Transcript Ska and Reggae - McGraw Hill Higher Education

Chapter 15 - Ska and Reggae
“A lot of people expect that reggae has to have a message.
Rubbish. Reggae is a beat. You can put a message on top of
it, you can put gospel, you can put slackness, you can put on
pop. But reggae is a beat.”
Lloyd Lovindeer, Reggae artist and social commentator
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Jamaica
Caribbean island discovered by Columbus in 1494
Spanish killed many natives and brought in Africans as slaves
Part of British West Indies in 17th century
Independence from Britain in 1962
Jamaican folk music, mento, played on simple wind, plucked
string, and percussion instruments
American rhythm and blues recordings heard on AM radio,
also played by Jamaican disc jockeys out of backs of trucks
to attract dancers and profit by selling them drinks
Ska developed as a combination of mento and R&B music
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The Language of the Jamaican Disc
Jockey
Deejay – vocalist, also called “toaster”
Dub – from “double,” a recording with original vocals have been
removed for new vocals to be added (live or recorded)
Dub plate – a soft wax record used by selectors
Peps – vocal sounds made by deejay or toaster to “pep up” a record:
“chicka-a-took, chicka-a-took, chicka-a-took”
Rewind – spinning back a record so that part of it can be played twice
in a row
Selector – the person who plays the records to back up a deejay or
toaster
Toaster – the vocalist, also called a deejay
Version – an instrumental recording from which vocals have been
removed, sometimes with newly added tracks as well
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Ska
Developed as a Jamaican version of rhythm and blues, also influenced
by Mexican and Cuban brass playing, rhythm and blues saxophone
playing, and forties swing-style jazz
Ska groups accented a subdivision after the main beats (even or
uneven subdivision, both were used), called a “hesitation beat”
Term “blue beat” also used for ska
Instrumentation of ska bands varied
Skatalites included 4 trumpets, 2 trombones, 2 alto saxophones, 2
tenor saxophones, 2 guitarists, 3 keyboards, 1 bass, and three
percussionists
Skatalites backed vocal groups such as the Maytals, the Wailers, and
the Heptones
Desmond Dekker (born in 1941 or 2) became known as the King of the
Bluebeat (ska)
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Listening Guide
“007 (Shanty Town)” by Desmond Dekker and the Aces (1967)
Tempo: 100 beats per minute, 4 beats per bar
Form: 4-bar instrumental introduction, then ABBABB. A sections are 14 bars
long, and B ones are 8 bars
Features: Even beat subdivisions
He hesitation beats (half way between the main beats) stressed by
guitarist strumming up (from high to low strings) and high-hat in drums
Subtle bass supports hesitation beat with accents on &2 and &4
Vocals of B sections rather fast and rhythmic with slower responses of
“shanty town”
Second B section is instrumental
Slow, relaxed rhythmic flow to the beat
Fade ending
Lyrics: Popular movies with James Bond and Ocean’s Eleven romanticize gang
members in a bad area of Jamaica
Charts: British hits, #14
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Reggae
Rock steady, a slow version of ska with an active, syncopated
bass line, sped up to become Reggae in 1968
Reggae came to be called the king’s music, for Haile Selassie,
the emperor of Ethiopia (1930-1974)
Haile Selassie (real name, Ras Tafari Makonnen ) seen as a
messiahlike prince sent by God of importance to Christian
African Americans in writings of Marcus Garvey (18871940)
Followers called Rastafarians:
followed Christian Bible and writings of Marcus Garvey
were vegetarians
had dreadloced hair from not combing it
considered marijuana a sacrament, “ganja”
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Listening Guide
“I Shot the Sheriff” by Bob Marley and the Wailers (1973)
Tempo: 96 beats per minute, 4 beats per bar
Form: 2-beat percussion flourish at beginning and at the endings of B
sections
ABABABAB instrumental
A sections are 8 bars, B sections are three 4-bar phrases and
flourish
Fade ending
Features: Both even and uneven beats subdivisions
Soft backbeat
Backup vocalists sing in falsetto
B sections are polyrhythmic
Lyrics: The singer rehearses his legal defense to a shootout in which he
shot the sheriff in self-defense, but did not shoot the deputy.
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Ska and Reggae Influences on Rock
Seventies British punk band the Clash used a
reggae beat in songs such as “White Man in
Hammersmith Palais” (1978) and covered
reggae song “Police and Thieves” (1977)
Punk/new wave band the Police mixed pop,
rock, and reggae for their album Reggatta de
Blanc album (1979) and the hit single
“Message in a Bottle”
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Ska Revival
English anti-racism movement in late seventies brought back ska
hesitation beat at a fast pace
2 Tone Record Company
The Specials
Madness
English Beat
Bad Manners
Bodysnatchers
Oi!
Non commercial combination of punk and ska
Cockney Rejects, anarchist reputation
Later ska bands popular in many parts of Europe, the U. S., and Mexico
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Listening Guide
“Concrete Jungle” by the Specials (1979)
Tempo: 152 beats per minute, 4 beats per bar
Form: 14-bar introduction, then seven 16-bar sections ordered: ABAB-InstrumentalAB
The 16 bars of each sections are made up of four 4-bar phrases
All B sections begin with “concrete jungle”
Features: An organ plays a chord on each subdivision, slightly earlier than halfway
between the beats
Strong backbeat in drums
Introduction includes chanting and rhythmic pounding
Vocals are mostly sung in a punk-influenced monotone
Group vocals show support of friends
Fuzztone lead guitar in instrumental section
Electric bass plays reggae-influenced syncopations in A sections, but on the beats
in most B sections
Bass plays melodic octaves in instrumental section
A loud sound of breaking glass is heard at the end of the second B section
Lyrics: The song centers on the horrors of an impoverished urban ghetto where crime
is everywhere
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Discussion Questions
Reggae is music of politically and socially oppressed
people in Jamaica. Is the international popularity
of reggae most likely to be based on its identity
with those people, or is it popular more because
it is good dance music?
Might the reasons for reggae’s popularity in
England be different from those for its popularity
in the United States?
What current bands play ska or reggae?
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