Hanilen G.

Catama Contents:
BSCoE 2 Mechanics:
Organization:

GENRE: REGGAE MUSIC
Bob Marley once said, Everyday people come forward with new songs. Music goes on
forever. Music plays an important role to us people. It makes our lives more colorful through
each song we hear from everywhere. Ladies and Gentlemen, a pleasant morning.
We all know that music is one of the relaxing sound we hear everywhere. Music has its
own different genres that people would love to play with their instruments. In our generation
today, people usually listen to rock music, others in instrumentals, acoustics, jazz, RnB, OPM,
and other genres. This music is the artful way of expressing what we feel, the contents of the
song reflect to what we are now.
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. Reggae is most
easily recognized by the rhythmic accents on the off-beat, usually played by guitar or piano (or
both). The tempo of reggae is usually felt as slower than the popular Jamaican forms, ska and
rocksteady, which preceded it. The 1967 edition of the Dictionary of Jamaican
English lists reggae as "a recently estab. sp. for rege", as in rege-rege, a word that can mean
either "rags, ragged clothing" or "a quarrel, a row". Reggae historian Steve
Barrow credits Clancy Eccles with altering the Jamaican patois word streggae (loose woman)
into reggae. Bob Marley is said to have claimed that the word reggae came from a Spanish term
for "the king's music". The word reggae was derived from the Latin regi meaning "to the king".
Reggae developed from ska, upbeat style of Jamaican pop music, mento, Jamaican folk
music, and R&B music, a popular music primarily by black Americans music, in the 1960s.
Early 1968 was when the first genuine reggae records were released: "Nanny Goat" by Larry
Marshall and "No More Heartaches" by The Beltones. The Wailers, a band started by Bob
Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer in 1963, is perhaps the most recognized band that made
the transition through all three stages of early Jamaican popular music: ska, rocksteady and
reggae. By the mid 1970s, reggae was getting radio play in the UK on John Peel's radio show. In
the second half of the 1970s, the UK punk rock scene was starting to form, and reggae was a
notable influence. Reggae began to enjoy a revival in the UK that continued into the 1980s. The
Grammy Awards introduced the Best Reggae Albumcategory in 1985.
Stylistically, reggae incorporates some of the musical elements of rhythm and
blues (R&B), jazz, African and Latin American music, as well as other genres. Cross-stick
technique on the snare drum is commonly used. Bass, often plays the dominant role in reggae,
and the drum and bass is often the most important part of what is called, in Jamaican music,
a riddim(rhythm). The bass sound in reggae is thick and heavy, and equalized so the upper
frequencies are removed and the lower frequencies emphasized. Guitars, usually plays the chords
on beats two and four. It has a very dampened, short and scratchy chop sound, almost like a
percussion instrument. Keyboards, was often used in reggae to double the rhythm guitar's skank,
playing the chords and playing occasional extra beats. Horns, frequently used in reggae, often
playing introductions and counter-melodies. Instruments included in a typical reggae horn section include
saxophone, trumpet or trombone. Vocals, vocals in reggae are less of a defining characteristic of the
genre than the instrumentation and rhythm, as almost any song can be performed in a reggae style.