La historia del ska y reggae. Rocksteady - the roots of reggae. Big Yard Chunes: Jamaican Vinyl Records from Mento to Calypso, Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae, Roots, Dub, and Dancehall. Pedradas do Reggae. Design Legacy: A Social History Of Jamaican Album Covers - Smashing Magazine. Advertisement Mention Jamaican music to someone who isn’t a fan and you can bet that a fairly predictable image pops into the head of your listener.
Chances are this image looks something like the cover of Bim Sherman’s Exploitation: Same old Rastafarian colors… Some guy with dreads… A title that refers broadly to political oppression or positive thinking without much in the way of self-critical awareness or irony. For many people, this vision — of roots reggae and its deified lead singer — is the only face that Jamaican music has to offer. (To be honest, the Jamaican music industry, in its eagerness to capitalize on the popularity of this face, hasn’t done much to contradict it.) Dig a little deeper, however, and you’ll find a dozen genres lurking beneath the tie-died surface of roots reggae.
In The Beginning For a country its size, Jamaica has a uniquely prolific music business. Legendary producer Prince Buster outside his store on Orange Street in the ska days. (Hat tip: Chris Morrow) The 100 greatest rocksteady tunes. You Don’t Care – The Techniques (Duke Reid Production) It’s been a hard choice when putting this top 100 together to chose between the more obscure tunes and the huge hits of the genre.
I’ve avoided some of the anthems, not because they’re not great records but because it’s hard to get excited about a tune you’ve heard hundreds of times and that has appeared on literally dozens of compilations. There are a quite a few exceptions though and this is definitely one of them. The tune that launched a thousand versions…a timeless classic. Watch This Sound – The Uniques (Winston Lowe Production) The Uniques take For What It’s Worth by Buffallo Springfield and make it their own. This was produced (or at least funded by) Winston Lowe and released on his Tramp label in Jamaica, it was picked up by Trojan in the UK.
Watch This Sound is available on the Pressure Sounds CD; The Uniques – Watch This Sound (PSCD 21). Memories By The Score – The Paragons (Paragons Production) Dub Vendor Reggae, Roots & Dub Specialist. RoodBoss SoundSystem no jornal O Globo.