JAMAICA-MUSIC: Reggae Returns to its “Roots”

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Howard Campbell

KINGSTON, May 21 1996 (IPS) - “Conscious” lyrics are back in vogue in Jamaica as the island’s reggae artistes make a sudden U-turn from an excursion into raunch that had won new audiences but caused confusion among diehards.

For loyal reggae fans, the songs which came from Jamaica in the 1980s were a turnoff. They emphasised sex and guns. Like American rappers, the lyrics of these new-age songs maligned women.

That change in lyrical focus was accompanied by an alteration in the beat. Where loping, laid-back rhythms were once a conduit for the “progressive” songs of Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh, Burning Spear and other stalwart artistes of the 1970s, new- age lyrics were propelled by pulsating, computerised rhythms — dancehall.

Singers were eclipsed by deejays who acquired street crebibility by boasting of sexual prowess and gunmanship (real or imagined). Now, 15 years after the death of reggae icon Bob Marley, the new wave of music emphasises “conscious” themes. Songs inveigh against the Establishment. They highlight the “positive”, with countervailing messages to the sex-gun genre of the deejay era.

Interestingly, some of the deejays who were once merchants of the profane are wearing the dreadlocks of Bob Marley’s Rastafari religion and singing “message” songs.

Marley was held in special regard. Because of his origins (early years were spent in a tough Kingston ghetto) and enduring international success, the late singer is the main source for inspiration for the new generation.

“Reggae music first and foremost is a music of liberation in which a people search for their identity,” says poet, Yasus Afari, a mentor to several of these acts. “Because Bob Marley always challenged the status quo, his music will always be regarded as the authentic reggae.”

Who are the new names? The late Garnett Silk is one. His emergence at the start of the decade was a precursor to the current wave. Silk’s hits included ‘Zion in A Vision’ and ‘Mama Africa’. He died under questionable circumstances two years ago during a fire at his mother’s house. Signed to Atlantic Records, he was the most inspirational figure in reggae at the time of his passing.

Luciano, Everton Blender and deejays like Tony Rebel and Capleton have won over the dancehall crowd with a brand of consciousness that is restoring roots reggae to a central place and resuscitating the Rastafarian religion’s waning influence on the music.

Marley’s phenomenal rise reached its peak during the 1970s when the Rastafarian religion he had embraced a decade earlier swept across Jamaica with an influence comparable to the type the hippies had on American culture during the 1960s.

But although other reggae roots luminaries like Jimmy Cliff, Burning Spear and Black Uhuru, kept the banner flying in Europe and Asia, it was the controversial lyrics of the deejays, led by Shabba Ranks and Ninja Man, that dominated reggae music in the 1980s.

“The consciousness of the 70s never really went away,” Afari explains. “The producers got less cultural and more commercial, and the influence of American music led to a loss in focus.”

Had he survived, Bob Marley would have been 51 years old this year. A group formed by his children — Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers — have emerged as artistes in their own right, winning two Grammy Awards with the same brand of reggae for which their father became famous.

But like their father, the Marley offspring rarely perform in Jamaica: foreign concert halls are more fertile and receptive. It is acts like those of the recently converted Buju Banton, Capleton and Luciano who have won over the Jamaican audience.

Banton, regarded as a former king of “slackness”, marked his conversion with a stunning album, ‘Til Shiloh’. Hailed by critics as one of the best albums in any genre produced in 1995, Til Shiloh has sold 250,000 units to date.

Capleton, another dreadlocks Deejay, is getting good reviews for his ‘Prophecy’. Luciano’s ‘Where There Is Life’ is also dominant on local radio.

But while roots reggae is once again becoming the rage in the land of reggae, that is not the case in the United States where music with a world beat has never had mass appeal.

Like Marley who failed to score big in North America, the contemporary roots artistes have also found the going tough. Apart from Til Shiloh, no other album in the genre has made much impact in that massive market.

“In terms of crossing over, acts that are hot in Jamaica are not necessarily hot in the States,” says Murray Elias, who has marketed reggae at record companies like Island and Priority. “Except for Shaggy, there’s nothing really big for reggae in the States.”

Shaggy became famous for his album entitled ‘Boombastic’ which sold over 500,000 and is considered the biggest selling reggae act among his contemporaries.

Roots-reggae artistes have always had a following in Europe, finding receptive audiences there for their message music.

Burning Spear, a Marley contemporary, Pablo Moses and Junior Delgado still manage to pull in large audiences when they tour the old continent. According to Delgado, “You find that promoters will more likely take a chance with a Burning Spear or Junior Delgado because of the type of crowd that follow them.”

There are many who see the rebirth of roots reggae as a fad that is likely to go soon, just like Afro hairstyles, bell-bottom pants and lewd lyrics. Not so, says Afari, “What has happened is that the youth have begun to look into themselves. They are seeing you don’t have to be lewd to be entertaining.”