Reggae Music Paige Alexander Dawson Community College Abstract Reggae music is an engaged musical genre that is very famous. Most people think of Reggae music as music of joy, peace and linked to Jamaica or the sunny island where everyone smokes herb freely. But in fact, Reggae sculpts itself in a whole social movement. First, it claims religious and social demands, and with the years, it became more and more discussed. Reggae music originated from Jamaica in the early 1960's.
In the mid 60s”Rock Steady”-a slower tempo with emphasis on syncopation-grew out of “Ska”. However, by the late 60s, yet another new Jamaican musical form had emerged-“Reggae”, the most famous of the musical styles developed on the island. Reggae spans the globe and has influenced the music of internationally famous performers in the US, Japan, UK, South America, and the rest of the world. Cuba: For most of the eighteenth
This music style sometimes aquired chanting and emphasized the syncopated beat. Reggae contained a collection of many different instruments and music genres. Electric guitars, organs, pianos, and drums were the most used instruments in reggae records. Reggae also had some mixed beats from American R and B or other traditional folk music from Africa. There have been a number of successful artists come from Jamaica.
Rastafari is a young, Africa-centred religion which developed in Jamaica in the 1930s, following the coronation of Haile Selassie I as King of Ethiopia in 1930. Rastafarians believe Haile Selassie I is God and that he will return to the African members of the black community who are living in exile as the result of colonisation and the slave trade. (www.bbc.co.uk) Marcus Garvey a political activist developed the idea of Rastafari ideology because he wanted to improve the status of his fellow black people. There are approximately one million people worldwide adherents of Rastafari as a faith. The 2001 census found 5,000 Rastafarians living in England and Wales (bbc.co.uk) Rastafarians are known by different names such as Rasta, sufferers, locks men, and dreadlocks or dreads.
The reign of the Garvey movement, as Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., wrote, "awakened a race consciousness that made Harlem felt around the world. "^2 Popular Hero Borne along on the tide of black popular culture, Garvey's memory has attained the status of a folk myth. While the 1987 centennial of Garvey's birth will be marked by formal ceremonies honoring his memory, on a more dynamic plane, Garvey is daily celebrated and re-created as a hero through the storytelling faculty of the black oral tradition. As the embodiment of that oral tradition transmuted into musical performance, Jamaica's reggae music exhibits an amazing fixation with the memory of Garvey.
Analysis and Context of Bob Marley's Lyrics A lifetime of inspiration and struggle is depicted through a poster I acquired not to long ago. The portrait is Bob Marley. The image is freedom. This sense of freedom can be, and is, achieved through his music, powered by his music, and inspired by his music as it relates to the social injustices in early white imperialism. An illusion of the creation of a human life is being meshed together in this distinct piece of work.
Hip-hop, while opposed to rap, generally defines the whole culture. Rap formed during the 1970s with the rise in popularity of block parties in New York, particularly among African American youth residing in the Bronx. Rapping developed as a vocal style in which the artist speaks along with an instrumental or synthesized beat. The roots of rapping are found in African-American music and ultimate African music, with roots originating from the griots of west African culture. The African American traditions of signifyin' (an early form of wordplay), the dozens (game of spoken words between two communities) and jazz poetry all had an influence on rap music.
It was not the whites that were the “devil,” but racism was the evil of mankind (“Black Muslim”). Both men were great speakers. Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his famous “I have a dream speech” in Washington. The speech resonated throughout the United States like a pleasant wake up call. Malcolm X with his persuasive charismatic style of deliverance decided to visit Africa to link its blacks with their other black brothers in the United States.
Rastafarianism and Rap Music The Rastafari movement is a "messianic religio-political movement" that began in the Jamaican slums in the 1920s and 30s. The most famous Rastafari is Bob Marley, whose reggae music gained the Jamaican movement international recognition. There is significant variation within the Rastafari movement and no formal organization. Some Rastafarians see Rasta more as a way of life than a religion. But uniting the diverse movement is belief in the divinity and/or messiahship of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I, the influence of Jamaican culture, resistance of oppression, and pride in African heritage.
The other feature is the extensive work with Inquices (Enkises, Nkisi). The Inquices are very like the Orishas of Yoruba tradition, but also different. In Cuba and Brazil, where Yoruba influence was strongest in the Americas, they are often syncretized with the Orishas. They may best be described as being both the most ancient of ancestors as well as being associated with specific powers in nature. The Inquices do not tend to possess as detailed a mythology as the Yoruba gods.