that category,like Shabba Ranks and Sean Paul which to me is Dancehall.If only a decent compilation would hit the shelves people would see that their is more to Reggae than this pop-reggae you hear on the radio, and more to reggae than another Marley compilation (no offence to Marley fans)but all his material has been released and re-released so many times. If only Pressure Sounds had targeted the supermarkets, just imagine how surprised youd be to find that in Morrisons or Asda!

[HighRankingSammy]

i hope to GOD that never ever happens. of course i wish reggae albums were more popular/accessible/cheap/existent. but the idea of my mum stumbling upon mpla whilst looking for the latest michael bublé album puts fear in my heart. no one gets my liking for reggae, which is fair enough. what's worse is when people hear you like reggae and start talking about dubstep/modern dancehall/rubbish as though all music from jamaica is exchangeable.