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FROM REGGAE TO AFROBEAT: PROTEST, POLITICS AND POP MUSIC
#mac351 @rob_jewi2 1
2 Bunny Wailer (The Wailers -‐ 1963-‐1974)
My music is protest music, music protesHng against slavery, class prejudice, racism, inequality, economic discriminaHon, denial of opportunity and the injusHce we were suffering under colonialism in Jamaica. We were taken from Africa where our fore-‐parents were kings and queens and brought to Jamaica on ships as slaves, where we were stripped of our names, our language, our culture, our God and our religion
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But music is the soul of Africa … and this they were unable to conquer. […] Every twist and turn of Jamaican music
of the last forty years has reflected what has been happening to the
people, either poliHcally or socially, and oYen it’s the other way around, with the music and sound systems influencing the country’s poliHcs.
-‐-‐ Prince Buster quoted in Bradley, 2000: xv.
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Overview
• History of reggae – Role of ska and rocksteady
• Global impact (Bob Marley) • Reggae in Britain • Afrobeat (Fela KuH)
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Reggae = Ska
Rocksteady Roots Dub
Dancehall Raga
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-‐ Prince Buster – ‘Independence Song’ -‐ Lord Creator -‐ ‘Independent Jamaica’ -‐ Al T. Joe -‐ ‘Independence is Here’ -‐ Derrick Morgan -‐ ‘Forward March’ -‐ Joe White and Chuck -‐ ‘One NaHon’
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‘Ska’ represented a musical cross-‐breed between a fiery, indigenous culture and black US music -‐ Chambers, 1985: 154
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Marcus Garvey's words come to pass (x2) Can't get no food to eat, Can't get no money to spend, Wo-‐oo-‐oo Can't get no food to eat, Can't get no money to spend, Woo -‐oo-‐ oo Come, li2le one and let me do what I can do for you And you and you alone Come, li2le one, wo-‐oo-‐oo Let me do what I can do for you and you alone, woo-‐oo-‐oo He who knows the right thing And do it not Shall be spanked with many stripes, Weeping and wailing and moaning, You've got yourself to blame, I tell you. Do right do right do right do right do right, Tell you to do right, Woo -‐oo-‐ oo Beg you to do right, Woo -‐oo-‐ oo
Where is Bagawire, he's nowhere to be found He can't be found First betrayer who gave away Marcus Garvey Son of Satan, First prophesy, Catch them, Garvey old Catch them Garvey, catch them Woo -‐oo-‐ oo Hold them Marcus, hold them Woo -‐oo-‐ oo Marcus Garvey, Marcus Woo -‐oo-‐ oo
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June 22nd 1948 Tilbury (Essex)
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1960s – Ska and rocksteady Jamaican independence a decade of strong economic growth • strong investments in bauxite mining • tourism • manufacturing
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[Rude boys] were mostly unemployed and had taken to carrying German ratchet knives and handguns. They could be anything from fourteen to twenty five years old and came from all over West Kinsgton. And above all, the rude boys were angry. CondiHons in West Kingston had hardly improved with the passing years. Rather than buckle under to a life spent doing menial work or no work at all, the rude boys took to the street and to crime -‐ Hebdige, 1987: 72
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Rudies in court, now boys, rudies in court Rudies in court, now boys, rudies in court Order! -‐ Now, this court is in session, And I order all you rude boys to stand ! You're brought her by a verdict for shooHng and raping, Now tell me, rude boys, what have you to say for yourselves ? Your honour, Rudies don't fear, Rudies don't fear no boys, rudies don't fear, Rudies don't fear no boys, rudies don't fear, Rougher than rough, tougher than tough Strong like lion, we are iron Rudies don't fear no boys, rudies don't fear, Rudies don't fear no boys, rudies don't fear :/ Rudies don't fear no boys, rudies don't fear, fe real Rudies don't fear no boys, rudies don't fear, bad...
