Nearly fifty years ago, Jamaica received independence from Great Britain, but that was not the only obstacle Jamaicans had to encounter. In the 1970’s Jamaica had experienced an urban social crisis where the poverty rate was at an all time high. Reggae music first emerged in Jamaica with the sole purpose of being the voice for the poor and unspoken. The genre had a powerful social force within Jamaica, representing the difficulties jamaicans had faced in everyday life putting them into words that persuaded it’s people to listen to its powerful message. Many Jamaican reggae artists were beaten up or nearly killed because of their influence towards the oppressed and suffering. Overtime Reggae music had obtained a type of tropical imagery that greatly coincided with beach culture. Its militant and spiritual lyrics as well as the rebellious appearance of its singers, have influenced other musical genres, cultures and societies throughout the world, contributing to the development of new counterculture movements, especially in Africa.Westerners reshaped African reggae music into the genre known today as reggae rock; appropriating the music of Jamaica’s marginalized people. Comparing the two types of reggae genres allows us to have a deeper understanding of African reggae music and its influence on western cultures. Hence, my paper will examine the impact of Jamaican reggae music had on the world, focusing particularly on the United States and Africa.
Throughout the 1950’s roughly 175,000 Jamaicans from the country boarded boats destined for London, Liverpool and other British ports. Despite the 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act, the immigration of Jamaicans to England remained significantly important during the 1960s. In result, England had acquired a large Jamaican community. Most of the Jamaican immigrants lived in the working-class district, resulting in the largest concentration of Jamaican immigrants in the UK. It was basically in that context that the Jamaican popular music of ska, rocksteady and early reggae, gained followers within Jamaican communities. Reggae’s distinctive sound incorporated the base, guitar, drums, andpiano. These instruments came together to create a rhythmic and melodic pattern that steadily exist throughout the complete song.
During the start of the 1970’s, governmental repression in Jamaica led to an increase in support of the Rastafarian movement; an Afrocentric movement which focused on African Diaspora and the oppression of her people.The Rastafarian movement during this period, recognized the king of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, as the living God. The movement influenced Jamaicans to leave their rural communes to relocate in the poor slums of Kingston, Jamaica’s capital. Reggae had first came out after the Vietnam War. Reggae music produced at the time reflected the ideology of Jamaicans living in the ghetto. This genre functioned as an optimistic answer to the numerous years of oppression Jamaica has experienced. The spiritual message presented in reggae music captures faith and hope as a common theme. Jamaicans had then constructed an ideology, in which the one true God would prove a better future for his people.
Reggae used a slow striding rhythm, while providing an outlook shaped by Jamaica’s political disappointments and Rastafarianism critique of the modern world, which is also referred to as “Babylon”.This type of music today is now officially recognized today as roots reggae music. Jamaica’s political parties, The People’s National Party and the Jamaican Labour Party led to the popularization of roots reggae music. Terich’s mentions reggae’s popularization in his article stating, “reggae is pretty universally popular worldwide, but the catch is that many of the most popular artists aren’t actually from Jamaica, nor have much of a connection to reggae’s roots at all”. Roots reggae encouraged Jamaican musicians to spread their ideas on how the country could improve its poor relations. Reggae artists intended to shape their society by having a deeper understanding and supporting the urgency for a structural change in Jamaica
One of the most well known reggae musician, Bob Marley, sang about his personal struggles involving racism, his life in the slums of Kingston, and his Rastafari beliefs. He believed that the god, Jah Rastafari, would lead the African people back to Africa. Most Westerners knew Bob Marley supported smoking marijuana, depicting it as a door to enlightenment in the Rastafarian belief. Reggae music was popular around the world because it spoke to people in poverty that did not have power. It gave the people something to stand with and use to unite together. Marley’s fame rose in result of Jamaica experiencing more than 200 years of colonialism and slavery. in Jamaica, Marley was seen as a supporter of the People’s National Party. His band had changed the ska music into the reggae music we know today. They did this by slowing down the ska music’s beat that their band was playing. He quickly became a symbol for the African youth, provoking Africans to start identifying with Jamaicans and its Rasta culture. It was easy for Africans from other countries to relate with Jamaicans because they were both oppressed by white people from a political, financial and social perspective.
Marley’s influence on his native land was seen as a threat to the rivals, leading up to the assassination attempt on Bob Marley in 1976. Magana’s article about bob marley stated, “Marley’s influence was not limited to simply making music for the sake of entertainment”. His dedication with spreading awareness of Rastafari made him a major contributor of the moment, forming his ideas into a global phenomenon. He was most noted for using his music to spread the message of Rastafari. His message about Rastafari focused on the issues of the human condition.
In his song Get up, Stand up, Marley stated, “Most people think Great God will come from the skies, Take away everything And make everybody feel high. But if you know what life is worth, You will look for yours on earth”. The lyrics from the song offers a phenomenal commentary of traditional methods of Western Christianity, which had served as a means of domination and oppression in Jamaica. Since he first started producing reggae music Bob Marley’s main focus was spreading a message, opposing the expectations placed by society. The song was also seen as a wake-up call to those who have missed the prophetic message of reggae music. His words alone illustrate the amount of influence he had on jamaicans, allowing the country to surpass many difficult obstacles it had faced. His songs appealed to those who did not believe in fighting wars or violence. It also appealed to people who were doing drugs that wanted to be spiritually aware through the lyrics found in reggae songs.
