Reggae is a Jamaican musical genre that originated in the late 1960s. Reggae music of the time was influenced by jazz, rhythm and blues, and a rural form of dance music. It derives from ska which uses a distinctive bass and drums that were popular in the 1950s. When everyone hears the term Reggae they immediately think of Bob Marley and think of marijuana, but throughout this report I will delve into what really makes Reggae so influential in the music industry and how it relates to class, race, gender and sexuality. Reggae was used as an outlet for people to talk about the problems they faced in Jamaica with violence, drugs and the government. A lot of artists in this genre were dealing with these things on a daily basis because of what was going on in Jamaica at the time. During this time Jamaica was experiencing a power struggle between two different political parties who sought to gain control of the country and often resorted to urban warfare in the streets. Both sides believed that the other was controlled by outside governments, this occurred during the time of the Cold War and the War on Drugs. In the late 1970s, 844 people were killed due to political violence. The beautiful thing about reggae was that the underlying meaning was always about the power of love and how people could persevere through such issues by coming together. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Many artists in the reggae genre came from lower-class families who grew up on the same streets where all this violence was occurring. The meaning of reggae is normal and they use it as a way of saying that Jamaicans are normal people who suffer. They use reggae as a way to reach people and tell them about their feelings and the state of the country they live in. During this time reggae artists basically became prophets to the people of the country because they were able to use this medium to speak. about what lower class people like them were dealing with and helped them cope with the injustices they were experiencing. Jamaica was a country founded by slave owners, in 1830 slavery was abolished but only about another 100 years did Jamaicans begin to gain some control in their country. Jamaica has a horrific history of lawlessness, suffering and oppression and at the center of it are the descendants of African slaves who are now native Jamaicans. From all this is where reggae was born for Jamaicans, who use reggae as a tool to reach the masses and still maintain their roots which are very much rooted in music. In 1968 Toot and the Maytals made a song called "Do the Reggay" which was the first song to coin the term reggae and from there the name stuck and became popular around the world. When reggae was born, most of the lyrics were about love between men and women, but in the 1970s, once reggae became bigger around the world, artists realized they could use it as a way to reach out to the world and tell everyone what was really happening in their country. . A great example of this was the film made by reggae artist Jimmy Cliff in 1972, called "The Harder They Come", which was about a young reggae artist who moves to Kingston to try to start his music career and gets dragged in violence and drugs. problems that were rampant there at the time and he is eventually killed by the police. This film's soundtrack, which featured much music by him and other reggae artists of the time, contributed tocementing the genre worldwide and making it an even bigger force in the music industry. In 1973 Bob Marley mixed rock and reggae together with his new album Catch a Fire and, in this album, he began to introduce some political themes. The fusion of rock and reggae is what helped it gain such popularity in the United States. What Marley brought to the table was an identity the community needed. Marley had been around since the early 1960s, but started to shine for people in the 1970s, when he started singing about slavery and how the government keeps people under control through racism and control of all the money. This was the turning point for the lower classes where they began to see reggae artists as some sort of prophets because they fused their music about oppression and violence with religion. That religion was Rastafarianism and embraced a more Afrocentric view. Reggae music has always had a close connection to Rastafarian, but came to light more in the 1970s as artists became more mainstream. The Rastafari movement came about because of the feeling that people still felt like even if slavery had been abolished, they still felt like slaves in their own country and wanted to return to Africa. Bob Marley used his music during this time as a sort of weapon socially and spiritually to combat what was happening to his country and his fellow countrymen. Many of his songs were a form of protest during this time with songs like "Concrete Jungle" where the lyrics were about "No chains around my feet/But I'm not free/I know I'm bound in captivity." Songs like this touched his people and Africans around the world because everyone still felt the effects of slavery and discrimination. Around this time one of the parties trying to gain control of the country began to pay attention to reggae and together with Marley used the music to win an election within the country with the Rastafari religion at the forefront. In 1976, two days before Marley preformed at the Smile Jamaica concert to help promote the election of the person running for office who would be shot twice because of his beliefs by the rival party. After this shooting, the city where the concert was to be held was in turmoil. He was only asked to perform one song during the show, but after the shooting he decided it would be better for people to show strength through violence and ended up playing a 90-minute show with gunmen from the other side in the mix . crowd. This performance will go down in history as a symbol of peace and unity. It would solidify to people that love always wins until you give up hope. Reggae was influential and, in many ways, helped create hip hop. The way reggae used dubbing, a way of using samples from other records to create different sounds to match the music and lyrics used, which people in urban centers across the United States related to, helped bring the genre to life. 'hip hop. There are many similarities between reggae and hip hop to this day because hip hop is also music about an oppressed people. Some of the songs like “I Shot the Sheriff,” which Marley made after witnessing police oppression in Jamaica, still hold true to this day. The song is about a sheriff who wanted to kill the protagonist because he hated him due to racial profiling. This theme still holds true nearly 50 years later, because racial profiling is still ongoing to this day and it appears that little has changed for lower class people living in lower class neighborhoods. Please note: this is just one