Reggae music was born on the island of Jamaica in the late 1960s. It is a fairly recent music genre that has roots in mento, R&B and Ska music that were contemporary musical movements. Recorded music was relatively late in coming to Jamaica with the first recording studio opening in 1951 and recording “mento” music which was a fusion of European and African folk dance music. American R&B music also became widely available around that time. The genre of Reggae may have langered in obscurity and never achieved international status and recognition had it not been for it’s most iconic person, Bob Marley, whose influence spread across North America, is still felt in Africa, and reached it’s peaks during Marley’s peak before subsiding but still remaining at a strong level today.
Different Reggae music artists have certain signatures that employ, one to all of these three different patterns. Reggae music has a standard rock band arrangement of instruments. There is a bass guitar, guitars, in reggae usually the guitar plays a chord on the beat of the rhythm. The music also employs keyboards, horns and vocals. The instrumentation is what really defines the genre and not so much the vocals. Lyrics are very important to the genre, and very often there are political statements and social criticisms to be found within them. Other subjects of the music include love and social situations (Colin, 1).
Jamaica has a high consumption of Marijuana, which is a symbol of the struggle against oppressive governments within then counter cultures of the society. Many songs promote the use of marijuana and advocate its positive effects. There are also songs that sing about nationalism, ant-racism, and anti-colonialism.
Big names in Reggae music include musicians like Jackie Mittoo and Winston Wright. But no name is bigger more associated with the music than Bob Marley and Wailers, a band started by Bob Marley in 1963. Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers lays down a criteria for success that is important to understand when looking at the rise of Bob Marley as it is applicable in his case.
The classic “American Dream” story of success has to do with either talent or hard word. Others consider it luck. Others see intelligence and natural inborn ability as necessary for success. Gladwell sees it is all three of these things. It takes the hard work of putting in the necessary time to become a “master” of a craft, but also luck, such as with hockey players, of when someone is born plays a role. His central point is that small things early on play a big role in success later on. Opportunity is not something someone is born with, and can be liked to luck. Gladwell demonstrates that the right opportunity at the right time is a key component to success (Gladwell, 18). With the right opportunities at a crucial time every drop becomes a pool and every bit of edge plays a major difference over time. Cultural legacies also matter since this is the framework that one must operate under in virtually all areas. In Marley’s case he was born at a time where he had a cause to sing about.
Bob Marley was born at a time of cultural struggle where people wanted to separate from the British who had ruled the country since the seventeenth century. There was a cause that people all over the world could relate to and Jamaica was in the international spotlight while this was happening. It was also the first time that recording equipment that allowed music to cross the sea to elsewhere in the world became available. This was a key element in the rise of Marley’s music. Part of the reason his name became so big was because it was one of the first recordings of reggae that left the island and came to the United States. People who were first introduced to this genre knew it only through the music of Bob Marley and in the United States as it was across the world Reggae became synonymous with Bob Marley.
Marley was raised Catholic, but like many in Jamaica at the time became interested and associated with the Rastafarian movement and after that grew out long dreadlocks that would become his trademark and would remain a cultural icon that can be traced to him even today (White, 23). Marley also had some business sense, and spent some time in the Bronx trying to break into the American music scene by recording songs similar to the popular American pop music at the time. The New York Times writes that “Sometime in the spring of 1968, a lanky, clean-cut 23-year-old Jamaican arrived at an apartment on Valentine Avenue in the Bronx with a guitar and a future no one could have possibly imagined” (McKinley, 1). He worked with a 31-year-old composer, Jimmy Norman and wanted to learn R&B music. The result of his time in the Bronx led to a rare “pre-reggae” tape that never led him to the international stardom he came desiring. It would be the music from his native Island of Jamaica that would lead him there.
While the three day recording session did not lead to any break through hits for Marley, it did lead into the producer Mr. Norman believing him enough to go with him to Jamaica in order to continue to record Marley (McKinley, 2).
