This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music [Paperback]

Lloyd Bradley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2001

Jamaica is a small country in the Caribbean, 146 miles wide and populated by fewer than three million people. Nevertheless, it has exerted a more powerful hold on international popular music than any nation besides England and America. From Prince Buster to Burning Spear, Lee "Scratch" Perry to Yellowman, Bob Marley to Shabba Ranks, reggae music is one of the most dynamic and powerful musical forms of the twentieth century. And, as Lloyd Bradley shows in his deft, definitive, and always entertaining book, it is and always has been the people's music. Born in the sound systems of the Kingston slums, reggae was the first music poor Jamaicans could call their own, and as it spread throughout the world, it always remained fluid, challenging, and distinctly Jamaican. Based on six years of research -- original interviews with most of reggae's key producers, musicians, and international players -- and a lifelong enthusiasm for one of the most remarkable of the world's musics, This Is Reggae Music is the definitive history of reggae.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With flair, skill, passion and stamina, Bradley (Reggae on CD) fluidly traces Jamaican music's odyssey from the pure energy of 1950s Kingston's open-air sound system scene to the eruption of homegrown ska, the "smooove of Rocksteady," reggae's depth; holding his nose for digital/ragga/ roughneck, he regains optimism for the emergent new roots genre. But the meat lies in how Jamaica's poverty, societal strife and "politricks," tempered by the creativity, spirituality and upbeatness of its people, yielded the music, which for better and worse reached the U.K., the U.S. and beyond. Born in London to Jamaican immigrants, Bradley spent six years studying his subject. Avoiding the who/what/ when tedium that encumbers many music histories, he reveals the whys and hows. The legendary Prince Buster whets readers appetites in the foreword, then passes the mike to Bradley. Hardly a ham, Bradley passes it often to the originators and major players (including Lee "Scratch" Perry, Big Youth, Burning Spear) for lengthy, lively quotes and anecdotes. He pays scholarly attention to musical detail and attempts to highlight everyone who has made reggae waves, not just the stars. He writes, "It's a brave publisher that will put out a volume about reggae in general without its jacket artwork conspicuously featuring Bob Marley's face." And a brave writer who forestalls addressing the master's impact until the 17th chapter. "For many, Marley is reggae"; but it's a "colossal irony that, during his tenure at the top, reggae's most famous exponent exerted practically no influence over the music's development at grassroots i.e., Kingston studios level." Such insider-expert revelations will delight reggae's many devotees. Agent, Sophie Brewer, Penguin UK.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

For most casual listeners, reggae music can be reduced to one artist Bob Marley. This book, however, proves in exhaustive detail that there is greater breadth and depth to the 40-year-old art form. Bradley, who ran his own sound system for reggae dances in the late 1970s and has written for many British music periodicals, is well qualified to present a history of this scope. In a witty and engaging manner, he traces the development of the genre from mento to sound system dances, ska, rock steady, reggae, dub, toasting, (precursor to American rap), and many other offshoots. He also provides comprehensive and incisive histories of the Jamaican and British cultures and societies (touching on many Rastafarian influences) that acted as catalysts for the development of the music. Readers who want to learn about Marley are still best served by Timothy White's Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley (LJ 6/15/83; Owl Bks., 1998. rev. ed.). But for enthusiasts, this book is fabulous, on a par with Kevin O'Brien Chang and Wayne Chen's Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music (Temple Univ., 1998). Highly recommended for large public or academic libraries. Bill Walker, Stockton-San Joaquin Cty. P.L., CA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press (October 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802138284
• ISBN-13: 978-0802138286
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #545,338 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > History > Americas > Caribbean & West Indies > Jamaica

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bass Culture . When Reggae Was King !, March 5, 2002

By 

P. D. Laffey (Hitchin) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (Paperback)

It's a shame that the publishers deemed it fit to release this book with a new , bland , user friendly title to cater for the American market , rather than to stick with the far more appropriate British title of - Bass Culture . When Reggae Was King - , but the biggest disappointment for me is replacing the great cover on the British edition ( it says as much about dub as a thousand words ) with the almost Jamaican holiday brochure photo .

The book itself is a great read . Lloyd Bradley traces the evolution of Jamaican music from the wild soundsystem days of the Fifties up to the digital reggae of the Nineties , the biggest chunk of the book revolving around the two most important decades in the development of reggae , the Sixties and Seventies . He also traces the often violent political evolution of the island after independence , and the consequences this has had on its people . These two subjects are easily entwined as the development of reggae has always been inextricably linked with the political climate in Jamaica . Some of the main players add their enlightening anecdotes , to give the reader a much more vivid picture of who or what was pushing the envelope back at crucial times in the development of this vital music . There is also a chapter dealing with the history and philosophies of the Rastafarian that is crucial if you want a better understanding of reggae .

Lloyd Bradley then follows the Jamaican diaspora across the atlantic ocean , and chronicles the bad race relations it encountered in England that would ultimately herald in the rise of British reggae . This part of the book is entertaining enough , although I think the author has wildly overestimated the importance and influence of British reggae in general .

Considering that this story has its fair share of suffering and violence , it's a nice touch to have two contemporary reggae stars ( Luciano and Bobby Digital ) ending this book with optimistic and positive views on the future of reggae .

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Chatty, Enjoyable & Informative, January 31, 2005

By 

Allen Ruch (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (Paperback)

An overall delightful and informative read, every page of this book is animated by Lloyd Bradley's unflagging love for reggae music -- a passion that took him all over Jamaica, England, and the States in a quest for first-hand accounts and setting-the-record-straight interviews. It is also this true fan's passion that guides his writing, which is strangely informal, as if Bradley is explaining the history of reggae to you while you buy him pints down at his favorite local. While for the most part, this chatty style is kind of fun, it does detract a bit from the more scholarly tone Bradley occasionally adopts when discussing religion and politics. And, like any fan, Bradley is quite opinionated -- it's easy to sense his likes and dislikes, the latter of which seems to include most reggae performed after the 1970s. This is very much a book about ska, rocksteady, and roots reggae. (Bradley is almost ridiculously biased against Bob Marley's Island work as well, and makes some rather amusing and almost charmingly against-the-grain assertions about Marley's later catalog.) Additionally, there are a few chapters on British reggae, which -- let's face it -- are nowhere near as interesting as the Jamaican material. It would have been better if Bradley would have written a separate book on English reggae and devoted the extra space to a deeper exploration of dancehall and ragga. But despite these quibbles, the book is definitely worth reading, and contains many wonderful insights and anecdotes.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good info, not well presented (...), November 27, 2001

By 

E. L. Oneill "Lee O'Neill" (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (Paperback)

This book was originally issued in England under the title Bass Culture and putting it out here with a name change, cover change and no reference to the original is pretty deceptive, IMHO. That having been said, I had mixed thoughts about this book. The part of the book that covers the 1950s through the middle 1960s is wonderful, with lots of detail that hasn't been available anywhere else and it leans heavily on the reminiscences of Prince Buster who is a very valuable resource. By the time Bradley gets into the 70s, he loses his exclusive source (Buster) and the narrative speeds up. The 80s and 90s are dismissed quickly and very incompletely, making this a strong source on early Jamaican music but pretty useless on everything else. One further note - (...)difficult sentence and paragraph constructions, bad grammar and bizarre word choices can make things very difficult to read.