Reggae Music Essay

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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 streets and ghettos of Kingston, shortly after independence from Britain in 1962, reggae started to evolve from Mento, which was a local form of Jamaican music in the 30's to what it has become today. Originated in Jamaica, reggae music is recognized by rhythmic accents on the offbeat, usually played by piano, guitar, or sometimes both. Changing American popular music, the genre began to be played in the 1960s producing a new and different sound. Reggae's origins are in traditional African and Caribbean music, American rhythm and blues, and in Jamaican ska and rock steady (Scaruffi, Piero). Lyrics sung in a Jamaican dialect and often about local people and events. Music is in a slow 4/4 time with accents on the second and fourth beat. Harmonies are limited to a few chords, which are repeated many times in the same sequence. Like other genres such as Hip Hop, R&B, Rap, and Pop; Reggae has grown in many ways. It has always had a fairly large following in the United Kingdom, especially during the 1970s and 1980s. In the second half of the 1970s, the UK punk rock scene was starting to take off, and some punk DJs played reggae records during their DJ sets. Reggae has created some of the greatest artists whom paid the way for current artist today as well as those who are soon to come (Bogues, Anthony). Reggae music has its own style and culture that is distinctively unique.

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