Reggae's origins are in traditional African and Caribbean music; American rhythm and blues; and in Jamaican ska and rocksteady. In 1963, Coxsone Dodd of Studio One asked Jackie Mittoo (pianist of The Skatalites) to run recording sessions and compose original music. Mittoo, with the help of drummer Lloyd Knibbs, turned the traditional ska beat into reggae by slowing down the tempo. Bob Marley, who played an important role in popularizing reggae worldwide, recorded ska, rocksteady, and nyabinghi-drumming records early in his career. The word reggae may have been first used by the ska band Toots and the Maytals, in the title of their 1968 hit Do the Reggay.

The Oxford English Dictionary says the origin of the word is unknown, but may be derived from the Jamaican-English word rege-rege, meaning quarrel. Other theories are that the term came from the word streggae (a Jamaican slang term for prostitute) or that it originated from the term Regga, which was a Bantu-speaking tribe from Lake Tanganyika.

By the late 1960s, reggae was getting radio play in the United Kingdom on John Peel's radio show, and Peel continued to play much reggae during his career. Reggae has always had a fairly large following in the United Kingdom, especially during the 1970s and 1980s. In the second half of the 1970s, the UK punk rock scene was starting to take off, and some punk DJs played reggae records during their DJ sets. Certain punk bands, such as The Clash, The Slits and The Ruts incorporated reggae influences into their music. Reggae includes several subgenres, such as roots reggae, dub, lovers rock and dancehall.

Roots reggae

Main article: Roots reggae

Roots reggae is the name given to explicitly Rastafarian reggae: a spiritual type of music whose lyrics are predominantly in praise of Jah (God). Recurrent lyrical themes include poverty and resistance to government oppression. The creative pinnacle of roots reggae may have been in the late 1970s, with singers such as Burning Spear, Gregory Isaacs, Freddie McGregor, Johnny Clarke, Horace Andy, Barrington Levy and Linval ThompsonLee 'Scratch' Perry, King Tubby, and Coxsone Dodd. The experimental pioneering of producers within often-restrictive technological parameters gave birth to dub music, which has been considered one of the earliest contributions to the developments of Techno music. teaming up with studio producers including

Newer styles and spin-offs

The toasting style first used by 1960s Jamaican artists such as U-Roy and Dennis Alcapone influenced Jamaican DJ Kool Herc, who used the style to pioneer a new genre that became known as hip hop or rap. In Jamaica, the term Deejay or DJ is equivalent to the rapper or MC in American hip hop culture, while it is the selector who actually mans the turntables. Mixing techniques employed in dub music have influenced hip hop and drum and bass.

The dancehall genre developed around 1980, with exponents such as Yellowman, Super Cat and Shabba Ranks. The style is characterized by a deejay singing and rapping or toasting over raw and fast rhythms. Ragga (also known as raggamuffin), is a subgenre of dancehall, in which the instrumentation primarily consists of electronic music and sampling. Reggaeton is a form of dance music that first became popular with Latino youths in the early 1990s. It blends reggae and dancehall with Latin American genres such as bomba and plena, as well with hip hop.

Reg hop is a fusion of reggae, dancehall and hip hop. Reg hop takes the sounds of hip hop and the flow of dancehall. Examples of reg hop artists include Vybz Kartel, Aidonia, Assasin and Busy Signal. This style has been around since the late 1980s in the streets of New York City. Popular dancehall artists such as Mad Lion, Ini Kamoze, Apache Indian, Shinehead, Buju Banton, Beenie Man, Bounty Killer, Spragga Benz, Tanya Stephens and Shabba Ranks have performed and recorded some reg hop songs that were labelled as dancehall.

Reggae rock is a fusion genre that combines elements of reggae and rock music. The singer Matisyahu is known for blending traditional Jewish themes with reggae and rock sounds. Billboard magazine named him "Top Reggae Artist" of 2006.[1]

Musical characteristics

Reggae is always played in 4/4 time or swing time because the symmetrical rhythm pattern does not lend itself to other time signatures such as 3/4 time. Harmonically, the music is often very simple, and sometimes a whole song will have no more than one or two chords. The Bob Marley and the Wailers song "Exodus" is almost entirely comprised of A-minor chords. These simple repetitious chord structures add to the hypnotic effect that reggae sometimes has. However, Marley also wrote more complex chord structures, and the band Steel Pulse have often used very complex chord structures.

