Jamaica Songs

Reggae evolves into many sub-genres; the earliest was called “Early Reggae or Skinhead Reggae”. The Reggae had such a heavy influence in the UK in 1960’s, that the working class youth (mods) started imitating the Jamaican Rude boys. THis is the start of Jamaica songs. The significant element that characterized rock steady from early reggae was the organ, referred to as “bubbling organ”, this was style that brought out a subdivision note inside the groove. Some of the reggae artist, who was popular for the early reggae, was The Pioneers, John Holts and Toots and the Maytals. The mods also did cover of American souls songs and this was also reflected in early reggae.
Roots reggae

This roots reggae was considered a religious type of music, as the lyrics were primarily praising Jah (God). The high point of the roots genre was in the late 70’s. The lyrical content was of a recurring inclusion of struggles that they had in fighting against government dictatorship, Rastafarian, repatriation and poverty. This style was different from the rhythms in the Rocksteady, Ska, Skank, Reggae, Rockers and various other styles that would follow. Bob Marley had a song called “Roots, Rock, Reggae” and he formulated a style that was of “off beat”, he was skanking different beats on the guitar, this was a distinctive beat that seems to be working for him and other artists started adapting to it. Producers Lee “Scratch” Perry, Joseph Hoo Kim, Coxsone Dodd and Bunny Lee, teamed up with the roots singers at this time to expand this genre. These were solo acts such as Peter Tosh, Lincoln Thompson, Bob Marley, Max Romeo, Burning Spear and Horace Andy and they worked with groups like Culture, Steel Pulse and Black Uhuru. While these musicians were experimenting with the roots another take shaped and a new genre was born, this one was called Dub.

Roots were also drawn to the European people and it grows to be very popular in the 1970’s. A lot of mixed, black and white started reggae bands in Europe, but at this time Jamaica had turned to another style called dancehall. This genre was well received that it started developing in the America, because at this time persons were immigrating to there and taking a part of the Jamaican culture with them.
Dub

The Dub music was developed from the experimenting of the roots rhythm by producers King Tubby and Lee “Scratch” Perry in the 60’s and 70’s. Some classified this as the birth of remix, with drum and bass being the focal point of emphasis. What they did was use existing records and revises it by remixing instruments and adding special effects. Other producers quickly catch on to this style and started maneuvering the music tracks and coming up with some real creative mixes.

This dub style moved on to other levels, it was said that 1968 Ruddy Redwood who was operating a sound system at the, went to cut what was called a “dub plate”, accidentally the vocal was left out and he did not change it. When played the track at a dance, the DJ just toast over the rhythm, this style is still very much popular today. The musicians quickly recognized that this dub style was here to stay; they started recording albums that were a hundred percent dub music.

Dub was also a strong influence worldwide and could be recognized in the different techniques, especially in the American music. Most persons even today do not know that dub started out of Jamaica songs from the genres of Rocksteady and Reggae.