Marley’s entrance into social and pop icon was a slow trajectory that eventually got him to that immortal level. In 1972 he and his band were left broke after a tour that did not pan out with American singer Johnny Nash. He turned up in London and appealed to Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records whom he asked to advance him the cost of recording a new single. Blackwell was looking for a new image and wanted someone who could fit the image of icon for rebel music. He saw all that he needed in Marley and advanced most of the money for Marley and the Wailers to go to Kingston and record and album that would become Catch a Fire. The record sold a modest amount of 14,000 units, but was received well with the critics. This led to Marley being able to record Burnin’, the next year, which included the songs “Get UP, Stand Up” and “I Shot the Sheriff” which appealed so much to Eric Clapton, that he recorded a cover of it in 1974 which became a huge hit in America which both raised reggae music and Bob Marley’s international notoriety (Brent, 36).
Indicative of the fame Marley would later enjoy was on a tour where they were set to open in seventeen shows for the United States band Sly and the Family Stone. The band was fired after only for because that audience was more into them then the band that they were opening for (Brent, 44).
Marley’s first hit outside of Jamaica came in 1975 with his song “No Woman No Cry” and in 1976 with his song “Rastaman Vibration” made it to the top 50 soul hits in the United States (Brent, 54).
Marley’s first big entrances into the sphere of becoming a political icon, and a controversial one at that came when there was an attempt made at his life. He was scheduled to play a free concert on December 3rd, 1976 that was organized by the Jamaican prime minister in order to ease tensions between two fighting factions. Marley, his wife and manager were wounded by an unknown gunman in their house and were seriously injured. Though they later made full recoveries, Marley was still injured but decided to go ahead with the concert just two days after the incident. He played the concert before 80,000 people. When he was asked why he would play after nearly losing his life and still being injured, he replied with a line that has often been quoted, can be seen on Internet memes and t-shirts, “"The people who are trying to make this world worse aren't taking a day off. How can I?" (Jann, 97).
This was the start of many such politically fueled concerts that Bob Marley would play. In 1978 he played the “One lOve Peace Concert” in Jamaica, which was once again an effort to calm two political parties that were at odds with each other. At the end of the concert the two warring leaders of the parties joined the stage and shook hands with each other (Jann, 97).
His music throughout his career would continue to become more and more political. His later albums included tracks with names such as “Africa Unite,” “Wake Up And Live” and “Zimbabwe”. He sang about such themes as the diaspora of Africans, slavery, peace, legalizing marijuana and apartheid.
Not just one of the most famous Reggae performance, it is remembered as one of the greatest concerts of all times and came a time when the seventies was giving way to the eighties. When Bob Marley and the Wailers played live at Dortmund in 1980 itwas the start of a new decade, and the natural transition from the 70s to the 80s at a time of significant social changes, and advances in Civil Rights created a fertile environment for the message of Reggae and specifically Bob Marley’s music, which centered on social reform. These were also uncertain times for many and Marley’s music played to that notion.
In the concert Bob Marley starts by grabbing the microphone and proclaiming a salute to all the “Rastafarians” in the room saying “there’s a natural wind blowing through here.” The first song begins with a mellow beat, powered by a ska rhythm on the second and forth beat of the bar. After an eight bar intro, Bob Marley sings, “There’s a natural wind blowing through the air now and if you listen closely you’ll here. This could be the first trumpet, mine as well be the last, many more will have to suffer, many more will have to die. Don’t tax me, why? You’ll see that things are not the way they used to be.”
That lyric is particularly stirring, “Things are not the way they used to be.” It is also indicative of the movement of music and also the social and political tides of the time. This song crescendos significantly, and the pitch rises in Bob Marley’s lyrics.
The lyrics have a strophic form, repeating many aspects of the lyrics and refrains, all centered along the repeating, “There’s a natural wind blowing through the air.”
The concert then moves on to more lively songs with Bob Marley setting down the guitar and dancing. Backup dancers and singers appear onstage. Issues covered include a refrain of how “Africans are liberated no more internal poor struggle, come together and sort out the little trouble you see.”
