My Account
| |
Help
My Dashboard
My Dashboard
Get Published
Home
Books
Academic eBook Collections
eBook Library Collections
Journal and Magazine Collection
Audio eBook Collection
Library Exhibits
Search
Support
How-To Tutorials
Suggestions
Machine Translation Editions
Noahs Archive Project
About Us
Terms and Conditions
Get Published
Submission Guidelines
Self-Publish Check List
Why Choose Self-publishing?
Home
|
Books
|
Search
|
Support
|
About Us
|
Sign in with your eLibrary Card
close
We appreciate your support of online literacy with your eLibrary Card Membership. Your membership has expired. Please click on the Renew Subscription button in the SUBSCRIPTION AND BILLING section of your Settings tab.
Close
Most Popular
New Releases
Top Picks
Kid 25's
Library Exhibits
Reggae
A Music for All Spirits
Reggae
An Interview in Zion : the Life-History ...
(by
Bonacci
)
The stereotypes concerning the culture of
reggae
have become synonymous with the music itself. The genre culturally reappropriates and stylizes
natty dreadlocks
, counterrevolution, and
cannabis consumption
as facets of the Jamaican-borne music. The history of reggae music, however, includes more comprehensive interpretations. It offers more than
Bob Marley
swinging his hair and smoking marijuana joints.
Popularized in the late 1960s, reggae combines borrowed musical styles. Mento, Jamaican folk music that transformed the hymns of local church music into celebratory dance tunes, was intended largely for rural audiences. Elements of New Orleans
rhythm and blues
, American
jazz
, and the concept of
call and response
melded to create a distinctive Jamaican groove. Predated by
rocksteady
, a genre named for the dances performed, reggae is a faster paced sound with elements of staccato guitar or piano chords played on the offbeats of the measure.
Toots and the Maytals
, a Jamaican ska and rocksteady musical group, receives the credit for effectively naming and introducing reggae to the world. "
Do the Reggay
" was released in 1968. While it described "reggay" as a "new dance going around the town," the genre grew to better relate to social gossip, news, political commentary, and religious expression. World renowned artists, including Bob Marley,
Burning Spear
,
Jimmy Cliff
(a recipient of the Jamaican Order of Merit award), Peter Tosh (who famously played with Bob Marley), and
Marcia Griffiths
(the "queen of reggae") opined musically about love, freedom, government, revolution, and local society. While the
Rastafarian movement
, a way of life that encompasses spiritual cannabis use and a rejection of material possessions, is an important part of reggae culture, it is not a prerequisite.
Today reggae music has spread across the globe, impacting millions of listeners and performers. Giulia Bonocci's study, "
An Interview in Zion: The Life-History of a Jamaican Rastafarian in Shashemene, Ethiopia
," describes in great detail the diaspora of the Rastafarian movement and its relationship with reggae music. Emma Baulch's article, "
Reggae Borderzones, Reggae Graveyards: Bob Marley Fandom in Bali
,” points to the diverse interpretations of reggae music in nations all around the world.
By Logan Williams
About Us
Privacy Policy
Contact Us
Copyright © World Library Foundation. All rights reserved. eBooks from World Library are sponsored by the
World Library Foundation
,
a 501c(4) Member's Support Non-Profit Organization, and is NOT affiliated with any governmental agency or department.