Reggae Music

Reggae is founded upon a rhythm style characterized by regular chops on the back beat, known as the skank. The beat is generally slower than that found in reggae's precursors, ska and rocksteady. Reggae is often associated with the Rastafari movement, which influenced many prominent reggae musicians in the 1970s and 1980s. The songs lyrics deal with many subjects, including faith, love, sexuality and broad social issues.

Reggae's origins can be found in traditional African and Caribbean music, as well as Rhythm and blues of the United States. Ska and rocksteady are 1960s precursors of reggae. In 1963, Jackie Mittoo, pianist with the ska band The Skatalites was asked to run sessions and compose original music by record producer Coxsone Dodd at his Studio One recording studio. Mittoo, with the help of drummer Lloyd Knibbs, turned the traditional ska beat into reggae, by slowing down the rhythm. Bob Marley, who played an important role in popularizing reggae worldwide, recorded ska, rocksteady, and nyabinghi-drumming records early in his career. By the late 1960s, reggae was getting radio play in the United Kingdom on John Peel's radio show.

It is thought that the word reggae was first used by the ska band Toots and the Maytals, in the title of their 1968 hit Do the Reggay. Other theories say 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.

Reggae is always played in 4/4 or swing time as the symmetrical rhythm pattern does not lend itself to 3/4. Harmonically the music is often very simple– sometimes a whole track will have no more than one or two chords. For example, the song “Exodus” by Bob Marley and the Wailers is comprised almost entirely of A-minor chords. These simple repetitious chord structures add to the deeply hypnotic effect that reggae often has. However, Bob Marley also wrote more complex chord structures and Steel Pulse, for example, often use very complex chord structures.

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 toms are often incorporated into the drumbeat itself.

Reggae drumbeats fall into three main categories: One Drop, Rockers and Steppers. In the one drop, the emphasis is entirely on the second and fourth beat of the bar (usually played on the snare or as a rim shot combined with bass drum) while beats one and three are completely empty. This empty first and third beat is extremely unusual in popular music and is one of the defining characteristics of reggae. The bass will often leave these beats empty too. In fact, even in reggae drumbeats where the first and third beats are played (like the rockers beat), the bass will still often leave empty space on beats one and three. Perhaps the best known exponent of this style of drumming was Carlton Barrett of The Wailers who is credited with inventing it.

In the Bob Marley and the Wailers song, one drop, named after the drumbeat, you can hear many of these elements including the hi-tuned snare, rim shots and the empty first and third beats. The bass also misses the first beat in this song but does play the third. Carlton Barrett also often used an unusual triplet cross-rhythm on the hi-hat and this can be heard on many recordings by Bob Marley and the Wailers - and example would be "Running Away" on the Kaya album.

The emphasis on beats two and four is in all reggae drumbeats but in the rockers beat the emphasis is also on beats one and three (usually played on the bass drum). A classic example would be on “Night Nurse” by Gregory Isaacs. The drums were played by Lincoln Scott of the Roots Radics band. The Rockers beat is not always straight forward though and various syncopations are often used to add interest. An example of this would be the Black Uhuru track “Sponji Reggae” in which the drums are played by Sly Dunbar.

In Steppers, the bass drum plays eight solid beats to the bar giving the beat an insistant drive. A classic example would be “Exodus” by Bob Marley and the Wailers, played by Carlton Barrett. Here again you can also hear his unusual triplet cross-rhythm on the hi-hat. The steppers beat was also often used (at a much higher tempo) by some of the ska bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Examples would include “Stand Down Margaret” by The Beat and “Too Much Too Young” by The Specials.

Another unusual characteristic of reggae drumming is that the drum fills often do not end with a climactic cymbal unlike in rock and pop.

In reggae the bass guitar plays an extremely significant role and is often the defining feature of a track. The drum and bass line to a reggae track is often called the “riddim”; this term can also include other rhythm instruments but it is usually the bass line that does the most to set one riddim apart from another. One illustration of the importance of the riddim in reggae is the fact that in Jamaica, several reggae singers could all release a different song sung over the same riddim.

