Reggae is an African style of music that is unique to Jamaica, developed in the 1960s in the ghetto of Kingston. Having elements of American R& B, Traditional African and Jamaican Folk music and Ska.Reggae is founded upon its rhythm style, which is characterized by a strong offbeat, played by an collection of organ, piano, drums, and electric guitars, led by an electric bass played at high volume.
Today the music has grown to became more popular today than ever, and has cross all boundaries as evidence, is the amount of international known artist who have recorded and covered Reggae songs such as Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stone, Sting, Paul Simon and Steve Wonder. Time Magazine has voted Exodus, Recorded by Bob Marley the most influential album of the 20th century.
Famous Reggae Artist like Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, and Peter Tosh, were the one’s who brought reggae to the international scene. The greatest of which was Bob Marley who popularized the reggae on a world-wide basis. The style of reggae he made famous is called roots rock reggae, and is still used by many artists such as Beres Hammond, Black Uhuru, Burning Spear, and UB40.
Dancehall
The dancehall music developed around 1980 The style is characterized by a deejay singing and rapping or toasting over raw and fast rhythms. The musical structure is rooted in reggae though the rhythms,Which primarily consists of electronic music and sampling.
The Culture of Dancehall
The term Dancehall refers not only to music or venue but on entire culture where fashion, Dance, community and politics play a component. The lyrics of dance is wide and diverse, Dancehall lyrics give praises to the lord , or praises Jah Rastafari there are song that focus on the everyday struggles and adversity, social injustice and oppression and fantasies of the present population’s, they are some lyrics that focus on profanity, violence and homophobia. Which are referred to as “slack lyrics,” or “slackness”? They are song of love from intimate to brotherly love and ever song of humor. Dancehall also has its own fashion it's not uncommon to see women or Dancehall Queen as they are called wearing clothing that ranges from suggestive to downright x-rated with elaborate hair styles or hair pieces.
Dancehall dances
The musts popular dance are Butterfly, The Bogle, The Heel and Toe, The Blazay-Blazay, The Pon the River, Pon the Bank, the jook, the spongebob, hot fuk,tek weh yuh self and the dutty wine.
More About Jamaica Popular Dance
Political Reggae
From the outset, reggae was political, as the work of Bob Marley and Peter Tosh clearly attests. Their trailblazing '70s records set a precedent for the role of political protest in reggae. Certainly, some acts simply grooved on good times, but there were always active, socially conscious reggae musicians that used their music as a vehicle for a message. They weren't always popular, but they came back in vogue at various times during the '80s and '90s
Reggae-Pop
Has its foundation in reggae, but the music is tempered with strong, melodic hooks, commercial production, and a crossover sensibility. Sometimes, reggae-pop is performed by pop bands seeking to diversify their sounds, but more often it's played by reggae artists with a fondness for pop.
Roots Reggae
A cross between American rock and ska/rock steady, Roots Reggae is typified by strong vocals and devoutly rasta lyrics; it is perhaps the most easily accessible form of reggae, and the most successful globally. Roots reggae emerged during the early 1970s, immediately following the development of rocksteady.
Rocksteady
A popular music that developed out of ska in the 1960s. In its simplest terms, rocksteady is half-speed ska with the trombone replaced by piano and prominent bass. The lyrics are more socially and politically conscious, and there is a greater focus on harmonies, particularly in trios like the Heptones, Gaylads, Dominoes, Aces, and Wailers, with its relaxed beat and social-protest lyrics, the music served as a forerunner to reggae.
Ska
Ska marked the true beginning of Jamaican popular music, coming to prominence during the early and mid-'60s right around the time the island was granted its independence. Ska ensembles were generally a blend of electric instrumentation and horns most popular in jazz (saxophone, trumpet, trombone). Although structurally simple, ska has a bevy of influences, synthesizing American R&B, jump blues, Jamaican mento, calypso and other Caribbean styles, big-band swing, Afro-Cuban jazz, pocomania and other local religious folk music, and European ballroom dances. Of those, the first three -- R&B, jump blues, and mento -- were the most important building blocks. Jump blues tunes.
Lovers Rock
A romantic, R&B-influenced form of reggae, Lovers Rock was a product of the U.K. reggae scene, becoming popular in the late '70s as mainstream roots reggae increasingly devoted itself to social protest and Rastafarian spirituality. From ska to reggae, Jamaican music had long been influenced by American soul, but lovers rock blurred the lines to a greater extent than ever before, pairing the smooth sounds of Chicago and Philly soul with reggae basslines and, to a greater or lesser extent, rhythms.
