who should hail as the king of reggae now?

[Rocker Johnny]

Leroy Wallace?

Lee Perry?

[Siegi]

Now, going back to reggae and rasta, i can say one important point:
Reggae music was created predominantly by rasta. Rasta did not ADOPT reggae. More true to say that reggae adopted rasta...

Haile I

Cannot say anything on rasta believe, there are too many different Rasta believes. And Iam not an expert. So I leave that to you to say something about it. Yes I thought the Bible was important.

Futhermore to let you see hown stupid the claim of a religion claiming a music style is:

Ska - Christian
Rocksteady - Christian
Early Reggae - Christian/Rasta
Roots Reggae - Rasta
Danchehall - Rasta/nonbelievers
All the same people so what is your piont should a Christian claim it were the Christians that invented Ska.

Were as Gospel was originated from church music. Reggae didnt emerge from the Rastafarians church. So that is why I say adopted. Like I said Nyabinghi is much closer to Rastafarians origins then Reggae.

What did Rasta believe do for Reggae. The mayority was Rasta when the best reggae period (imho) the roots reggae and Dub emerged. Irrelevant like I said but that is true and the Rasta people infuenced heavily the lyrics. Also the Rasta believe added allot of mysic to Reggae music. When Reggae became wellknown the players all had the Rasta religion and that promoted Reggae very well. But did being a Rasta infuenced the way they played Regggae music or develop reggae further?

That is the question.

Or let me put it this way if they stayed Christians did the roots reggae sounded differently? I tend to think that political instability, being poor and growing up in a particular music scene with certain chararistics was of a greater influence. The only thing that reggae music needed and eg Christians probably couldnt deliver is mystic and therefore exra promotion. So it was good that the music got ADOPTED by a religion called Rastafari that finally exposed the music with mystic to the world.

Finaly to make my point the roots of Yabby You (a christian) doenst sound different or less then that of Lee Perry. Why?? Because other things then a religion was of greater influence.

If my neighbour sais 'he reggae/rasta' I smile but if some people in a specialised reggae forum sais the same thing I will try to put things in perspective to show them that they are basically two different things that inlfuenced each other but none created the other one.

[mourdub]

Love Rasta. People fight down Africa all the time. Africa is the birthplace of Reggae and the sunshine makes it sound gay and sweet. Those are only a few major factors to take into consideration.
Music doesn't rely on suppression or love of a people without engaging the elements that we depend upon.

The list above only centre's around belief and ignores the aspect of the love for melodic sounds. People love music and everyone is influenced by foreign sounds.

There's to many hits sung or played by Jamaicans that originated outside Jamaica. That has just made me wonder if America had been the birthplace of Reggae/Ska, would there be a lot more sounds systems in the world?

I couldn't know! Religion played it's part in the formation of all types of music, especially from Africa, and what would Reggae sound like if Jamaica had the weather system like Britain?

I respect what people are saying, but looking at it with a wider point of view and in my record box, there is to many
outside forces that we could bring into focus.

[blakbeltjonez]

hmmmm. i dunno about Africa being the birthplace of reggae... Africa is the birthplace of African music.

having lived in both Jamaica and the U.S., this is my perspective:

what reggae was in Africa before it was in Jamaica?

nothing that you would recognize as reggae, i'll bet.

i do get that African culture, and African music (especially that which black people carried with them and passed down to later generations) would have been a source of inspiration, for sure.

and from Africa, you have Kumina, Poco and other revival influences that have been kept alive in church (reportedly, Jamaica has more churches per capita than anywhere else on earth) - and then other derivations like Jonkannu and hybrid dance types like the old timey quadrille (that mocked European dance) and bruckins.


and you also get (from Kumina) burru drumming (aka called Nyabingi drumming these days, the later name for the same thing which had existed for many, many years).

and certainly African consciousness in a popular sense was a big deal, at the same time that interest in Rastafari took off after Haile Selassie's visit to Jamaica in 1966. Black consciousness was also at it's peak here in the US during the late 60's, but it really took hold in Jamaica in a way that didn't last here in the U.S. much past the early 70's.

but ska, rocksteady, and reggae were products of Jamaica - and reggae became popular in parts of Africa, but that doesn't mean that Africa was the birthplace, otherwise we would have had reggae coming from Africa before Jamaica.



regarding your theoretical question, the US is so utterly different than Jamaica, i can't see any way that reggae ever could have started here. as it is now, even Americans of African descent are culturally quite different from Jamaicans of African descent. two different worlds. and reggae is so heavily laden with Jamaican culture and language, there's no way it would have been remotely the same thing.

the sound systems thrived in Jamaica (really at first in Kingston, which is a fairly small area geographically) because people were generally too poor to afford even a radio, up until the arrival of the RJR Rediffusion rental units, and later the smaller transistor radios in the 60's. not many poor people could afford records, let alone a record player.

in the US, the economic boom during WWII and postwar meant that just about anyone could easily afford at least a radio.

but anyways, it's a mistake to conflate Africa with the birthplace of reggae. Jamaica is probably a lot more different than any place in Africa you could care to name. you put a Jamaican in Africa, or an African in Jamaica, you'll get the same result - culture shock. just the same as you'd get if you take a white dude from Russia and put him in Texas, and vice versa.


reggae, as well as it's African influence AND also the input/influence of Rastafarians (remember, we are not "fighting anyone down" here), is also a product of sound system culture (which began right after WWII),Jamaican popular culture, the country/R&B/pop of 50's and 60's American AM superstations (lots of older Jamaicans are country music fans, and many reggae songs are covers of old country classics), Cuban music (lots of influence there), studio and music technology, the Black Power movement in the U.S., and probably a dozen other things or more.

reggae, like any other music, was born from the influences and environment around it.

[Roots Archives]

Well, thank you Blakbeltjonez. That puts it all into place.

[Roots Archives]

If you love reggae, must love rasta because the two is too closely linked ....

If you say this in Jamaica, most will think you're a fool. Most people don't particularly like Rastas in the first place, for their own reasons.

If you can't see why Jah is the King of Reggae music then you need to start listening to disco

I can't see it but refuse to listen to disco. Although some disco can be quite entertaining.

Lovers rock is barely reggae... and I wouldn't count bad brains or ub40 or maxi priest as reggae .

The UK 'Lover's Rock' is very much reggae including UB40 and the lot.

too many weak hearts and bad mind trying to fight down rasta!!

Please!!!!

One more thing: @‘Strictly Rob’, Matty and others: I have deleted the whole ‘Cuba’ discussion seeing that wasn’t going anywhere.

[Gabranth]

I love the first couple of UB40 Albums. Some very good Reggae tunes on it imho. Totally off-topic, sorry. But this thread is off-topic since page 2 anyway

[vlad]

Snoop King Lion

[unorthodoxconqueror]

Snoop King Lion

ha!

[mourdub]

Agree with everything you wrote Blackbelt. My answer was in relation to what Jahsteppa claiming Reggae is Rasta. Reggae to me is Africa and as you pointed out, the transistor enabled Jamaicans to listen to African American music, even music from Brazil, another African colony. The history of music is personal to me and it all goes back to Africa.
Rasta hail their roots from Africa and create music with African instruments.
Never implied Reggae was the creation of an African American or indeed an African, just speculating and seeing it only in the broader sense with the whole concept of music in mind, and not seeing it as just religion driven.
It is clearly not just religion that makes Reggae.

My parents are Jamaican and have told me lots things that makes them feel they are African and not just Jamaicans.

I hope that is clear