By the late 1970’s, the punk movement in Western cultures had also embraced reggaes themes. The punk movement identified with reggae themes of rebellion and disaffection.Western punks wore Ethiopian colors and began to speak the language of Rastafari. Nearly twenty years after Bob Marley finished performing, Westerners created a new reggae genre known as reggae rock.The genre was an infusion between reggae and rock, with the intended purpose of capturing a larger Western audience. Reggae Rock took the uplifting beats from African reggae music while combining it with electric guitars and other rock instruments. The influence reggae rock had on western cultures transformed African reggae music into a more tropical and relaxed style of reggae.
Western reggae artists did widen their lyrical scope to focus more on international problems, yet the packaging and changes in the sound of reggae best accounts for its uprising appeal to white audiences. Western reggae focused more as a new brand of rock and roll instead of being the domestic music of Jamaica’s oppressed population. Nick Pauly’s article about the Evolution of American reggae further invokes the inherent irony between a musical genre rooted in black oppression, being played by Caucasian people. I believe that most westerners do not listen to reggae for its message, instead they enjoy Reggae because of its mellow beats and white westerners attempting to sound like Bob Marley. The loss of reggaes historical context and its diminished necessity for protest had altered the nature of Reggae in the West. An issue that arises with the transformation of style is that the Rastafari Jamaican reggae music has been filtered out of the genre so it could attract a larger Western audience who would not be capable to relate to the harsh struggles of African reggae’s intended audience.
By creating a new version of Reggae in the West, many false tropes about Africa have been constructed to coexist with Western beliefs. Reggae rock found its rise in popularity in the 1990s in Long Beach, California, with the band Sublime. Being one of the most well known reggae rock bands, Sublime reference the Rastafari movement and Bob Marley in many of their songs. Many of the songs written by Sublime involved a mix of breezy beach vibes, punk and aesthetic and hip-hop touches. Their music dealt with many of the same social issues we face today- including police brutality, addiction and marijuana legalization. Reggae’s influence on Sublime made their music smoothly fused with the band’s many styles.
In the song Don’t Push by sublime, the lyrics say, “Stolen from an Africa land Chased out with a knife With a face like Bob Marley And a mouth like a motorbike oh well that bars are always open And the time is always right”. Throughout the song, Africa is painted in a dark shadow illustrating the entire continent as a place where nothing good comes from. The lyrics found in the song depict our own Western values more than the origin of Reggae music. Sublime starts the song off by interpreting Africa as one giant place where only violence occurs. Another Western imaginings of Africa found in the song is how they portray an African male to Bob Marley. In other words, the band portrays all Africans as if they look the same. The lyrics also hint the idea that Africa is not a place where you would want to live, instead Africa is a place where you would go seeking for adventures or a tropical vacation. In retrospect the lyrics were written for a western audience, characterizing the idea that our Western ways of living are more mature and civilized than Africans. In saying so, the barbaric depiction placed on Africans tell us more about how Westerners see themselves as superior and how it is their moral obligation to inflict their values and culture onto anyone who seems different.
Reggae rock today has created the misconception that Africa is the perfect venue to forget about their first world problems by being reconnected with nature. Terich’s article about modern reggae having a cultural appropriation problem stated, “In 1974, Eric Clayton, a British musician made a bigger hit out of “I Shot the Sheriff” than Bob Marley did, reaping bigger rewards despite having never experienced injustice in Trenchtown firsthand”. This is just one of the many examples of how Westerners have exploited African culture for their own personal gain. In result, the soothing depictions created by Reggae Rock are used as a tool to disassociate westerners from their own reality. The commercialization of Rasta culture in reggae rock led to further exploitation because selling out to capitalism contradicts the movement’s actual agenda.Most of the major record labels whom introduced reggae into the western world were not trying to teach people about the message behind the music, instead they exploited reggaes rebellious themes for profit.
Depictions constructed by the western world have been influencing misleading tropes and negative imagery since the 19th century. People today tend to have the misconception about Reggae Rock, believing that Africa is the perfect destination to forget about their first world problems by being reconnected with nature. Westerners depict Africa in their songs through an exotic perspective through her wildlife, culture, and people. The western depictions created about Africa in Reggae music tells us more about our own life rather than the place where Reggae music originated from. The false depictions of deceiving tropes from the western world has told us more about our personal imperfections and our way of living rather than Africa’s. The European colonization of Africa has influenced a popular belief that we see our values as superior and provides reasoning on why our values should be inflicted towards African music and communities. Reggae rock tends to correlate poverty to all Jamaicans. Like any other country, Jamaica has an established upper class, middle class and poor. By visualizing Jamaica as an exotic background for westerners we perceive ourselves as civilized compared to exotic Africa. If westerners allow Africa to be an independent continent we would be able to receive accurate depictions that tells us more about her instead of our cruel history towards her people.
Reggae artists have embraced all of the distinct eras in reggae music and continue to replicate it today. In saying so, the genre has been altered by westerners, for westerners. There are a countless amount of Western reggae musicians who use Rasta symbols such as dreadlocks, Ethiopian colors, and military clothing in order to charm their audience.