The Curse of "White Reggae"
- Thread starter martin
- Start date
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
You wait til Droid gets put on a 6 month record shopping ban for inducing Greensleeves Sampler Vol 12 to break its contract with MVE Soho...
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bassbeyondreason
Chtonic Fatigue Syndrome
Finally worked out that I was confusing Lone Ranger with Judge Dread.
So yeah, did Judge Dread get mentioned?
So yeah, did Judge Dread get mentioned?
Sectionfive
bandwagon house
Early nineties cod
What was it around then that had so much reggae based stuff in the charts?
Guess there would have been some spin off from the rave melting pot but it was bigger then the UK. What was crossing over from JA, or was dancehall just popular at the time
What was it around then that had so much reggae based stuff in the charts?
Guess there would have been some spin off from the rave melting pot but it was bigger then the UK. What was crossing over from JA, or was dancehall just popular at the time
crackerjack
Well-known member
Carly's Why was much earlier, though it was big on the balearic and mainstream dance scene round 89/90. That was probably my favourite period for Jamaican music since the 70s – all that Gussie Clarke, 2 Friends stuff. Hard to see where it fits into what was happening in UK clubs though - at least until it kind of crossed over via the US a couple of years later. Stuff like Beats Intl owes more to Soul II Soul/Smith & Mighty.
Yeah Why was a paradise garage favourite no? so much earlier.
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
Back to the top of the thread, hypothesis:
i) most reggae is made by people who are, and have been for some time, immersed in a common culture, both in terms of growing up in the same broader culture and in terms of currently being deeply and relatively exclusively involved with the same music scene (blah blah obvious exceptions handwave "hardcore scene" Reynolds blah)
ii) music mostly made by people immersed in a common culture tends to develop fairly complex, subtle and unpredictable expectations of what is "right" - it's a lot more complicated than just getting the snare in the right place and the right sort of chord progressions, someone who's got it can break the apparent conventions and still sound "right" while someone who hasn't can follow them and still sound "wrong". And it's easier to notice when someone's doing it wrong than it is to spot what they're doing wrong.
iii) it's extremely hard for people who aren't immersed in that culture to avoid doing stuff subtly wrong
iv) there's a weird sort of uncanny valley when you hear music that sounds almost but not quite authentic, because your brain goes mental trying to figure out exactly what's not quite right and the whole thing sets your teeth on edge. You don't get this if they just go all over the park and put clear space between them and the original sound eg by mixing reggae elements in with hip hop or prog or highlife or sludgecore or whatever - it might be good or it might be shit, but it doesn't make you twitch in the same way that something almost-but-not-quite authentic does.
i) most reggae is made by people who are, and have been for some time, immersed in a common culture, both in terms of growing up in the same broader culture and in terms of currently being deeply and relatively exclusively involved with the same music scene (blah blah obvious exceptions handwave "hardcore scene" Reynolds blah)
ii) music mostly made by people immersed in a common culture tends to develop fairly complex, subtle and unpredictable expectations of what is "right" - it's a lot more complicated than just getting the snare in the right place and the right sort of chord progressions, someone who's got it can break the apparent conventions and still sound "right" while someone who hasn't can follow them and still sound "wrong". And it's easier to notice when someone's doing it wrong than it is to spot what they're doing wrong.
iii) it's extremely hard for people who aren't immersed in that culture to avoid doing stuff subtly wrong
iv) there's a weird sort of uncanny valley when you hear music that sounds almost but not quite authentic, because your brain goes mental trying to figure out exactly what's not quite right and the whole thing sets your teeth on edge. You don't get this if they just go all over the park and put clear space between them and the original sound eg by mixing reggae elements in with hip hop or prog or highlife or sludgecore or whatever - it might be good or it might be shit, but it doesn't make you twitch in the same way that something almost-but-not-quite authentic does.
trza
Well-known member
Somehow this single failed to catch on despite the successful tv show and nonstop tabloid attention. Looking back her fame kind of hit its high point a year earlier, and the Kardashians sort of copied her formula and took the same market away. Anyway, great pop reggae with professional productions and breathy-barely-singing vocals.
Sectionfive
bandwagon house
you're right. Had it my head that Why was 89.
yeah and not strictly intended as pop right enough, though I just wondering how it crossed over in a chart thing of it's own.
The drum machine + female vox is a winner imo
yeah and not strictly intended as pop right enough, though I just wondering how it crossed over in a chart thing of it's own.
The drum machine + female vox is a winner imo
philblackpool
gamelanstep
I guess the early nineties thing was about when the major labels had worked out what digital reggae was all about & had started signing people like Shabba, so other people had a go as well. There was loads of 'combination' stuff that got in the charts at the time - Chaka Demus & Pliers, Red Dragon/B&T Gold etc so there was a slightly sweeter side to some of the dancehall around then than you get in some eras, easily translatable into the singer + cameo from a toaster thing of most of the euro cod stuff. Sweden is quite into its pop reggae though - SweMix (Ace of Base) also did some imho quite good stuff with Dr Alban (as well as the crap), some decent remixing for Rebel MC very early on etc, plus people like Elephant Man have recorded there since. You get these periods when there seems to be a spike of interest in reggae when theres some more accessible stuff around, like around 2003 with all the dance craze stuff. Its a wonder in a way that the autotuney stuff hasn't hit bigger in the same way but then imho all the autotuney stuff sounds very similar whatever the genre, so there's no difference to marvel at...
Sectionfive
bandwagon house
owengriffiths
Owen
This may be a little off topic as I haven't read through the whole thread and it's not a reggae song, but going back to what Slothrop said... Recently this track got my attention
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/339jaWOC28g?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Now it's clearly someone having a go at 97 speed garage, it even sounds similar to 'Everything is Large'. But it only manages to get it right by 80%, the other 20% is too modern day house. Now I don't know whether this was intentional (the Annie Macisation of underground scenes getting watered down ever so slightly just to appeal more to the 9pm radio 1 listeners) or whether through no lack of trying they just couldn't manage it- obviously there's 15 years difference in production software/ hardware to consider. I'm not knocking the track because I like it but if you're going to do retro then I'd like them to go the extra mile.
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