Tim Dunnigan
Dr. Frye
Reggae Music
Reggae isn’t just a genre of music, it’s a way for Rastafarians to express their way of life in their own unique way. The most famous Rastafarian and Reggae artist of them all was Bob Marley. His way of expressing his political opinions and messages in hit songs not only influenced in Jamaica, it had an impact on the entire world. He gave Rastafari an international identity and is the reason some people converted. Famous groups like the Rudeboys and Maytals helped Reggae to become what it is today.
Reggae music was not always the most popular form of music in Jamaica. Reggae was influenced by the music genre of Jazz that was sweeping the nation. A lot of Jamaicans used Jazz to entertain the tourists. In the 1950’s Jazz Bebop became the new fad music for the youth of Jamaica and Jazz orchestras weren’t as common as in years past. In the 1960’s Ska was introduced and was the first style of music created by Jamaicans, this gave them a sense of identity. Ska was created by working class Jamaicans and they used it to express themselves and tell their stories. It was important because R&B singles weren’t being released as often, and didn’t attract as many listeners as it once did. Ska music consisted of the combination of Caribbean mento, calypso, and Jazz. The main reason for Ska’s popularity was because the music fit the moods of the time. People had the mind state to accept anything unique to Jamaica especially because they just got their independence. The only downside of Ska music was that it was very fast and people exerted so much energy so they couldn’t stay on the dance floor for too long. This led to the popularity of the new musical genre Rocksteady. Its popularity can be contributed to a very hot summer where the people had to dance to a slower type of rock music instead of a more wild pace of music. Rocksteady music was based on the influence of Jamaican mento, R&B, and Jazz. It was considered more of a Romantic music and was popularly known for street dances that were incorporated with it.
Reggae music hit Jamaican airwaves in the 1960’s, it was a style of music that was faster than Rocksteady and more complex than Ska. Reggae was influenced by Caribbean and African music along with the American style of R&B. The main instruments used in Reggae are the guitar, the drums, and the bass. The guitar is played on beats two and four, and helps set the rhythm in mostly all reggae songs. The guitar also helped give the genre its name. Famous producer Bunny Lee described that the scratchy guitar made the sound reggae. The drums play a significant role in helping reggae have its own individual syncopated rhythm. Snare drums are tuned to hit very high notes so that a timbale like sound is added to the music. Depending on the individual, drummers also add other types of percussion instruments into the mix. The bass is considered the driving force for reggae it works with and off of the drums and its main goal is to get the people to move. The bass unlike the drums is tuned low to give off a heavy sound. Many reggae groups commonly use keyboards and horns. Groups will use pianos, and organs to double the skanking rhythm that the guitar produces and to give the music the sense of choppiness. Trumpets, trombones, and saxophones are used in introductions to songs and to create countermelodies.
Rastafari is a big part of Reggae music, its religious movement dates back to Jamaica as early as the 1930’s. Rasta and Reggae play off of each other, they both helped each other to become internationally recognized. Rastafarians are believers in God, unity, love, and natural living and they use Reggae to express their way of life. Some Rastafarians see Rasta as more of a way of life than a religion, the lifestyle includes the use of marijuana, no use of alcohol, vegetarianism, and wearing your hair in dreadlocks. Rastafarians use marijuana as a religious right, they believe it helps them to gain wisdom and to become closer with their inner self. When there is a large gathering of Rastafarians they smoke out of a chalice and it is passed around to everyone. Alcohol isn’t used because it as seen as dangerous to their health. Rastafarians grow their hair in dreadlocks because it is part of the Nazarite Vow, their dreadlocks are seen as their strength, and if they are cut of their weakness, also some Rastas believe their dreadlocks represent the mane of the lion in the lion of Judah.
The Rastafari movement started with the teachings given by Marcus Garvey. Garvey was a Jamaican who led a Back to Africa movement. His teachings consisted of how Africans are true Israelites, and have been exiled to Jamaica and other parts of the world as punishment. On November 2, 1930 Ras Tafari Makonnen was crowned the emperor of Ethiopia. He then changed his name to Haile Selassie which meant “Might of the Trinity.” Followers of Garvey’s teachings believed that Selassie was the messiah, they saw him as a physical presence of God. Rastafarians also believed that him being crowned emperor meant that their divine punishment was over and their return to Africa could begin. The Rastafarian movement first appeared in Jamaica in the slums of Kingston in the 1930’s. At this time Rastafarians already had a distinct language, hairstyle, art, and form of music. A significant event in Rastafarian history was Haile Selassie’s visit to Jamaica on April 2,11966. Rita Marley said she converted to Rastafari after seeing him because she saw stigmata appear on his body and was immediately convinced that he was divine. Another sign of his divinity was that on his arrival the serious drought that Jamaica was facing ended. April 21st is a holiday celebrated by Rastafarians. Selassie told Rastafarians not to return to Ethiopia until they liberated the people of Jamaica. In 1974 Selassie was removed in a military takeover, they kept him under house arrest and supposedly killed a year after. Many Rastafarians believe that he didn’t really die and is waiting for the Day of Judgment. Others believe that he lives on through individual Rastafarians.