Drums and other percussion

A standard drum kit is generally used but the snare drum is often tuned very high to give it a timbale-type sound. Some reggae drummers use a separate additional timbale or high-tuned snare to get this sound. Rim shots on the snare are commonly used and tom-tom drums are often incorporated into the drumbeat itself. During the late 1980s and onwards, electronic instruments such as synthesizers and samplers were also used by reggae musicians for the same purpose, especially by Reggae artists that write in the Stepper and Dancehall styles.

Reggae drumbeats fall into three main categories: One Drop, Rockers and Steppers. With the One Drop, the emphasis is entirely on the third beat of the bar (usually on the snare or as a rim shot combined with bass drum). Beat one is completely empty, which is extremely unusual in popular music. Carlton Barrett of The Wailers is credited with inventing this style and an example can be heard in the Bob Marley and the Wailers song, "One Drop." Barrett often used an unusual triplet cross-rhythm on the hi-hat, which can be heard on many recordings by Bob Marley and the Wailers, such as "Running Away" on the Kaya album.

An emphasis on beat three is in all reggae drumbeats, but with the Rockers beat, the emphasis is also on beats one, two and four (usually on bass drum). One example is in "Night Nurse" by Gregory Isaacs. The Rockers beat is not always straight forward, and various syncopations are often included. An example of this is the Black Uhuru song "Sponji Reggae."

In Steppers, the bass drum plays four solid beats to the bar, giving the beat an insistent drive. An example is "Exodus" by Bob Marley and the Wailers. The Steppers beat was often used (at a much higher tempo) by some of the 2 Tone ska revival bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Examples include "Stand Down Margaret" by The Beat and "Too Much Too Young" by The Specials. Another Common name for the Steppers beat is the "four on the floor".

An unusual characteristic of reggae drumming is that the drum fills often do not end with a climactic cymbal. A wide range of other percussion instrumentation is used in reggae. Bongos are often used to play free, improvised patterns; with heavy use of African-style cross-rhythms. Cowbells, claves and shakers tend to have more defined roles and a set pattern.

Bass

The bass guitar often plays a very dominant role in reggae, and the drum and bass is often called the riddim. Several reggae singers have released different songs recorded over the same riddim. The central role of the bass can particularly be heard in dub music, which gives an even bigger role to the drum and bass line; reducing the vocals and other instruments to peripheral roles. The bass sound in reggae is thick and heavy, and equalized so the upper frequencies are removed and the lower frequencies emphasised. The bass line is often a simple two-bar riff that is centred around its thickest and heaviest note (which in musical terms is often the harmonic root note) - the other notes in the bassline often serve simply to lead you towards the bassiest note. One example of a stepper is "Sun is Shining" by Bob Marley and the Wailers.

Guitars

The rhythm guitar in reggae usually plays the chords on beats two and four, a musical figure known as skank or the 'bang'. It has a very dampened, short and scratchy chop sound, almost like a percussion instrument. Sometimes a double chop is used when the guitar still plays the off beats, but also plays the following 16th beats on the up-stroke. An example is the intro to "Stir it Up" by The Wailers.

The lead guitar will often add a rock or blues-style melodic solo to a song, but much of the time it plays the same part as the bass line; an octave higher, with a very dampened and picked sound. This adds definition to the bass line (which is usually devoid of upper frequencies) and emphasizes the bass melody. Sometimes the guitar will play a counter-melody to the bass line.

Keyboards

The piano in reggae usually doubles the rhythm guitar's skank, playing chords on the offbeats in a staccato style to add body. Sometimes the pianist plays occasional extra beats, runs and riffs. The piano itself is often replaced by piano-type sounds played on synthesisers. Larger bands may include an additional keyboardist to cover or replace horn and melody lines.

