This essay was written for a course on Popular Music at RMIT University. Please note that if written today, it would probably be very different.
NEW ROOTS: RASTA RETURNS
By Jesse I (August 1998)
From the first rocksteady of the sixties, through to the current dancehall ragga, Jamaican music has been constantly evolving. Although each distinct style has its own name, this music has become collectively known as reggae.This essay will concentrate upon the period in which reggae achieved its highest profile, during the roots reggae movement spearheaded by Bob Marley; as well as the present, where there has been "a wind of change blowing through the Jamaican dancehalls" (Barrow 1998).
The roots of the roots began to grow in the early seventies, with the dominant lyrical preoccupations starting to really establish themselves. These were the Rastafarian themes of the ghetto sufferer, people enduring oppression at the hands of a wicked "Babylonian" society. Ethiopian king Haile Selassie was worshipped as a holy divinity, who would lead his people to the promised land.
To the average person, reggae and Rasta may be seen as interchangeable. However, it wasn't until this period that Rasta took over and helped shape the music. As well as giving a lyrical focus, it was the Rasta drumming rhythm, "a sustained two-beat riff that swells and hypnotises like a heartbeat" (Davis p18), that slowed down the earlier reggae beat and gave it a more ominous sound.
By 1974, these Rastafarian themes were so established as the mainstream topics of Jamaican music, that Max Romeo was prompted to release his observational song "Rasta Bandwagon" (Barrow 1997 p129).
It is impossible to say exactly why Rasta took hold in this way, but a couple of contributing factors can be pointed to. Social conditions in Jamaica were worsening, with the promise of better to come under Michael Manley's Peoples National Party going unfulfilled (Junior Byles' "When Will Better Come" was adopted as the party's anthem)(Barrow 1997, p129-130). Rastafari had continued to grow since Selassie's visit to the island in 1966 (Winders p64), and it's messages of rebellion had become increasingly well known. For many of the disillusioned, Rasta offered an escape, its peaceful rebellion replacing the "rude bwai" gang violence which was prominent since the late sixties.
Rastafari's afrocentric stance (with Africa seen as a spiritual home for black people) also struck a cord with followers of the black power movement, a movement led primarily by middle class students at the University of the West Indies (Hebdidge p126). This saw the emergence of Rastas from non-ghetto backgrounds, and the ?uptown? (affluent) bands such as Third World (who were schooled in classical music).
However, as Steve Barrow notes in his book, The Rough Guide To Reggae, the single biggest factor in the rise of Rasta reggae could lie in the simple fact that all three of the original Wailers had adopted the religion - Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, and Bob Marley.
By the time that Chris Blackwell's Island label released the Wailers album, "Catch A Fire", in 1973, the group was already expressing Rastafarian consciousness - the hair was starting to lock up, and the lyrics were warning the Babylonian slave driver that "you're gonna get burned".
The Wailers were the first reggae artists to be marketed as a rock band - they were seen as a complete unit rather than the traditional Jamaican combination of vocalists and house band.
Catch A Fire also represented something of a new concept - a complete reggae LP. The reggae market has always been dominated by singles, and previously the only reggae available on LP was singles collections such as Trojan's "Tighten Up" series (Bradley p2).
Having seen that Rasta ideology was no hindrance to record sales and concert attendance, other record companies began to investigate this curious new music. After the breakup of the Wailers, Peter Tosh went to CBS, while Island retained Marley and Bunny Wailer, as well as signing many other successful acts - Burning Spear and Black Uhuru being most noteworthy.
Obviously attempting to find some of Island's success, Virgin gave heavy attention to reggae, on their Front Line label. This resulted in pure Jamaican reggae, such as the Mighty Diamonds' Right Time, The Gladiators' "Trenchtown Mix-Up" and Big Youth's "Dreadlocks Dread", finding sales internationally. However, another Bob Marley was not forthcoming, and Virgin lost interest later in the decade.
With Bob Marley's death in 1981, the death of the roots reggae period was on the cards. With the exception of a few bands (such as Black Uhuru, Steel Pulse and Aswad) the mainstream labels ended their affair with reggae, and the job returned to specialist labels such as Trojan and Greensleeves.
It was also at this time that Rastafari began to lose its place in the music, as the dancehall itself became the lyrical focus. In fact, the music had begun to lean in that direction as early as 1979, when the music became more sparse and fixated on pure rhythm (Barrow 1997, p231).
Again, this can be traced to the socio-political climate, which had seen Edward Seaga's right-wing JLP come into power, bringing hardships which further affected the poor (Barrow 1997, p231). Where Rastafari had previously provided an escape, people now began turning to the dancehalls for respite.
The dancehall held its place of prominence well into the following decade. During this time, the actual music went through tremendous change. When King Jammy produced the song "Under Mi Sleng Teng" (sung by Wayne Smith) he ushered in the digital era - this was music played mainly on a keyboard, with a drum track driving it forward (Bradley p315). Live bands were soon obsolete, as the low-cost of computerised music saw it take over completely in Jamaican studios - the drum machine is so established that many present day studios in Kingston no longer even have room for a drum kit.
This period also saw the rise of "slackness" and "gun lyrics" - rather than praising Rastafari and chanting down Babylon's evil ways, the singers and deejays were either singing sexually explicit lyrics or glorifying violence and the rule of the gun. All in all, the music was so far removed from roots reggae that many do not consider it reggae at all - the connection being purely geographical.