The most famous and significant symbols of Rastafari are the Star of David, the Conquering Lion and the Lamb, the Original Rasta Flag, and the Current Rasta Flag. The Star of David represents the descent of Haile Selassie and King Solomon. The lion and the lamb symbolize the lamb of God and the lion of Judah, both are referred to in the bible. The Original Rasta flag was red, black, and green. The red stood for the blood of the blacks that died trying to fight off their white oppressors, black represented the color of black African skin, and green symbolized the vegetation of Jamaica. The current flag is the old Ethiopian flag with the lion of Judah on it and instead of black there is gold in it. The gold represents minerals and resources.
A group highly responsible for the spread of Reggae and Rastafari are Bob Marley and the Wailers. The first members of the group which was originally called Wailing Rude Boys were Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, and Junior Brathwaite was created in the 1960’s. The band was most popular in the 1970’s, they me with their album “Burnin” which had hit singles I shot the Sherriff and Get Up, Stand Up. Shortly after the group disbanded so they could work on their individual careers. Bob Marley continued to tour with the group even though he was the only original member remaining, they called themselves Bob Marley & the Wailers.
Bob Marley or as most people call him the “King of Reggae” was the most influential individual in combining the Rastafarian way into Reggae music. He is the most popular Reggae music to ever live and helped to put Reggae on the map. Bob Marley was born Robert Nesta Marley on February 6, 1945. His father was a white Englishman who passed away when Bob was ten and his mother was a black Jamaican from Saint Ann. As a young teenager Bob Marley became friends with Bunny Wailer, the both of them learned to play music together. At the age of fourteen Bob dropped out of school to focus on the welding trade and spent all of his free time playing music with Bunny and Ska musician Joe Higgs. Bob Marley dropped two singles in 1962, they didn’t gain much popularity but none the less this proved that he was taken his music seriously. Than in 1963 Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, and Peter Tosh formed a group called “The Teenagers” Later on when Junior Brathwaite joined the group they were called “The Wailing Rude Boys” and then once again the name change to “The Wailing Wailers.” Their first hits like “Simmer Down” fell into the genre of Rocksteady because that was the big genre at the time and Reggae hadn’t been created yet. In 1966 Bob Marley married Rita Anderson with whom he had four of his twelve children with. They lived with Bob’s mother in Delaware for a short period of time and when he went back to Jamaica he began practicing the Rastafarian faith and started growing his famous dreadlocks. During the late 1970’s he sang songs about the ideas he promoted which included peace, and cultural understanding within Jamaica. Despite preaching these ideas Bob Marley, his wife Rita, and manager were shot on December 5, 1976 before a peace concert. All three survived only coming out of the incident with some injuries. In 1977 Bob found a wound on his foot, he thought he sustained the injury while playing soccer, but when he visited a doctor discovered it was malignant melanoma. The doctor said they could treat it if they amputated his toe but Bob refused for religious reasons. By the time Bob Marley agreed to seek help again in 1980 it was too late, the cancer had already spread and was terminal. Bob Marley and the Wailers final recording was at the Pittsburgh Stanley Theatre. They recorded and released their music as Bob Marley and the Wailers Live Forever. Bob wanted to die in Jamaica but couldn’t handle the flight and ended up dying in Miami, Florida. Bob Marley was seen as a godlike icon to Rastafarians and Jamaican worldwide. Reggae wouldn’t have been the same without him.
Another influential group that helped Reggae to become as popular as it is today were The Maytals. The group’s members were Nathaniel Matthias also known as Jerry, Raleigh Gordon, and the leader Frederick Hibbert also known as Toots. The three of them formed the group in the early 1960’s when Ska was still the most popular music at the time. The reason the Maytals were so popular was because people could sense the passion and love they had for their music through their songs. A lot of people compared Frederick Hibbert too Otis Redding because of his soulful style of singing. The group’s first producer was Clement Dodd and the first album they came out with was Hallelujah, it consisted of gospel like vocals and was sung to a horn driven Jamaican beat. Right from the start the Maytals were popular. The Maytals recorded a couple of songs with Studio One and left their producer Dodd for Prince Buster. Under Prince not only did they grow in popularity in Jamaica, they also became popular in Great Britain. In 1966 The Maytals began working with Byron Lee and dropped hits songs like “Broadway Jungle”, “Dog War”, and “Daddy.” The Maytals began a real up rise to fame and superstardom when they won a their song “Bam Bam” won them the Jamaican Festival Song Competition. The Maytals were reaching the height of their popularity when Hibbert was arrested for smoking and possession of Marijuana. He was given a prison sentence for eighteen months, but Nathaniel and Raleigh waited for him to get out before starting up their music again. They knew trying to find a new front man with a unique style like Hibberts would be nearly impossible.
