Dub y Rocksteady

Dub is a form of Jamaican music, which evolved out of reggae in 1960s Jamaica. The dub sound is usually accomplished by removing the vocals from an existing music piece, and adding extensive echo and reverb effects, and occasional snippets of lyrics from the original version.

History                                                                                              
Dub music evolved from early instrumental reggae music and "versions" that incorporated fairly primitive reverb and echo sound effects. Errol Thompson engineered the first strictly instrumental reggae album entitled "The Undertaker" by Derrick Harriott and the Crystalites released in 1970. This innovative album credits "Sound Effects" to Derrick Harriott.

Whilst some have tried to attribute the "invention" of dub music to just one person, the facts show that by 1973, instrumental reggae "versions" from various studios had evolved into "dub" as a sub genre of reggae. Through the simultaneous efforts of several independent Jamaican innovators, these competitive engineers and producers worked hard to leapfrog each other with each subsequent dub release with no single person being able to claim all the credit for the origination of "dub" as a genre.

In 1973, at least two producers, Lee "Scratch" Perry and the Aquarius studio engineer/producer team of Herman Chin and Errol Thompson simultaneously recognized that there was an active market for this new "dub" sound and consequently they started to release the first strictly 100% dub albums. Lee Perry released "Blackboard Jungle Dub" in the Spring of 1973. It is considered a landmark recording of this genre.

It was not until 1975 that King Tubby was internationally recognized as the premier dub artist/innovator/producer with the release of his two debut albums "King Tubby Meets The Upsetter At The Grass Roots Of Dub" and "Surrounded By the Dreads at the National Arena". He was then immediately hailed as the leading dub music innovator of the day.

Rocksteady

is a music genre that was most popular in Jamaica between 1966 and 1968.

The term comes from a dance style that was mentioned in the Alton Ellis song Rock Steady. The rocksteady dance was more relaxed than the earlier ska dancing, and came about when ska musicians mixed in new ideas from gospel and soul. A successor to ska, and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was performed by Jamaican vocal harmony groups such as The Gaylads, The Kingstonians, Toots & the Maytals and The Paragons.

Rocksteady differs from ska in that the tempo is slower and more relaxed, and the walking bass line is heavier and more prominent. Guitars and piano replaced trumpets and saxophones from the ska era. Repeated riffs were played using just a few chords, and the lyrics were often about poverty and social problems. The ska-style back beat carried over into rocksteady.


 History

Rocksteady arose at a time when young people from the Jamaican countryside were flooding into the urban ghettos of Kingston — in neighborhoods such as Riverton City, Greenwich Town and Trenchtown. Though much of the country was optimistic in the immediate post-independence climate, these poverty-stricken youths did not share this sentiment. Many of them became delinquents who exuded a certain coolness and style. These unruly youths became known as rude boys.

The rude boy phenomenon had existed in the ska period, but was expressed more obviously during the rocksteady era in songs such as Rude Boy Gone A Jail by the Clarendonians; No Good Rudie by Justin Hinds & the Dominoes; and Don't Be A Rude Boy by The Rulers. Though Alton Ellis is sometimes said to be the father of rocksteady for his hit Girl I've Got a Date, other candidates for the first rocksteady single include Take It Easy by Hopeton Lewis, Tougher Than Tough by Derrick Morgan and Hold Them by Roy Shirley.

The record producer Duke Reid released Alton Ellis' Girl I've Got a Date on his Treasure Isle label, as well as recordings by The Techniques, The Silvertones, The Jamaicans and The Paragons. Reid's work with these groups helped establish the vocal sound of rocksteady. Notable solo artists include Delroy Wilson, Bob Andy, Ken Boothe and Phyllis Dillon (known as the Queen of Rocksteady).

Rocksteady lyrics mainly dealt with love or rude boys — or were simple dance tunes. Rocksteady singers sometimes covered American soul recordings. For example, the song "You don't care" by The Techniques is a cover of "You'll want me back" by The Impressions. "Ilya Kuryakin" by Ike Bennet and The Crystalites is lifted from "Theme from a Summer Place." Musicians who were crucial in creating the music included guitarist Lynn Taitt, keyboard player Jackie Mittoo, drummer Winston Grennan, bassist Jackie Jackson and saxophonist Tommy McCook. As a musical style, rocksteady was shortlived, and existed only for about two years. For this reason original recordings in this genre are often harder to find than those from the ska and reggae era. In contrast to rocksteady, the ska trend lasted several years, and classic reggae lasted for over a decade.

 

Recomendación: Lee "Scratch" Perry, Prince Buster.