The Future Of Reggae In The UK

[donstrumental]

Recently there has been a thread on this board discussing the Future of Reggae. I thought people might be interested in these 2 articles relating to the state of Reggae in the UK.

Would love to hear your feedback.

http://www.voice-online.co.uk/content.php?show=18205


http://unitedreggae.com/articles/n528/1 ... n-chandler

Bless

[Maxi Trojan]

So Busy Signal has 229,702 fans on Facebook; but his albums sells 400 copies WTF!

I heard that officially 75% of music was downloaded illegally; in Reggae it must be 99.999999%

[abey]

quote form the first link, for me the best reasoning at all:

But while the statistics might not look promising, some feel the music is more popular than ever. Reggae star Damian Marley says: “Traditionally, reggae music isn’t a music that sells a lot of copies in terms of CDs, but live shows have been the source for most reggae artists’ revenue. And now that the music industry in general is going back to that live music element, it’s a great time for reggae because we already have a head start.”

[donstrumental]

@abey

Yes it's a great quote,but this is not happening in the UK,where are the UK Bands and i'm not talking about Aswad and Steel Pulse!

[Maxi Trojan]

But live/concert performances don't really sit well with sound system culture; which is half dubplate/records and half live vocal. Surely the sound system represents the heart of the music, and live backing band stuff plays second fiddle?

Most of the live stuff I've seen on Youtube emulates the sound system, with the backing band playing there own rewinds. Doesn't look much good to me.

[donstrumental]

. Surely the sound system represents the heart of the music, and live backing band stuff plays second fiddle?

Most of the live stuff I've seen on Youtube emulates the sound system, with the backing band playing there own rewinds. Doesn't look much good to me.

Interesting concept Maxi.

With all due respect, are you saying a concert should feature all soundsystems playing dubplates and no live musician or artist.

I always thought the two are seperate forms of entertainment,and both as important as the other.

Or am i getting old!

Bless

[Maxi Trojan]

They are separate forms of entertainment. I don't think a live performance should feature a backing track rather than musicians.

I just think because the origin of JA music comes from the sound system; playing records, with DJs talking over etc. - Coxsone, Duke Reid et al... This is more important than live performance which is common across all genres.

I know that Jamaican vocal groups and singers have performed live from year dot; but professionally they probably spent more time in the studio making records for radio and sound systems, or recording dubplates directly for sounds, than they did playing live shows.

[donstrumental]

Maxi I respect your opinion but I have to strongly disagree with you.I don't understand your connection between soundsystem and live concert.have you ever been to a Reggae Festival? What does all of this have to do with the state of reggae in the UK?

Correct me if I've missed something?

Peace

[Maxi Trojan]

OK I'll try to be a bit clearer..

Answering your questions: firstly I haven't been to a Reggae festival, but I have been to other music festivals; I just much prefer clubs, but I can see people might think this is short-sighted.

Secondly I agree that Live music is a different art form, but the article was saying that it was the future, as it's the only area that is making cash for the artists. My argument is that recorded music and sound system culture are the heart and soul of Reggae, and that live concerts are secondary to that.

I think this because a song starts in the studio, it's played in the sound system, then it's played on the radio and if it's popular enough it will make it onto an artists live set.....so I can't see why live music is the future when it is the end of the chain.

Thirdly: regarding Reggae in the UK; The Voice article started being about record shops and sales in London, but soon expands as a wider story about the malaise in the genre as a whole. I read an article in the Gleaner about Derricks One Stop, and he said the same, that CDs just weren't selling. This saddens me, and I don't see a thriving live seen as a silver lining; I can see it is an income stream for artists, and that people enjoy it, but I don't think Reggae has a future if the rest of the business is wiped out.

[Stick-a-Bush]

One of the problems I see with the reggae at the moment is that recent CDs are just too damn expensive.

I realize that this is probably because the labels are trying to make up the money lost though illegal downloads - but is charging £15-£20 (or more) for a single CD, or releasing only in countries where albums are vastly overpriced by default (i.e. Japan) *really* going to encourage people *not* to just download it for free somewhere? Especially considering the current financial climate?

Well, that and the long-standing issue with reggae artists getting ripped off left, right and centre by the record labels and never seeing a penny (or only receiving token payment) for their efforts, even when records with their names on have sold shedloads. Can't be very conducive to encouraging the artists to continue making music as a full-time profession, given that album sales are down anyway and they're getting an even smaller slice of very little...

Oh yeah - there's also the 'Everything released after 198x is shit - I've never listened to any of it myself, but I know it's shit' mindset amongst reggae fans (though it's far, far from exclusive to reggae - punk and oi have loads of that too, leading to good young bands playing in front of 50 people four times a year). Which is just pathetic, IMO.