However, in the mid 1990?s Rastafari returned. It had never been completely eradicated (a sprinkling of artists like Yami Bolo and Admiral Tibet recorded cultural Rasta lyrics even in the digital dancehall environment) but had always remained on the outside of real success. Success was to come, but for a new breed of Rasta youth who proved that the cultural topics could still rock the dance.
As with the previous changes in the music, this change coincided with worsening political and economic conditions in Jamaica. In the 90?s, growth ground to a halt, but the murder rate continued to rise. In 1997, more than 1000 people were killed violently (Corio); a throwback to the year before Edward Seaga's JLP came to power in 1980, when 800 were killed (Barrow p231).
One of the first artists to achieve popularity solely on the basis of Rasta-influenced ragga-dancehall was the singer Garnett Silk. His lyrics were well grounded in "culture", but sung in a style that bore the mark of the previous decade's music (Barrow p319). When he was killed in a gas explosion at his mothers house in late 1994, Silk was appeared poised on the edge of crossover success - the inevitable "next Bob Marley" comparisons were already being made.
Nevertheless, Silk's style has inspired many others, such as Jahmali, Ras Shiloh, and Morgan Heritage; as well as showing that Rastafari was compatible with the new ragga sound, and in a financially viable way.
His friend and contemporary, Tony Rebel, also helped break new ground as a cultural ragga deejay (a gruff-voiced vocalist who chants and shouts over a rhythm rather than singing). Ironically though, two of the strongest forces of the Rasta resurgence are two deejays who were previously two of the slackest; Bug Banton and Capleton.
Buju Banton came to public attention at the start of the 90?s, his debut album "Mr Mention" being aptly titled - his name was being mentioned very frequently. His popularity saw him signed to US major Mercury, despite his controversial lyrics which boiled over in 1992 with "Boom Bye Bye" - a song which seemed to advocate the killing of gays. 1993 then saw a complete change of attitude, as Buju released "Murderer", conveying his feelings over the death of fellow deejay Panhead. From there, the dreads started to grow, and Buju embraced spirituality - culminating in his commercial triumph "'Til Shiloh" of 1995.
Capleton followed a very similar path, finding great success first with sexual lyrics (like "Rough Rider" on Uncle T and "Bumbo Red" on Exterminator), before reinventing himself as the "prophet" in 1992.
With people like Garnett Silk and Tony Rebel making their names with cultural tunes, and two of the biggest ragga deejays in the business making the conversion to Rastafari, the door was clearly open for more cultural dancehall.
Luciano and Everton Blender came next, the former getting major sales on Island Jamaica, a subsidiary of the original Island label which first featured the Wailers.
Anthony B came in 1996, bringing an unrelenting revolutionary vibe unseen since the days of Peter Tosh. His condemnation of wealth and privilege, "Fire Pon Rome", was banned from Jamiacan airwaves not because it was lewd, but because it was deemed seditious (Corio). This didn't stop the tune from taking over the dancehalls that year.
1997 was the year of Sizzla, who released two albums of pure Rastafarian consciousness, "Praise Ye Jah" and "Black Woman and Child". The names alone give and indication of the profound respect Sizzla holds for his god and people.
Already in 1998, we have seen even more new artists come on strong, with strong selling singles by Jah Mason (such as "Dem Have an Dem Want" on Kariang) and Jah Cure (such as "Kings In This Jungle" on Harmony House).
With this return to Rasta themes, the music itself has looked back to the past, and the bassline has returned. Although the bulk of new Jamaican music is still digital in construction, it is once again ruled by bass - albeit in digital form. In his book Reggae On CD, Lloyd Bradley observes that "this seems to be opening reggae up wide again, with more accessible music and mainstream record company support as artists begin making albums once more" (Bradley p317).
However, while Capleton and Buju Banton have made an impact in the US hip-hop market, and Sizzla and Anthony B have huge sales worldwide in the reggae market, a true crossover success still appears elusive. In terms of worldwide commercial success, the "new Bob Marley" still hasn't arrived, and at this stage it appear unlikely one will emerge. For the most part, today?s conscious dancehall reggae is too fiery for mainstream success, and on the odd occasion that a major signs one of these artists, they clearly don't know how to market them.
Having found Rastafari again, the music of this new breed won't be watered down for crossover appeal.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barrow, Steve & Peter Dalton. Reggae: The Rough Guide. Penguin Books, 1997.
Barrow, Steve. "Kings Of Kings" (Equal Rights, 1998) liner notes.
Bradley, Lloyd. Reggae on CD: The Essential Guide. Kyle Cathie Ltd, London, 1996.
Corio, David. "New Sounds" New York Times (date unknown) http://niceup.com/articles/dancehall_nytimes (9/14/98)
Davis, Stephen. Reggae Bloodlines: In Search Of The Music and Culture Of Jamaica. Da Capo Press, New York, 1977.
Hebdige, Dick. "Reggae, Rastas and Rudies: Style and Subversion of Form" in Reggae, Rasta, Revolution: Jamaican Music from Ska to Dub. Ed. Chris Potash, Schirmer Books, New York, 1997.
Hebdige, Dick. Cut 'n' Mix: Culture, Identity and Carribbean music. Methuen, London, 1987.
Winders, James A. "Reggae, Rastafarians and Revolution: Rock Music In The Third World" The Journal Of Popular Culture, Vol 17, No 1. Bowling Green State University, Ohio, 1983.