Where is the reggae music?

[Jangle]

Let's Talk Reggae

David Rodigan
Sunday, February 28, 2021

Jamaican music has travelled a long way since Prince Buster, Millie Small, The Skatalites, and Desmond Dekker first entered the British Hit Parade in the early 1960s. Looking in the rear view mirror is cool but if we spend too long looking then we'll crash the bus. So, if the journey is to continue we must look to the future, to the road ahead, and much of that responsibility lies in the hands of today's new, up-and-coming artistes who are in the driving seat.

With the advent of 'rub-a-dub' music and then 'dancehall' in the 80s and 90s we saw significant changes in what the rest of the world called reggae — there was a shift in the paradigm. The culture was evolving, and it was a new expression of what youths were feeling. It was no longer a reggae beat, it had a new rhythmic energy and tempo.

Throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s reggae appealed to a worldwide audience who heard a rooted and grounded feel-good sound that had also emerged in various elements of pop music culture, protest songs and rock music. They also turned out in their thousands to see the Jamaican artistes that made this great music; as Bob Marley said it was “Roots Rock Reggae'” and audiences in every major city from America to the UK and across central Europe caught the fever.

What has happened to that passion for reggae music that burned so bright around the globe?

Ask any concert promoter and they'll tell you that it simply isn't what it used to be mainly because much of the music that's now being made in Jamaica is not really reggae, certainly not rhythmically, and the headlining stars that could single-handedly sell out major concert venues hardly exist anymore, apart from a few notable exceptions.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/enter...-music-_215069

[Lazie]

So true, reggae is used for early warm. The in thing is the ladies bending over as dem hear a dancehall song come on. What Rodigan asking for I don't see it coming back. Yes there are Chronixx, Koffee, Ibamar (sp), Steven Marley that put out reggae music, but dancehall artistes get prime time spotlight. When you see singers link Chris Martin is now doing dancehall tunes, you have to ask is he demonstrating his versatility or is he seeing where the market is going.

[Assasin]

let us not forget the quality of those songs — the song makes the singer, the singer doesn't make the song is an adage that still holds true. Then there was the power of the reggae beat itself — heavy bass lines, the one drop, the rolling cadence of those organ and guitar riffs and the head-tripping joy of dub music — created by engineers such as King Tubby, Sylvan Morris and Errol Thompson.

I said it before, the beat is not what it use to be when musicians sit in Studio and make a beat so inviting that singers just have to add good vocals. Maybe the last great beat I hear is "Lenky' beat where Sean Paul, Wayne Wonder had great hit song on? Right up to the 90s you had instrumentals that ride the chart, where are they now?

Radi we need more emphasis placed on creating good beats with great musicians and engineers to make the thing the way it was. We have good musicians but focus too much on playing and not creating. Playing make you "eat a food", creating good sounds give you pension and longevity.

[Jangle]

The issue is that it has become so easy to make a beat today through computerization. Even my 11 year old daughter is making beats in her "remote" on-line music class. Music is not being taught in school anymore. The local artistes and "producers" are just following the trend - social media. They are talentless and lazy.

[Assasin]

I think we have some good "trained" musicians but lazy. They rather just do the backup thing and play what is already out there. I think we also have some good vocalist but one the major thing that is lacking is the sound system grooming them where they have to perform nightly and work with the crowd to get things better.