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Reggae is transmogrified American ‘soul’ music with an overlay of salvaged African rhythms, and an undercurrent of pure Jamaican rebellion. Reggae is transplanted Pentecostal. Reggae is the Rasta hymnal, the heart cry of Kingston Rude Boy, as well as the naHvised naHonal anthem of the new Jamaican government -‐Hebdige, 1976: 140-‐1
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[Reggae ceased] ‘to signify an exclusive ethnic Jamaican style and derived a different kind of cultural legiHmacy both from a new global status and from its expression of what might be termed a pan-‐Caribbean culture’ -‐ Paul Gilroy, 1993: 82
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An ‘Africa’ which lay dormant and forgo2en inside the language of the white Master. Read between the lines the Text could be made to
deliver up this Africa, to free it, and to restore it to the ‘righteous sufferer’
-‐ Hebdige, 1979: 33
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Rastafarianism
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Rastafarianism -‐ Ras Tafari Makonnen -‐ Haile Selassie I -‐ Ethiopian Regent 1916-‐1930 -‐ Emperor of Ethiopia 1930-‐74
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The Rastas played out the kind of existenHal absurdity in Jamaican society. They defiled the sacred images of the white Jesus as liberator through their own theology of Haile Selassie, and yet they also offended the spiritualist churches, which supported Jamaica’s poor, by shunning the pracHce of possession trances. The Rasta call for repatriaHon to Ethiopia was a rejecHon of poliHcal involvement in their own society. -‐ Lewis, 1993: 9
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Their refusal to imitate English mannerisms – the undisputed sign of respectability in Jamaican society – showed a disregard for convenHon. They viewed marijuana – a drug popular among the working poor as a palliaHve to help them endure labor in the fields – as a tool of illuminaHon to make one aware of the bourgeois world. These traits marked the Rastas as a challenge and a threat. -‐ Lewis, 1993: 9
27 Bob Marley -‐ 1945-‐1981
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I don't have prejudice against meself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-‐caste or whatever. Me don't deh pon nobody's side. Me don't deh pon the black man's side nor the white man's side. Me deh pon God's side, the one who create
me and cause me to come from black and white -‐ Marley interviewed by Webley, 10 May 2008
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CompilaHon / 1974 / Trojan Records ‘Duppy Conqueror’
Yes, me friend, me friend Dem set me free again Yes, me friend, me friend Me deh 'pon street again The bars could not hold me Walls could not control me now They try to keep me down But God put me around Yes, I've been accused Wrongly abused now But through the powers of the Most High They've got to turn me loose Don't try to cold me up On this bridge now I've got to reach Mount Zion If you are bull-‐bocor I'm a duppy conqueror, conqueror
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Most people think great God will come from the sky Take away everything and make everybody feel high But if you know what life is worth, You would look for yours on earth Now you see the light, Stand up for your right
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That unHl the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned; That unHl there are no longer first-‐class and second-‐class ciHzens of any naHon; That unHl the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; That unHl the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race; That unHl that day, the dream of lasHng peace and world ciHzenship and the rule of internaHonal morality will remain but a fleeHng illusion, to be pursued but never a2ained; And unHl the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique and in South Africa in subhuman bondage have been toppled and destroyed; UnHl bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self-‐interest have been replaced by understanding and tolerance and good-‐will; UnHl all Africans stand and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of all men, as they are in the eyes of Heaven; UnHl that day, the African conHnent will not know peace. We Africans will fight, if necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over evil. – Haile Selassie I speech to the United NaHons General Assembly in 1963.
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1970s Jamaica • Socially and poliHcally divided • Michael Manley government favoured Cuba
and developing world over US and UK • In 1977 Archibald Dunkley, the early Rasta
leader wrote in The Ethiopian World that ‘Michael has come to do the will of God for Rastafarians’ (Lewis, 1993: 69)
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1960s/1970s Britain Afro-‐Caribbeans ghe2oized • London, • Leeds, • Coventry • Birmingham. Unemployment on the increase TradiHonal industries waned Afro-‐Caribbean migrants and their families were hit harder than most.
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Ska music provided white urban youth with a way of recovering a ‘tradiHonal’ working class idenHty and culture that was perceived to be in decline or ‘under a2ack from outsiders’ – eg. Asian immigrants (‘Paki Bashin’) (see Clarke 1976: 99-‐102) • Joe ‘The Boss’ -‐ Skinhead Revolt • Claude2e and CorporaHon – Skinhead ‘a
Bash ‘em • Byron Lee and the Dragonaires –
Elizabethan Reggae • Rico -‐ Brixton Cat
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A ‘militant consciousness’ of racial oppression and injusHce emerged within Black-‐BriHsh youth subcultures during mid 1970s against what was perceived as ‘a white racist society’ termed ‘Babylon’ (Brake, 1992: 116-‐143)
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The early 1970s marked the emergence of Rastafarianism. This music was now being produced specifically for British, European and American markets (often in the format of the album rather than the single) through companies such as Island Records to target a much wider audience • Bob Marley and the Wailers - Natty Dread • Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry - Arkology • Linton Kweshi - Forces of Victory/Inglan is a Bitch • Culture – Two Sevens Clash • Junior Murvin – Police and Thieves
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Rastafarianism and reggae ‘significantly altered the way in which noHons of ‘blackness’ and
black idenHty were expressed’ -‐ Benne2, 2001: 81
Influenced punk during late 1970s (taken up by alienated white working class youth). They shared ‘similarly opposiHonal stances against the dominant BriHsh society’ -‐ Hebdidge, 1979: 64
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The Clash - White Man in Hammersmith Palace, - Rudie Can’t Fail, - Police and Thieves, - Living in Fame
Reggae artists such as Marley also began to acknowledge ‘cross-over’ with punk music with releases such as Punky Reggae Party in late 1970s. Politicised black-white reggae bands such as UB40 emerge
Rock Against Racism, Anti-Nazi League and Red Wedge benefit concerts and albums of late 1970s further consolidated alliance between punk and reggae outfits (Steel Pulse, TRB, UB 40, Culture, Billy Bragg) They ‘galvanised a white following for reggae - empathised with the fundamental politics of its sound and lyrical content’ . It fed into ‘shared local experiences and cross racial affiliations’ - strong left wing university following during 1980s (Bennett, 2001: 83)
This image of multiculturalism contested ‘racist’ identities assigned to ethnic groups by politicians, news media and the National Front.
