Listening Journal 3: Reggae Music
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Listening Journal 3: Reggae Music
Reggae music refers to a genre of music with its origin in the 1960s in Jamaica. It was made popular by artists that include Jimmy Cliff. Bob Marley, and Peter Tosh, among others. The music arose from a piece of Jamaican traditional music, and is mainly linked to Rastafarianism. Rastafarianism refers to a religious movement rooted in Jamaica since the 1930s. Hence, reggae music entails being Jamaican musical voice that expresses their culture, history along with struggles in their political arena. The political stage among the Jamaicans is characterized by marginalization and slavery. Presently, reggae music content revolves around socio-economic and political issues around the world. However, currently, reggae music discusses lighter topics such as love and personal subjects. As an unusual and popular genre of music, this essay evaluates the seven elements of reggae and responds to five other questions.
Reggae music incorporates some elements of mento, jazz, rural folk, and rhythm and blues. Besides being made popular by the Jamaicans, it is highly influenced by traditional African rhythms. Its origin is linked to Jamaican rocksteady and ska (Doumerc, 2003, p. 81). It is mainly led by bass and drum. Among the popular pioneer of reggae, drumming is called the Nyabinghi rhythm, which a ritual-kind of drumming carried by Rastafarians during communal mediation. Bass guitar is among the most popular reggae instruments, which makes the bass-heavy and thick that ends up being equalized by lower frequencies. Besides drums, other crucial instruments include guitars, keyboards, and horns. That means music instruments are essential in reggae.
Reggae has become a piece of popular music across the world, and many local instruments have been incorporated. Since the 1960s, it has become prevalent as it has evolved into diverse fusions and subgenres. There many artists from across the globe involved in the promotion of reggae music, which is a significant source of income in Jamaica.
Since it incorporates several musical elements from other music genres, in most cases, there are two guitars, one being the lead guitar while the other is rhythm guitar. Reggae uses asymmetrical rhythm that entails 4/4 time. The 4/4 is a time signature for reggae defining the number of beats in each bar. There are offbeat rhythms that are very common in reggae, and are called skank.
The tempo of reggae is ordinarily slow compared to rocksteady and ska. The slower tempo, attention on the third beat, off beats by piano or guitar, bass lines melodies and syncopation are valuable characteristics that make reggae unique when compared to other music genres. The tune ranges from 80BPM to 110BPM, which means reggae songs are slower the pop songs because its groove is strong, which cannot be realized by slower tempos. Nonetheless, other musical styles have been blended into reggae.
There is harmony in reggae music, just like other modern music, with most chords making a common progression. In some instances, there is a dominant chord that is incorporated in its minor form that limits the sounding of a perfect cadence; the absence of resolution between dominant and tonic imparts results in a harmonic ambiguity and movement without rest. Major seventh chord and minor seventh chord are used but rarely. Minor keys are prevalently used along with minor chords of dominant and subdominant chord. The “call and response” concept is common in reggae vocals along with each instrument (Werner, 2006, p.225). The prominence of the bar’s third beat also differentiates reggae music from other music genres.
The structure of reggae music is similar to that of pop tunes that are characterized by a verse-chorus form. There are also vocals and instrumentation. Over time, many instruments have been introduced to spice reggae; however, the reggae is bass-heavy, with bass being upfront that ends up being mixed with low subs fit for rocking the dance floor. The timbre of reggae is heavy, warm, and vibrant. The pitch of reggae is tremolo, which encompasses oscillation of volume, and can be evidenced by Horace Andy (Aryuda, 2010). There is also a toasting vocal style used explicitly in reggae.
The texture of the music can be defined as homophony, whereby there is a lead singer accompanied by a band. The sound of reggae can be described as being mento since it is attributed to instruments such as hand drums, acoustic guitar, rhumba box, and banjo.
Reggae is renowned for its social criticism, but in the 21st century, it addresses personal issues. Initially, reggae focused on political consciousness while criticizing materialism. They discussed issues such as anti-racism, black nationalism, and anti-capitalism. Many positive themes are becoming popular in reggae music as they focus on religious themes such as love, faith, and hopefulness. Recently, cultural exposure has resulted in the commercialization of reggae music. As a result, the music has lost its original touch. There has been criticism on some reggae musicians who promote violence and stereotyping against minority groups such as gays. Hence, while reggae was mainly used to enlighten people about political and socio-economic issues, some artists have lost the moral tone of this genre of music.
Briefly, Reggae music has its roots in Jamaica and became popular in the 1960s. It mainly focused on pronouncing social, economic, and political injustices. Among the renowned pioneer of reggae music is Peter Tosh and Bob Marley, among others. Presently, it touches on all life issues and has been commercialized. Reggae has all the elements of music. Reggae music is common across the globe.
References
Aryuda, R. (2010). The Culture Values Of Reggae Music. Retrieved from http://repository.usu.ac.id/handle/123456789/13366.
Doumerc, E. (2003). Caribbean civilization: The English-speaking Caribbean since independence. Toulouse: Presses Universitaires du Mirail.
Werner, C. H. (2006). A change is gonna come: Music, race & the soul of America. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.