This music is more than marijuana, Dreadlocks, and Bob Marley: The Reggae from Jamaica in 50 years a world career.
The competent Committee of the UN cultural organisation, Unesco could explain the Genre of the Pop-whose most famous representative Marley has been in the 70s for the Megastar, this Wednesday at the world intangible cultural heritage.
The cheerful and worry-free, therefore, future Sound of Reggae a little deceptive – the style of music in the Caribbean island state of disappointment after its independence from Britain in 1962, and from the memories of the oppression during the colonial time. After independence, there had been on the island a collective euphoria, which is reflected in the very optimistic type of music Ska, explains Jérémie Kroubo Dagnini from the University in Orléans, France.
The French scientists has set for his work “The Importance of Reggae Music in the Worldwide Cultural Universe” with the cultural significance of the style apart. “But as the time passed, and felt many Jamaicans disillusioned, there’s not really anything had changed. The poverty and social injustice was the same,” Kroubo Dagnini. From this feeling of the end of the 60s, Reggae was formed.
The Name comes according to the expert, from the Jamaican Slang. Singer Toots Hibbert used the term for the first time in his song “Do The Reggay” in 1968. Hibbert explained, “Reggae” came from the Slang word “streggae”, which has not been used for women, who dressed neatly, according to the scientist.
their Golden time have experienced the music during the 70s, when the island of the socialist Michael Manley was Prime Minister, says Reggae-professional Kroubo Dagnini. Many artists of the scene were politically more oriented to the left. “Socialism Is Love” by Max Romeo from the year 1974 was a good example of this.
issues such as oppression, social inequality and political alienation are the Central features of the texts of Reggae greats such as Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Jimmy Cliff. So in 1981, aged only 36, of cancer deaths Marley in one of his most famous songs, “Redemption Song sings,” from the difficulty and necessity of self-empowerment: “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds” – translated: “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. No one other than we ourselves can free our minds.”
“Reggae is a mirror of the Jamaican Gobahis culture and history,” says Kroubo Dagnini. “If you listen to Reggae Songs, you learn things about slavery, colonialism, social injustice, poverty.” The music should be informed about the true lives of the Jamaicans.
But Reggae is not exclusively political. Also topics such as love, spirituality and Religion play a Central role. In addition, the Rastafarian culture have had an impact on texts and melodies, and explains Kroubo Dagnini. The Reggae-Sound of the African as the related styles of Ska and Rocksteady.
On the subject of rebellion against social injustice, the music, the direction of spread in the 60s and 70s in the world. “It’s like Punk or Rap – all of the Protest music genres,” says Kroubo Dagnini. Between 1953 and 1962, and hiked nearly 200 000 Jamaicans to the UK. There they settled primarily in the working-class quarters of London.
The British punk scene was influenced, although musically very different, on a level of content from Reggae. Here, too, the revolt against the existing conditions, against social norms, as well as the urge to play freedom a Central role.
One of the best-known examples of the influence of Reggae on punk rock: the Song “Guns Of Brixton” (1979) by The Clash. In the US, where also many Jamaicans emigrated, took Reggae direct influence on the Rap music. Rapper Notorious B. I. G. and Busta Rhymes have roots Jamaican.
in 1974, was covered by Eric Clapton arrived for the Song “I Shot The Sheriff”, in the Original Bob Marley and the Wailers (1973) – the musical direction was in the Mainstream. Since 1985, the Grammy Awards, a separate category for best Reggae Album.
Currently, the Reggae influence is most strikingly in the Dancehall to listen to music with artists such as Sean Paul or in Germany Seeed. And in Jamaica, the style of music is, even after around 50 years for the people still the number one.
dpa