Although Jamaican music has
constantly commented on the social and political situation on
the island, first and foremost its job is to get people on the
dancefloor. It’s therefore hardly surprising it’s made huge
impressions in pop charts around the world - Shaggy, Althea
& Donna, Prince Buster, Maxi Priest, Chaka Demus &
Pliers, Eddy Grant … summer wouldn’t be summer without the
regulation big pop-based reggae record.
But then
well-produced reggae is so basically strong it can withstand
virtually any arrangement and still sound like reggae. Indeed
reggae’s willingness to take on outside influences goes back
to the late-1960s when shrewd Jamaican producers would send
vocal and rhythm tracks over to the UK to have lush string
arrangements added before releasing them into the British pop
market. Orchestrated singles like "Love Of The Common People",
"Young Gifted & Black" and "Pied Piper" were huge pop
hits, opening up the marker for the bouncy but rawer likes of
"Double Barrel", "The Liquidator" and "The Return Of
Django".
Which proved that reggae had real appeal
beyond its core following, and reggae acts in both Britain and
Jamaica eyed up the international mainstream. Ken Boothe
("Everything I Own"), Rupie Edwards ("Irie Feelings") and John
Holt ("Help Me Make It Through The Night") all proved that,
provided you stay true to your reggae roots, you can make
exciting sophisticated pop. Lessons learnt by Althea &
Donna with "Uptown Top Ranking", Janet Kaye ("Silly Games")
and Musical Youth ("Pass the Dutchie") and surely not ignored
by Culture Club…
Part of pop reggae does include UK
bands such as UB40 who took original tracks and blended their
own UK pop culture with Jamaican music.
Reggae’s pop
sensibilities continued into dancehall too, Smiley Culture and
Tippa Irie brought their sound system culture to the pop chart
with "Cockney Translation" and "Hello Darling", Shabba Ranks
teamed up with Maxi Priest for "Housecall" and Chaka Demus
& Pliers are pop chart regulars. But now it’s moved on
even further with Shaggy as on of the world’s consistently
biggest pop acts, while No Doubt have felt the urge to call on
the dancehall deejays Bounty Killer and Lady Saw to add a
little Jamaican flavour to their last album.
|
