Whence
Reggae (music)
Music & dance

Where does Reggae (music) come from?

Reggae comes from Kingston, Jamaica. It grew out of ska and rocksteady in the late 1960s, mainly in the poor neighbourhoods of West Kingston, and it took its name from a 1968 song by Toots and the Maytals.

Ska, rocksteady, then reggae

Jamaican studios created ska in the late 1950s, mixing American rhythm and blues with mento, a Jamaican folk music. After independence in 1962, ska was the music young Jamaicans chose as their own. In the mid-1960s it slowed into rocksteady, with more romantic lyrics and quieter horns. Reggae kept the slower pace, with a heavy bass, drums stressing the downbeat and short, choppy guitar or piano chords on the offbeat. The first true reggae records came out in early 1968.

A name from the street

Toots and the Maytals' 'Do the Reggay', released in 1968, was the first popular song to use the word, and it gave the new sound its name. 'Reggay' was then the name of a passing dance fashion. Toots Hibbert said he took it from 'streggae', slang for someone who looked scruffy, and dictionaries suggest a link with Jamaican rege-rege, 'ragged clothes' or 'a quarrel'. The 1967 Dictionary of Jamaican English had already listed reggae as a new spelling of rege.

From West Kingston to the world

UNESCO describes reggae as born in a cultural space that was home to marginalised groups, mainly in Western Kingston, and as the voice of the marginalised in its early days. Britain's Jamaican community helped it abroad: between 1968 and 1972 reggae sold more in the United Kingdom than in Jamaica. The soundtrack of the 1972 film The Harder They Come is said to have 'brought reggae to the world'. In 2018 UNESCO inscribed the reggae music of Jamaica as intangible cultural heritage.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org › Reggae ↗ · ich.unesco.org ↗ · etymonline.com ↗ · en.wikipedia.org › Do the Reggay ↗

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