The common song form, are for bar blues riffs that lead to a presto of pace throughout the concert. Many songs employ the strophic forms of repetition. The songs are all very positive in this sense, painting a wonderful picture of the world of good having overcome the forces of evil while acknowledging that the struggle still continues and the good achieved must not prevent “the children of the revolution” from giving up the struggle.
He played this concert three years after he was found to have a type of cancer called malignant melanoma under the nail of a toe which doctors recommended that he have amputated. Marley refused their request citing religious beliefs and continued to tour. For the same reason that Marley grew out his hair, there is a part of the bible that is central to Rastafarian belief system, and that is "They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in the flesh” (Leviticus 21:5). This showed him not to have been a Rastafarian for any popularity reasons, but that he was a fervent believer of the faith, willing to risk his life rather than break the dogma of his religion.
There are also deeper reasons that likely caused Marley to not just refuse to have his toe amputated, but to do nothing about his cancer. They believe that death is only certain for those who acknowledge it as a possibility; doing so makes it a sure thing that it will come. Under Rastafarianism, truly holy people gain immortality in their bodies. Marley, due to his international fame at the time, likely considered himself to be one such holy person upon which death would not pass and so he refused to acknowledge it. (Romer, 1).
His album Uprising featured what went on to become Marley’s most popular song “Redemption Song” which had the theme exploring his own mortality which he seems to in the song comes to terms with. At the Stanley Theater in Pennsylvania Marley would play his last concert as soon his health deteriorated due to his cancer. When it became clear that he was not going to overcome his illness despite treatments, he boarded a plane for Jamaica. But he did not make it that far, and his plane stopped in Miami where he died on May 11th 1981. His last words that he said to his son Ziggy was “Money can’t buy life” (Romer, 1).
It was in the 70s and 80s that Reggae saw its peak in popular culture and this music at the time was heavily influence by who has become known as the “father of Reggae,” Bob Marley. There are many ways in which Bob Marley and his Reggae influenced popular culture. Though it has since subsided since its prime in the 70s and 80s, it is still a popular music genre and a cornerstone to music as it has influenced subsequent artists and genres. His peak begain in 73 and 74 when three of his albums reached the billboard top 200 hits. Before this, Reggae wasvirtually unheard of oustisde of Jamaica. Since it has arrived, it has stayed and while it is arguable that Bob Marley is actually the father of Reggae, few would argue that it is due to him that it was brought to the world (Colin, 78).
Bob Marley has also been referred to as the first pop star of the third world. It is uncanny that someone from a poor island nation gained such international pop star notoriety. A popular slogan of the Occupy movement was getup standup, which is a refrain from Bob Marley’s song by the same name.
Having sold over 25 million records, having his face and name on key chains and t-shirts, Bob Marley’s iconic influence may have waned since his hey-day, but it by know means has disappeared. When someone sports a head of dreadlocks, it is entirely possible that without Bob Marley’s influence, they would be sporting an entirely different hairstyle. Even if they are unaware of the connection, many things that run through the current of popular culture today has their origins in Bob Marley and his music.
Works Cited
Chang, Jeff (2005). Can't Stop Won't Stop. St. Martin's Press, 2005.
Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: the story of success. New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2008. Print.
Hagerman, Brent “Chris Blackwell: Savvy Svengali” Exclaim.ca. 2005.
Larkin, Colin (ed.) The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae. Online. 1998. Virgin
Manuel, Peter, with Kenneth Bilby and Michael Largey (2006). Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae (2nd edition). Temple University Press, 2006. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Romer, Megan. "How and why did Bob Marley die?." About.com World Music. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. <http://worldmusic.about.com/od/genres/f/BobMarleyDeath.htm>.
Wenner, Jan “The Shooting of a Wailer” ^Rolling Stone Magazine. Print. 1997.
Mckinley, Jesse. "Pre-Reggae Tape of Bob Marley Is Found and Put on Auction."The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 Dec. 2002. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/19/arts/pre-reggae-tape-of-bob-marley-is- found-and-put-on-auction.html>.
^ White, Timothy (25 June 1981). "Bob Marley: 1945–1981". Rolling Stone 2009.