When Hibbert was released after his eighteen months the group started working with Leslie Kong a legendary producer in Jamaica. At this point in time Ska was being replaced with the angry and violent songs played by the Rude Boys which soon was called Reggae. So the Maytals adapted to the new style of music but kept the same central feeling of soul and gospel that made them so unique and loved. Their first single under Kong was “54-46 That’s my number” referred to Hibbert’s number while he was in jail, Hibbert also talked about his experiences in the jail and that he thought he was arrested just for being Rastafarian. The song was a huge hit both in Jamaica and England. Other popular songs the group came out with during this time period were “Monkey Man”, and “Sweet and Dandy.” Sweet and Dandy provided the group with their second win at the Festival Song Competition. By 1971 the group was international stars and the biggest thing on the island of Jamaica. When Leslie Kong passed away the group had Byron Lee become their producer once again. Lee renamed the group “Toots and the Maytals.” In 1981 the group disbanded, Hibbert had worldwide success throughout the 80’s and in the 90’s started a new Maytals and continued touring around the world with them. The Maytals had a lasting impact on Reggae showing that you didn’t always have to sing about violence and anger.
The ghettos of Jamaica provided a lot of artists with the inspiration for their songs. The artists who were from the ghetto like Bob Marley became used to seeing a lot of poverty, disease, malnutrition, food shortage and the lack of political rights the poor had. Houses in the ghettos of Jamaica were put together from anything the people could find like cardboard, beaten out oil drums, or roadblocks. The artists who came from these areas were able to understand the harsh reality that an environment like this provided. The post independent Jamaica was one where the majority of blacks with very or little access to education and very little opportunity for economic improvement.
Bob Marley wasn’t just a popular Reggae artist because people liked the way his songs sounded, he expressed the lifestyle of the poverty that many black Jamaicans had to face every day. Bob Marley moved from St. Ann to Trench Town, Kingston. Growing up in Kingston gave Marley the material and influence he needed to express how he felt through his music. When Marley teamed up with Bunny, and Peter Tosh they chose to make their music reflect the truth of the poverty and inner city youth in Jamaica that they were a part of growing up. One of his most famous songs that contained a message for the people was “Get up, Stand up.” It encouraged people to fight for their rights and to be proactive. Marley’s main message for the people was for blacks to understand a sense of self through the examination of self. Bob Marley’s music reflected three things, the need to demand justice from power elites, a belief in exile and return to Africa, and the belief in tolerance rather than judgment of individuals. Bob Marley was a great artist and was able to use his music to get across his political opinions.
One thing that Reggae music has in common with Sub Saharan Africa culture is the importance of the drums. The drums are considered as the most important instruments in Reggae music. In Africa the drums along with other percussion instruments are the lead instrument well the same it’s the same for Reggae. Even though the African culture has a very steady tempo in their music and Jamaica has a “shaky” tempo the drums are used for syncopation. In Africa they use different variety of drum sizes to reach higher and lower pitches. Reggae drum kits are essentially a compacted form of all African drum and percussion elements. The basic Reggae drum set consists of lots of drums, lots of cymbals, and lots of percussion.
The element that separates Reggae music from other musical genres is its’ rhythm. Most reggae songs are played in a 4/4 time with the emphasis falling on off beats. The third beat of each measure is played by a guitar or bass drum, which it gives the music its shaky type of rhythm.
Reggae became popular with the British group called skinheads. Before Reggae music revolved around Rastafari and black nationalism, skinheads were greatly influenced by the style and culture that the Rude Boys brought to the table. There was even a genre called skinhead Reggae. Two tone was the most popular form of music among skinheads, it was a fusion of ska, rocksteady, reggae, pop, and punk rock. The difference between the two were the actions between the two different genres. Skineheads had very clean shaven heads and they believed having long hair would make them look like hippies. They wore army boots, straight leg jeans, button down shirts, and suspenders.
In conclusion the genre of Reggae wasn’t always the most popular form of music the island of Jamaica. At first it was Jazz, than it was Ska, and then it was Rocksteady. Jamaican music derived from African and Caribbean music along with the American style of R&B. The drums and guitar are the most important instruments in Reggae. They mixture of both helped artists to give Reggae its own type of unique rhythm. Rastafari plays a big part in Reggae music, as many artists talk about their religion and belief in black nationalism. Two groups that helped to put Reggae on the map were The Rude Boys and The Maytals. The Rude Boy, their music was more aimed at being more rebellious, and had a little more anger and violence in the tone of some of their songs. The Maytal’s songs however were more focused on gospel and soul. Their unique style and the passion they had for their music is why they were so loved. The ghettos of Jamaica is what gave artists the basis to make their songs about. It was something many of the people of Jamaica could relate too. Bob Marley was great at incorporating his background from the tough streets of Kingston and political messages into his music. He helped Reggae to become internationally recognized and became the definition of Reggae. Because of Marley Reggae music was loved not only in Jamaica but worldwide. When people think Reggae two things come to mind Bob Marley and Jamaica.

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