Reggae and Resistance
Reggae music was born in Jamaica around 1964. It was derived from the music styles ska and rocksteady. The term “reggae” comes from “rege-rege” which translates to “rags” or “ragged clothes”. It is usually slower than ska and is characterized by the offbeat accents (“A Brief History”). Early reggae music used to be about love between a man and a women. Then, it became a love for people in general. When love was not the topic of a song, the topic would be about societal or political issues that disrupt the love, such as racism oppression by the government.
The first band to be noticed for the reggae music style was Toots and the Maytals. They had their first hit song, “54–46 (That’s My Number)”, in 1968.
Rastafarianism followed soon after reggae. It was a religious and social movement that wanted to give a voice to poor Blacks by encouraging resistance against societal structures. Rastas believed that Blacks were the race chosen by God and the true Messiah was Emperor Haile Selassie I (Ras Tafari) in Ethiopia (Rastafarianism).
The music genre of reggae has spread worldwide. It was first brought to Britain by accompanying Jamaican immigrants during the late 1960’s. There were not many black communities in Britain at the time, so reggae became a primary way of getting over the alienation. Thanks to artist like Bob Marley and Eric Clapton, reggae exploded in Britain. When U.K. reggae bands starting coming out, it did not sit well with the black communities. This eventually led the bands to an unlikely fan base: punk. In the U.S., the popularity of reggae led to the creation of modern rap. Deejays in the 1980’s and 1990’s would practice “toasting” in which someone raps over an instrumental track. This influenced the emergence of hip-hop music in the U.S. and extended the market for reggae in the African-American communities (Dreisinger).
A strategy of resistance is any activity that s used to serve as a weapon in fighting social or political issues. Music is a strong and popular method of doing so. The song “House of the Living” by Bambu Station is a great example. It uses a repetitive melody, weak dynamics, and the timbre of instruments to allow the artist to send a message of resistance against the oppression of African in the U.S. Virgin Islands’ history.
The theory that best connects to reggae is resistance theory. The reggae style is meant to express the pain of oppression the Africans had to face during the time of slavery. In my selected musical performance, “House of the Living” by Bambu Station, this is evident.
The dynamics in the musical performance are weaker when the vocalist starts to sing so that the listener is able to hear what the vocalist has to say. The pulse of the musical performance is a slow, consistent, beat of a drum in the background because if it was complex, the audience might get distracted by it and not focus on the message. Additionally, the contour is relatively flat and the character of the musical performance is disjunct. The melodies of the instruments in the background are very repetitive and have a cyclical structure so that the listener is not focused on it and can focus on the vocalist. The timbre of the piano in my musical performance sounds like the musician is slamming down on the keys, which could mean that he is expressing anger, probably for the history of Africans in the New World. My musical performance is meant to send a message to people to realize how hard of a life Africans have had in history.
“A Brief History of Reggae Music: First Jamaica, Then the World.” RSS, 5 June 2017, www.thepalmsjamaica.com/brief-history-reggae-music-first-jamaica-world/.
Dreisinger, Baz. “Reggae In The U.K.: A Steady Force.” NPR, NPR, 21 Mar. 2012, www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2012/03/21/149062967/reggae-in-the-u-k-a-steady-force.
Rastafarianism. home.wlu.edu/~lubint/touchstone/Rastafarianism-Magee.htm.