The central role of bass in reggae can also be heard in dub which is effectively just the drum and bass line with the other instruments, including the vocals, reduced to a peripheral role, cutting or fading in and out with big echoes over them. In most other western popular music the intro leads you to a the vocal which forms the main feature of the track. In dub the roles are typically reversed with the intro leading you to the drum and bass line.

The actual bass sound in reggae is thick and heavy and EQ’d so that the upper frequencies are removed and the lower frequencies emphasised. The bass line is often a two-bar riff that centres around its thickest and heaviest note – the other notes often serve simply to lead you towards the bassiest note. A classic example of this would be “Sun is Shining” by Bob Marley and the Wailers. The bass was played by Aston Barrett, brother of drummer, Carlton Barrett and one of the masters of reggae bass playing.

The rhythm guitar usually plays the chords on the "off-beat" (the eighth-notes in-between beats 1, 2, 3 and 4 in a 4/4 rhythm) with a very damped, short and scratchy chop sound. It serves almost as a percussion instrument. Sometimes a double chop is used where the guitar still plays the off beats but also plays the following 16th beats on the up-stroke. A typical example can be heard on the intro to “Stir it Up” by The Wailers.

The piano also usually plays chords on the off beats in a staccato style adding body and warmth to the rhythm guitar though both instruments might typically play extra beats, runs and riffs here and there to add interest and interplay.

The reggae-organ shuffle is unique to reggae. Typically a Hammond organ-type sound is used to play the chords with a choppy feel. Beats 1, 2, 3 and 4 are not played but the 16th beats in between them are with a space-left-right-left-space-left-right-left pattern (the right hand coincides with the rhythm guitar and piano). This is another example of the use of empty space on a primary beat in reggae. The part is often quite low in the mix and is more felt than heard but a good example would be “Natural Mystic” by Bob Marley and the Wailers. The organ part comes in 42 seconds into the song with the line “This could be the first trumpet”. Another example where it can be clearly heard would be “Is This Love” by the same band. The Organ often also plays melodic runs and extra beats.

The lead guitar will often add a rock or blues style melodic solo to a track but most of the time it plays the same part as the bass line, an octave up with a very damped and picky sound. This helps add some definition to the bass line which is usually devoid of any upper frequencies as well as emphasizing the all important bass melody. Sometimes, instead of following the bass exactly, the guitar will play a counter-melody.

Horn sections are frequently used in reggae playing intros and counter-melodies. A three-part horn section with a saxophone, trumpet and trombone would be typical.

A wide range of percussion instruments is used. Bongos are perhaps the most significant and will often play free, improvised patterns right through the track with heavy use of African-type cross-rhythms. Other percussion instruments like cowbells , claves and shakers tend to have more defined roles playing a set pattern throughout the song.

The defining characteristics of reggae tend to come from the music rather than the vocal melody that is sung to it and almost any song can be performed in a reggae style. Vocal harmony parts are often used either throughout the melody as with vocal harmony bands like The Mighty Diamonds or as counterpoint to the main vocal as can be heard with Bob Marley and the Wailers backing vocalists, the I-Threes. The British reggae band “Steel Pulse used particularly complex backing vocals.

One vocal style that is peculiar to reggae is “toasting”. This started when DJ’s improvised along to dub tracks and it is thought to be the precursor of rap. It differs from rap mainly in that it has melodic content while rap is more a spoken form and generally has no melodic content.

In Jamaica, newer styles of reggae have become popular; among them, dancehall and ragga (also known as raggamuffin). The toasting style first used by artists such as U-Roy and Dillinger had a worldwide impact when Jamaican DJ Kool Herc used it to pioneer a new genre that became known as hip hop and rap. In Jamaica, the term Dee Jay or DJ is equivalent to the rapper or MC in American hip hop culture. Mixing techniques employed in dub music (an instrumental sub-genre of reggae) have influenced hip hop and the musical style known as drum and bass. Another new style is new reggae, made popular by the ska band Sublime.

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