Stirring Up Reggae

For my story map, I analyzed the history of Jamaica and its most dominant genre of music, reggae. I felt the best way to display all of the traits of reggae and how it stands as the most popular Jamaican music genre was to analyze a song from its most popular and acclaimed artists, “Stir It Up” by Bob Marley & The Wailers. Reggae gave many people a way to express themselves in a musical format that was different than what people typically heard. This song makes use of many African and reggae musical traits that make it the most fitting song to use when analyzing reggae in Jamaica. The spread of these traits was occured over a long period of time and became one of the defining components of reggae. Reggae is a genre of music that utilizes many African musical traits, such as polyrhythms, call and response, and various levels of syncopation, in order to create a songs like “Stir It Up” as a means to entertain, to sing about love, and to display the culture of African music.