Roots Archives Forum

I'm new here and was just wondering how reggae music became a big part of everyone's lives?

I'm 43, so people around my age will remember The Specials, Selecter etc when they first came on the scene. I was really into the 2nd wave ska, but at that time I didn't know anything about the Skatalites or the songs from reggae artists that the 2 tone bands covered.

One day when I was 15 I was round at a friend's house and he put one of those 60s hits compilation records on. It was ok, but then Return of Django came on. When it finished I made my friend play it again, then again and again. I loved it. Also on that record was Desmond Dekker's 'Israelites' which also blew me away.

My knowledge of reggae at that time went no further than knowing that some guy called Bob Marley was it's most famous exponent. I went out and bought a copy of Exodus and that was it, I never looked back

im 23 now, when i was about 14 me and some friends used to hang out after school at my house, we already knew bob marley albuns so we wanted something different, so someday i tuned at some radio station inside itunes, a reggae station, and during that day i remember having my mind blown away with max romeo - one step foward, junior delgado - fort augustus, johnny clark - babylon and barrington levy's murderer, i know cause i writed down this names so i could find them again haha and that was it, from that day on i never stopped the research on reggae music

The best friend in my youth once bought Bob Marley/Live and I was very impressed. Never heard sounds like that before.Then came Legalize It from Peter Tosh fresh on the market. That was in 1976 and if memory serves me well that was my first Reggae LP. From then on I used to buy Reggae LPs and succesfully tried to infect other people with these "new" sounds.

Bob Marley of course

Followed by burning spear

Followed arkology