Roots Archives Forum

Hello,

Before you click off , I'm hoping someone could give me some hints and tips. I'm doing some research as part of my degree in Business and Media. I'm looking at two era's of reggae music UK's commercial success. From 1979-1980 and from 2000-2010.

I'm primarily looking for UK chart data of the key tracks and albums that made the official top 40. I've approached the official charts company who can help me with the later data but not the early releases, the genre did particularly well in the top 40 in the early 1980's

Would anyone have some kind of run down of key reggae releases that were featured in the top 40 between 79-89
it would help me soooo much.. any hints and tips welcome.
(I'm doing this degree part-time as well as working full time)
cheers
Kameil

You can access UK chart history at chart aggregators such as http://www.chartstats.com - can't give you a full list from memory but some who had UK chart hits in 79-80 were Bob Marley & The Wailers, Dennis Brown, Errol Dunkley, and if you can stretch to 1981, Sugar Minott. Also UK acts such as UB40, Matumbi, Steel Pulse, Musical Youth.

I'm not sure if this is of any help. You can check Tapir's discography site for some charts (at the very bottom of the page) and hopefully google the ones that peaked at #1 if they also managed to get at the official charts.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~tapirs/

Hello,

Thanks for your help **stars**I'll check out both links. I am looking for charts hits from 1979-1989. I have come across a charts that have been compiled by stores such as Dub Vendor, Maroons and Daddy Kool from this period. Do you think these guys also contributed to the official UK top 40 stats too?

Kameil wrote:Hello,

Thanks for your help starsI'll check out both links. I am looking for charts hits from 1979-1989. I have come across a charts that have been compiled by stores such as Dub Vendor, Maroons and Daddy Kool from this period. Do you think these guys also contributed to the official UK top 40 stats too?

Unlikely. It was generally just the big chains that contributed to the UK singles chart.

There are books listing UK Pop charts available at any public library.

Reggae charts are a joke. Certainly nothing official about them.

Thanks for your help. At least the reggae charts were reflective of what was really happening in the scene. I'll cross this over to pinpoint the hits.