The reggae-organ shuffle is unique to reggae. Typically, a Hammond organ-style sound is used to play chords with a choppy feel. This is known as the bubble. There are specific drawbar settings used on a Hammond console to get the correct sound. This may be the most difficult reggae keyboard rhythm. The 8th beats are played with a space-left-right-left-space-left-right-left pattern. The right-hand part coincides with the rhythm guitar and piano. It makes the music sound faster than it really is. The organ often also plays melodic runs and extra beats. The organ part is typically quite low in the mix, and is often more felt than heard. Examples include the songs "Natural Mystic" and "Is This Love" by Bob Marley.

In many recent reggae recordings and concert tours, synthesizers are used to imitate brass horn parts. For many reggae artists, it is too expensive to bring in a full horn section from Jamaica.

Horns

Horn sections are frequently used in reggae, often playing introductions and counter-melodies. Instruments included in a typical reggae horn section include saxophone, trumpet and/or trombone. In more recent times, real horns are sometimes replaced in reggae by synthesizers or recorded samples. The horn section is often arranged around the first horn playing a simple melody or counter melody. The first horn is usually accompanied by the second horn playing the same melodic phrase in unision, one octave higher. The third horn usually plays the melody an octave and a fifth higher than the first horn. The horns are generally played fairly softly, which usually results in a soothing sound. However, sometimes punchier louder phrases are played for a more uptempo and aggressive sound.

Examples of live horn sections in reggae can be found in recordings by The Skatalites. A newer reggae band that uses live horn sections isTwilight Circus, although that band generally mixes their live horn section over a bed of pre-recorded midi arrangements incorporating samples and synthesizer sounds. A highly-skilled midi artist can simulate a real brass section to the extent that the result could fool many listeners.

Vocals

The vocals in reggae are less of a defining characteristic of the genre than the instrumentation and rhythm. Almost any song can be performed in a reggae style. Vocal harmony parts are often used either throughout the melody (as with bands such as the Mighty Diamonds) or as a counterpoint to the main vocal line (as with the backing group I-Threes). The British reggae band Steel Pulse used particularly complex backing vocals. The toasting vocal style is unique to reggae, originating when DJs improvised along to dub tracks and it is generally considered to be a precursor to rap. It differs from rap mainly in that it is generally melodic while rap is generally a more a spoken form without melodic content.

Lyrical themes

Reggae is noted for its tradition of social criticism, although many reggae songs discuss lighter, more personal subjects such as love, sex and socializing. Some of the music attempts to raise the political consciousness of the audience, criticizing materialism and unconsciousness. Some reggae artists have spoken up against what they perceived as the oppression of orthodox religious dogma. Many reggae songs discuss liberation, including that linked with the prohibition of (cannabis) or ganja, which is considered a sacrament by Rastafarians. The promotion of cannabis use (through lyrics, images and lifestyle) has been a staple of reggae since almost its inception. Bob Marley's Catch a Fire album cover, showing him smoking a spliff, was controversial at the time the album was first issued. Peter Tosh often performed with a spliff in hand, and lobbied for the decriminalization of marijuana. His most famous song is titled "Legalize It". Other topics of social activism include: black nationalism, anti-racism, misogyny, anti-colonialism, anti-capitalism, criticism of political systems, and criticism of the colonial education system.

Some of these themes, such as cannabis use, have been prevalent in reggae music throughout much of the history of the music, but others, such as homophobia, are a more recent phenomenon. Dancehall music has also included themes of violence and sexism.

Homophobia in dancehall music

Dancehall music has come under increased criticism from Jamaican and international organizations for homophobic lyrics. Such lyrics have been described by J-FLAG, a Jamaican gay rights organization, as one aspect of "widespread Jamaican cultural bias against homosexuals and bisexuals". A Human Rights Watch report has also outlined the widespread existence of homophobia in Jamaica.[2] Homosexual activity is still illegal in Jamaica, as it is in most former British colonies in the Caribbean (see LGBT rights in Jamaica).

In some cases, dancehall artists whose music features homophobic lyrics have had their concerts cancelled. Various singers have had international travel restrictions placed on them, and have been investigated by international law enforcement agencies such as Scotland Yard on the grounds that the lyrics incite the audience to assault homosexuals. In 2003, the British LGBT rights group OutRage! called for the arrest of Elephant Man for inciting the killing of gay men in his song lyrics. However, he was not arrested.[3] Many of the affected singers believe that such legal or commercial sanctions are essentially an attack against freedom of speech.