Black and white communities steadily became more harmonised around the ‘shared’ space of local neighbourhoods, streets, ‘dancehalls’ and pubs – Racial distinctions, particularly between young people, become far less important to identities
• One of the central strategies of New Right in Britain – as in the USA under Reagan and Bush – was to represent the presence of Black British youth as a ‘social problem’ and unemployed white youth as the ‘dangerous classes’
• Labelled within political and news discourse as a potential ‘enemy within’ (see Brake 1992)
• Posed a cultural threat to British national identity or ‘Britishness’
• A series of media moral panics in relation to ethnicity in Britain become common place – street crime, welfare, violence welfare dependency etc
• Series of inner city riots between 1980-85 highlighted the plight of disenfranchised inner city black-white youth during period of massive unemployment and social deprivation (see Brake 1992)
Main Two-Tone act The Specials - a multi ethnic outfit - produced a series of punk-influenced ska cover versions and originals on self-titled first album (1979). Songs also drew links with earlier ‘skinhead’ musical tradition
– Too Much Too Young – Rudie, A Message to You – Gangsters
Doesn't Make it Alright, significantly, interrogated the ethics of racial assaults and violence against ethnic minorities in British cities, indicting The National Front as a threat to race relations in UK
More importantly, second album More Specials (1981) further highlighted political stance of group in alliance with Black-White British working class youth with releases such as Do Nothing, Why? Racist Friend and Ghost Town
52 The Specials – ‘Ghost Town’ 1981
• Two Tone also included other bands such as The Selector and The Body Snatchers (all-girl) Concentrated mainly on covers of ska ‘classics’ Too Experienced, Do Rock Steady
• Reformation of band into Special AKA (1983) led to national campaign for the release of imprisioned political activist Nelson Mandela in apartheid controlled South Africa after commercial success of anti-racist anthem Free Nelson Mandela
• National concert followed (1985) at Wembley Stadium raising social awareness of racism in UK and South Africa - arguably helped bring about the release of Mandela and eventual liberation of South Africa
• Birmingham based multi-ethnic outfit The Beat - who emerged in 1979 - relied much more heavily on Jamaican reggae traditions of toasting (rapping), over-dub production and intricate use of brass section. – Hands Off She’s Mine – Rough Rider – Drowning
• Nevertheless the band retained militant stance against New Right politics that celebrated multi-culturalism and promoted a breakdown of ethnic boundaries – Stand Down Margaret – Doors of Your Heart
• In summary, Black-British music was initially bound up with the experiences of second generation Afro-Caribbean immigrants in Britain
• Initially emerged through indigenous Jamaican ska during the 1960s. By the 1970s this genre had began to be specifically targeted at Black and White British audiences within multi-ethnic urban centres
• Fusion of punk and reggae during mid 1970s helped to transform genre (militant political stance) which became popular with white working class British audiences – through shared experience of unemployment, poverty and deprivation – supported new ‘youth based’ multicultural identities
• Success of Two Tone and bands such as The Specials and The Beat marked the emergence of indigenous multi ethnic outfits and explored important concerns for black and white working class youth in post – colonial Britain during the 1980s – provided an influence to later politically committed and militant ‘second generation’ ethnic bands – Asian Dub Foundation
• Initiated the launch of benefit concerts and raising of social awareness amongst ‘white mainstream’ audiences. Street (1992) in Wagg (1995) argues that such ‘events’ mark the final incorporation of resistant and militant forms of music into the mainstream of the culture industry and beginnings of corporate sponsored rock (eg.Band-Aid)
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Fela KuH 1938-‐1997
Middle-‐Class Nigerian Musician PoliHcal acHvist Kalakuta Republic Jailed for currency smuggling Died of AIDS
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• ‘Reggae Wallpaper’ D.ST. • ‘Tybee Umbrella’ Bri2any Randolph • ‘Rasta’ Naomielise Harden • ‘Bob Marley’ Sougata Ghosh • ‘Bob Marley’ Luke McKernan • ‘This Old Rasta’ josh hunter
• ‘creaHve commons -‐Franz Patzig-‐’ A. Diez Herrero
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