How did you first get into reggae music?

[kukuman]

I had a little bit of reggae/ska exposure at a young age through my parents, mainly frpm their Clash, Specials and UB40 LPs (and later CDs). I think they might have had a Bob Marley album in there too, I can't remember though. They also had a Jimmy Cliff CD, "Special" I think it was called, but I thought it was boring. In my teenage years I sort of forgot about reggae, which is easy to do when you're living in the Pacific Northwest. I remember liking the Scientist tracks in Grand Theft Auto 3 but I didn't really seek out any reggae or dub until a few years later (or, when I started smoking ganja). I started out with some Bob Marley and Peter Tosh albums, then I did a little reading, found the real heavy roots and dub sounds and never looked back!

[ras_gaks]

hi,
'Remember Me' by Lucky Dube [my dad's favourite] suffered heavy rotation, hence d 1st reggae tune I knew.
our neighbour completed d circuit with G.I, Israel Vibration, Steel Pulse, Don Carlos, etc etc etc.
right now, d late Dennis Brown's tunes electrocute me...


bless.
ras_gaks

[Gee]

Just finished surfing all day and heard jah music blaring from a car stereo. Sun, Sand, Waves, Women, & Jah Music! I was 14 and it was 1981.

Never looked back....forward

[Survival]

Well, I already had some bob marley tracks, but not really more than that. So before I went on holiday, I wanted some reggae for my ipod to chill on the beach, and so I downloaded just a random reggae album (trojan roots reggae box) and after I chilled the whole vacantion on that one, I was instantly hooked on reggae, and never wantted anything else.
Pretty stupid story, but oh well.

[I-Lion Tafari]

@survival
Not stupid. A good example for the good vibes of reggae music, zeen?

[chromatic]

Great stories - it's always interesting how random paths lead to things that come to loom large...

Personally I'd always vaguely liked Two Tone ska - and then I was listening to a lot of English post-punk with reggae influences and started investigating roots (and lovers) and liking what I heard a lot - but the real moment was when I turned the radio on randomly one day and heard late 70s-era Johnny Osbourne. Couldn't get that sound out of my head even though it took me a while to make an effort to investigate... but when I did it turned out to be an unregrettable decision.

[GW]

I read articles in this forum quite often - but never put a message there yet. Since the question is veryinteresting I will change my mood...At the age of 14, back in 1984, i listened a lot to post-punk, reggae-influenced music by british bands. Especially The Ruts with their track "Jah War" and the Clashs "Guns of Brixton" were favourites. Then an elder cousin of me sent me a tape with the Twinkle Brothers "Countrymen" on it. I was really blown away and that was the start. I am loving this music for over 20 years and the enthusiasm is still increasing. I love ska, rocksteady, roots and dub - a frontier seems to be the year 1982. Most of the stuff after this date is packed with digital technique and no more my kind of thing.
Regards, GW

[Punxsta]

In '94 and '95 I was lisening to a lot of techno particularly Basic Channel (the guys behind the wackies reissue campaign). Anyway, their stuff has completely different production values to most techno and it got me interested in where they got their sound from. When someone gave me a tape of King Tubby's (I think much of it was Carlton Patterson but I still don't know what half the tracks were) I realised that it was all about dub music. I still listen to techno but, ten years on, I think dub is now my first love.

[Ites]

i think it was about '81 when i heard the uprising album, then a close friend turned me on to it with more stuff from then on

[Jah Pasquerel]

It's interesting to read that many of you discovered reggae from the 2-tone ska sound. I knew reggae music from a few Bob Marley hits, and I liked them, but not deepened within the scene for a long-long time. I discovered reggae more intensely with the help of the early '90s oldskool rave explosion, which used many reggae/dancehall samples. I got some originals after looking at some rave record sleeves for the sample info, and that's how I heard Jah Screechie's 'Walk and Skank' and 'Under Me Sleng Teng' for the first time, and I was bombed by both. I rushed for some more, and listening to reggae music since then. I love many roots stuff as well, but it's the 80s digital sound that completely blows me away.