Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican ReggaeWinner of the ARSC’s Award for Best Research (History) in Folk, Ethnic, or World Music (2008) When Jamaican recording engineers Osbourne “King Tubby” Ruddock, Errol Thompson, and Lee “Scratch” Perry began crafting “dub” music in the early 1970s, they were initiating a musical revolution that continues to have worldwide influence. Dub is a sub-genre of Jamaican reggae that flourished during reggae’s “golden age” of the late 1960s through the early 1980s. Dub involves remixing existing recordings—electronically improvising sound effects and altering vocal tracks—to create its unique sound. Just as hip-hop turned phonograph turntables into musical instruments, dub turned the mixing and sound processing technologies of the recording studio into instruments of composition and real-time improvisation. In addition to chronicling dub’s development and offering the first thorough analysis of the music itself, author Michael Veal examines dub’s social significance in Jamaican culture. He further explores the “dub revolution” that has crossed musical and cultural boundaries for over thirty years, influencing a wide variety of musical genres around the globe. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Electronic Music in Jamaica Dub in the Continuum of Jamaican Music | 26 |
Every Spoil Is a Style The Evolution of Dub Music in the 1970s | 45 |
The Backbone of Studio One | 95 |
Jus Like a Volcano in Yuh Head | 108 |
Tracking the Living African Heartbeat | 140 |
Java to Africa | 163 |
City Too Hot The End of the Roots Era and the Significance of Dub to the Digital Era of Jamaican Music | 185 |
Starship Africa The Acoustics of Diaspora and of the Postcolony | 196 |
Electronica Remix Culture and Jamaica as a Source of Transformative Strategies in Global Popular Music | 220 |
Recommended Listening | 261 |
Notes | 271 |
301 | |
317 | |
323 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Adrian Sherwood aesthetic African album American artists Augustus Pablo Barrow and Dalton bass line Black Ark Blood & Fire Bob Marley Bradley Bunny Lee Caribbean Clive Chin Coxsone creative cultural dance music dancehall Dave Hendley deejays Dodd drum & bass dub mix dub music dub plate dub version dub's dynamic early echo electronic engineers Errol Thompson Fire BAFCD fragments ganja genre Gilroy guitar hip-hop improvisation instrumental interviewed June interviewed March 2002 interviewed May 2000 Jamaican music Jammy's jazz Katz King Jammy King Tubby Kingston Lee Perry Lee Perry's listeners Marley's Mikey Dread musicians Philip Smart play political Prince Jammy producers psychedelic ragga Randy's Rasta Rastafari recording studio reggae music remix reverb rhythm tracks riddim roots reggae Scientist song sonic sound processing sound system soundscape style stylistic Sylvan Morris tape theme tion traditional Trojan Upsetters vocal vocalists voice Wailers York