Reggae could soon be coming home to Jamaica. The style has grown tremendously outside the island nation, but many wish it could come back to its authentic roots. Nowadays, the vast majority of top selling acts come from elsewhere and most are not even Caribbean. This has prompted the Jamaican government to ask for reggae to be officially recognized as part of the island’s cultural heritage much in the way that real champagne only comes from Champagne.
Cool Beginnings
Reggae slowly developed out of Jamaican ska and rocksteady in the mid-to-late 60s with the first bona fide Reggae tracks coming out in 1968. The deeper origin of the style though can be found in Jamaican mento music, which began to be recorded in the 50s. Kids who grew up with this music began to play with ska, rocksteady, jazzy mento music and experiment. Soon musicians like Jackie Mittoo, Lee “Scratch” Perry and Clancy Eccles were pioneering new, reggae style music including the organ shuffle.
The Marley Factor
While Johnny Nash is credited with getting reggae into the US charts, Bob Marley and the Wailers are seen as the act which sent reggae global. After all, even today Marley is an icon for reggae all over the world including Japan. He is associated with the music, being cool and also the use of marijuana. Forbes has Marley as the dead celebrity who has earned the 9th most amount of money. Last year, this saw a further linking of marijuana use and Marley’s name together with the launch of a Marley brand of the drug in the United States.
Diluting the Brand
Marley’s success as a musician and an icon helped spread reggae all over the world. Eric Clapton is credited with this feat after he covered Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff” in 1974. By then, however, Three Dog Night and Johnny Cash had both got No.1 Billboard hits in the U.S., while John Peel was adding reggae to his radio shows in the UK. With the music spread across the world, acts popped up creating their own tunes. First these were covers like Clapton’s, then homages and reggae style music, but over the decades singers and songwriters have added their own influences or mixed reggae with other styles as happens to all genres of music.
Bringing It Back Home
This is why Jamaica wishes to cement the fact that reggae is synonymous with the sound of the Caribbean. The plan is to ask the United Nations to add reggae to its list of “intangible cultural heritage” sites and link it firmly to the island nation. This would mean that if an act wished to get the seal of approval to make their record genuine reggae, they would have to ask a cultural body in Jamaica to pass it. It may mean that musicians in the future will be queuing up to get that seal or that it could be limited to local musicians. No one has said, yet, if this means the musical style will be strictly limited to the music of the 60s and 70s or if it will be a little more flexible.
