Hi Welcome to my page! Here I will be giving you all some information on the history of Jamaican music. Here are two questions to consider while you read:
1) What were some influences in Jamaican music?
2) How does the music change over time?
Jamaican music starts off in the sixties with ska. Ska was a fast music type which engendered a dance style that was vigorous and extrovert. Once of the first ska songs was "my boy lolipop", written and produced by Ernest Rangling. Some influences of ska comes from Otis Reddind, Fast Domino, and Lee Perry. Ska is called the grandfather of reggae. The first ska band was the skatallites, which was started in 1963. The type of dancing that people would do was bebop dancing, push and spin,and flashing fingers. The dance was free move and loose dance where the dancers flail and do what ever moved them. Now ska is in all different countries, it is just played differently
During about 1966 to 1967 ska turned to Rock Steady which is a more slow sloulful, heavy music style with social-protest lyrics. It was influenced by rythm and blues in North America. Rock Steady was also called rude boy music because of the more relaxed people that felt excluded. They didn't dance like the other people danced to Ska. These people, mostly men, danced slower to ska in spite of the tempo.
There was also a style in the music called Dubbing. It is the same style as film dubbing or sound dubbing. Dubbing is a recording technique by which musicians can add one track of music to another. Jamaicans use this a lot to add delays, reverb, and sound effects.
Reggae is the most popular type of Jamaican music. It was introduced by 3 men in the 60’s, Lee Perry, Edward Bunny, and Osbourne Ruddock.Reggae is a combination of African rhythms, American rhythms and blues. Many performers are Rastafarians. Some themes include rastafari, political protest, and “rudie”. Bob Marley and the group called the Wailers were responsible for the widespread of reggae. In 1960’s reggae was used as a reference to a “ragged” form of dance. Reggae was a way of expressing yourself.
Dancehall became popular starting in the 80’s. The original term Dancehall is any large room where people gathered to dance. There usually is a live band, or group. Now in Jamaica the more famous type of music is Dancehall.
Bob Marley is a very famous Jamaican Artist. He had a group called th Wailers. They played and important role in making reggae become known. This is a brief history about them. In the late 1960s, the Wailers began recording with reggae producer Lee Perry and had gained a great measure of prominence in Jamaica. Moving from ska to the somewhat slower, so-called “rude boy” music to reggae, the group had many hits,like “400 Years,” and “Small Axe.” From the mid-1960s, Marley and his Wailers devoted themselves to a faith in Rastafarianism, a religion that believes that Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I was a divine being who would lead blacks to an African homeland.
In 1972, the Wailers signed a recording contract with a London-based record label, Island Records. Catch a Fire, their first album to be marketed outside Jamaica. The band became Bob Marley and the Wailers after two members left.
Rastaman Vibration, released in 1976, was an even bigger international hit. Not only did he have a reputation in the music world, the album’s political message sent Marley into the bad political situation in Jamaica. On December 3, 1976, Marley was injured in an attack on his home by gunmen. The attack was supposedly carried out so Marley wouldn’t perform at a concert rally for Prime Minister Michael Manley.During the late 1970s, Marley toured in the U.S., Europe, and Africa and recorded another album, Exodus (1977). The band’s had a sold-out show at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
While Marley was being treated for a foot injury in 1977, doctors discovered cancerous cells in his toe. HE refused to have surgery because of his rasta beliefs.He continued to tour throughout the next several years. In 1980, Marley collapsed while jogging in New York’s Central Park. By that time, the cancer had spread throughout his lungs and brain. Over the next eight months, he had radiation therapy treatments, but his health didn’t get better. In April 1981, Marley was awarded the Order of Merit by the Jamaican government. Marley died in a Miami hospital, on May 11, 1981, at the age of 36. Ten days later, he was given a state funeral in Jamaica, attended by more than 100,000 people, and his body was taken to his hometown of Nine Miles and placed in a mausoleum.
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