Legends passing......future of reggae

[ital kemar]

hi mick. i bought the 'new roots' from 99/2000 up to 2 or 3 years ago. i stopped because i find it very boring nowadays. yes there are some good tunes, but if i have an hour or two to relax and listen to some music, i find i never play that stuff anymore. just my opinion but no way do richie spice etc compare to the greats of the roots era. i dont think theres any of the 'new roots' will ever musically touch anyone the way joseph hill, dennis brown or gregory isaacs have. i love reggae music, always have, but for me, sadly, the modern stuff, bashment, dancehall, whatever name its called, does nothing for me. and with vinyl and cds dying out i think things wont get any better. with little or no money going back into the industry theres not going to be much of any substance coming out.
so i'll just keep buying and listening to what i know and love. roots reggae from the golden era. theres plenty out there i havent heard yet, enough to keep me busy for a while yet. respects.

[ital kemar]

forgot to mention, outside of J.A. i think theres some fine music from the uk and france at the moment, in a roots style from dougie conscious, russ disciples, dub judah etc. i hope these producers have a bright future in the business.

[ice]

Wow, what old fashioned thinking. Reggae is not something that died in 1985, everyone. Tarrus Riley, Richie Spice, Alborosie, Jah Cure and others are the modern day equivalents of Junior Byles, Johnny Clarke, Gregory Isaacs and Horace Andy. Respect to the roots, but stop living (and listening) in the past!

sorry Mick but neither of the bands / singers you listed can live up to any of the "old school artists" you mentioned, no way...so what's wrong with listening in the past? there are thousands of LPs and singles to choose from, more than either of us will ever have the time to listen to...and by the way: nobody said (at least I didn't) that reggae per se died; I said that ROOTS Reggae and Reggae's golden era died in the mid 80s and that in my personal opinion 99% of what was released before 1985 is better than everything that was published afterwards...of course there are still reggae bands...but are they filling stadiums like marley did? will either of their releases be voted "album of the century"? do they record stuff like "Blackheart Man", "Night Nurse", "Marcus Garvey", "Right Time"? no f***ing way

[alonsoreggae]

It's a matter of time mah friends, reggae music will come to the top once again. It may be in a new shape and form (def not the new ragga style that talks about guns and violence and degradating women). Music evolves, and so does reggae; even Marley's style was an evolution of what early reggae used to be. IMO reggae is still a strong force in the musical world, but the mainstream has alienated it, limiting only the Marley lastname. Soon you'll know who the real revolutionaries are!

[NinoNorrland]

ice: With all due respect, claiming that reggae has no future because current reggae doesn't interest you is like claiming that there's no future for clothes because your favourite shirt went out of fashion twenty odd years ago.

[Rootts]

Bredrens:
What Ice is meanly saying is that all the new artist that are coming out can not produce full albums, which you do not skip at least half of the songs. This is because of its poor lyrics and beats.

Lets take for example the so called good coming roots guys; Tarrus Riley, Richie Spice, Alborosie, Jah Cure. These guys can only produce three out of twelve decent songs on their albums. And for sure all these new artist do not understand what "roots and culture" beat is suppose to sound like.

For some of you who still do not understand what a 70's and 80's beat sounded like, listen to some of the classics and compare them to the new roots guys (listen to new
album and see which songs will fit in the Golden era )

Here are some of the examples from different artist:
Third world /96 Degrees in the shade
Culture / Tell me where you get it
Burning Spear / Christopher Columbus
Dennis Brown / Country living
Gregory Issacs / Substitute

There many more too. Another artist that could have at least helped out in carrying the ROOTS music is Luciano, but the is so lost its not even funny.

Jah bless.

P/S please do not put artist such as Tarrus Riley, Richie Spice, Alborosie and Jah Cure with Junior Byles, Johnny Clarke, Gregory Isaacs and Horace Andy in the same sentence, you will break my heart.

[donstrumental]

The golden era came to a halt with the introduction of technology,many blamed Sleng Teng for this but Sly Dunbar was playing around with machines well before Sleng Teng.Sly was probably the best travelled drummer in the 70's and 80's and was well influenced by the rest of the world.The result of this is whatever Sly Dunbar decided to do,the rest of Jamaica follows.

Musicians and studios became redundant as it became cheaper to knock out riddims made by 1 or 2 people,this is where reggae fell on its face as reggae is all about a collective of people working together to make one sound,even going to the extreme of recording in one studio and mixing in another to create a particular sound.(this is the norm for modern day pop music !).

Musicians are back to instruments again so with time i'm sure something special will emerge but i'm afraid there will never be another Channel One or Tubbys but to be fair there will never be another Motown or Spektor.

[Mick Sleeper]

P/S please do not put artist such as Tarrus Riley, Richie Spice, Alborosie and Jah Cure with Junior Byles, Johnny Clarke, Gregory Isaacs and Horace Andy in the same sentence, you will break my heart.

Isn't that like going back in time to 1976 and saying "Please do not put artists such as Bob Marley, Johnny Clarke, Burning Spear and Big Youth with Slim Smith, Alton Ellis, Jackie Opel and U Roy in the same sentence, you will break my heart. These guys can only produce three out of twelve decent songs on their albums."

[Gabranth]

If Tarrus Riley or Chezidek would travel back in time to 1979 an would record an album with the Roots Radics at Channel One... I'm sure that the entire album would be killer, not just three songs.

It's the production, equipment, technology being used today that makes the biggest difference imho. Analog recording equipment!

On the other hand if Dennis Brown in 1975 would have traveled forward in time to 2010 and record an album with let's say Philip "Fatis" Burrell or Bobby Digital, it wouldn't be much better than a new Chezidek album imho.

[ital kemar]

hi gabranth. i agree with you. over the years i've followed the careers of some artists special to me, like culture, ijahman, gregory isaacs, and the weaker albums in my collection by them, are from the latter years. coincedence?? i dont think so. its as you mention above. i know the artist have to earn too, but the quality is way too low much of the time.
hopefully as don says, the musicians are coming back. but who's going to pay for studio time?? if you cant sell your music wheres the money going to come from???
another gripe i have with the modern roots is they are using the same old riddims over and over again. i know this has been going on for years and now and again its nice to hear a new lyric on a classic riddim, but it gets a bit repetitive, and therefore boring. we need new music (by musicians) and that has to be the way forward. don, i've seen you play with both the dep band and the dub ashante band. tight groups. dont you think these outfits are good enough to go to a studio with a singer?? i do. but studio time = money. thats the catch. selling the product. downloading (technology) has cut the throat of the music industry. imo.