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How Jamaica conquered the world
It's the country that creates superstars, from Bob Marley to Usain Bolt. Fifty years on from independence, Tom Horan sets out to discover the secret of the island in the sun
The Observer, Sunday 5 August 2012
A few months ago the disc jockey and radio broadcaster David Rodigan was awarded an MBE to mark his 40 years as an ambassador and proselytiser for reggae. Ram Jam, as he is affectionately known, tells this story of his trip to the palace. After the investiture he was approached by Prince Charles.
"You really love this music, don't you?" said the Prince of Wales.
"I certainly do, sir," he replied.
"So do I," said Charles. "I love Jamaica."
It is incongruous to think that the heir to the throne may own a complete set of Black Uhuru albums, but his revelation should not come as a surprise. From the shack to the stately home, Jamaica inspires extraordinary affection.
In 2004 I went to the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics. As each team marched into the stadium, a smaller or larger cheer went up, in a kind of popularity contest for the world's nation states. When the gold, black and green of Britain's former colony fluttered into view, the reception was euphoric. Of course the noise was partly for its athletes, whose explosive performances have illuminated the Games since London 1948. And yet there was something more to it than that. What was it that made this huge international crowd rise up in salute?
Jamaica is everywhere this year. In April, the musical legacy of its most famous son, Bob Marley, was given fresh allure by British director Kevin Macdonald's outstanding documentary Marley. There are two further film dramatisations of Marley's life in production. Tomorrow the country will begin a series of celebrations at home and around the world to mark 50 years since its independence from Britain. Macdonald is also executive producer of One People, a specially commissioned film in the style of his crowd-sourced Life in a Day (2011), that fuses hundreds of video snapshots of Jamaican life around the world. Usain Bolt and the powerful team whose predecessors provoked that Athens roar, are at large in London right now.
On the surface it is baffling: the tiny island with the mighty reach. Look at other countries of a similar physical size: Qatar, Gambia, the Lebanon. And those with a similar population: Mongolia, Armenia, Kuwait. Why have these nations not produced a culture that transformed the way the entire world makes and listens to music? Why do their athletes not leave those of superpowers such as Russia, China and the USA trailing in their wake? Why are their dialects not the lingua franca of an entire generation of young people? And why, at the bleaker end of the spectrum of notoriety, have their criminals not become among the most feared and infamous in the world?
Full Hundred
It's the country that creates superstars, from Bob Marley to Usain Bolt. Fifty years on from independence, Tom Horan sets out to discover the secret of the island in the sun
The Observer, Sunday 5 August 2012
A few months ago the disc jockey and radio broadcaster David Rodigan was awarded an MBE to mark his 40 years as an ambassador and proselytiser for reggae. Ram Jam, as he is affectionately known, tells this story of his trip to the palace. After the investiture he was approached by Prince Charles.
"You really love this music, don't you?" said the Prince of Wales.
"I certainly do, sir," he replied.
"So do I," said Charles. "I love Jamaica."
It is incongruous to think that the heir to the throne may own a complete set of Black Uhuru albums, but his revelation should not come as a surprise. From the shack to the stately home, Jamaica inspires extraordinary affection.
In 2004 I went to the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics. As each team marched into the stadium, a smaller or larger cheer went up, in a kind of popularity contest for the world's nation states. When the gold, black and green of Britain's former colony fluttered into view, the reception was euphoric. Of course the noise was partly for its athletes, whose explosive performances have illuminated the Games since London 1948. And yet there was something more to it than that. What was it that made this huge international crowd rise up in salute?
Jamaica is everywhere this year. In April, the musical legacy of its most famous son, Bob Marley, was given fresh allure by British director Kevin Macdonald's outstanding documentary Marley. There are two further film dramatisations of Marley's life in production. Tomorrow the country will begin a series of celebrations at home and around the world to mark 50 years since its independence from Britain. Macdonald is also executive producer of One People, a specially commissioned film in the style of his crowd-sourced Life in a Day (2011), that fuses hundreds of video snapshots of Jamaican life around the world. Usain Bolt and the powerful team whose predecessors provoked that Athens roar, are at large in London right now.
On the surface it is baffling: the tiny island with the mighty reach. Look at other countries of a similar physical size: Qatar, Gambia, the Lebanon. And those with a similar population: Mongolia, Armenia, Kuwait. Why have these nations not produced a culture that transformed the way the entire world makes and listens to music? Why do their athletes not leave those of superpowers such as Russia, China and the USA trailing in their wake? Why are their dialects not the lingua franca of an entire generation of young people? And why, at the bleaker end of the spectrum of notoriety, have their criminals not become among the most feared and infamous in the world?
Full Hundred
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