Every Tuesday on 1043.fm they have “Two-for Tuesdays” meaning you get back to back songs from the same artist all day long. I love this concept because in all of classic rock there are some really great songs and with two in a row from the same artist I have a high chance of hearing one of my favorites. Yesterday I heard two songs from The Police and was struck by how their early music was so influenced by Reggae (favorites include Roxanne and Walking On The Moon). I had heard a lot of their music for quite a long time, thanks to my older sister’s big crush on Sting, but never really paid attention to their musical influences. I was a bit surprised at how mainstreamed The Police were able to become even though they relied so heavily on non-traditional pop/ new-wave elements within their songs. So this got me thinking about the progression of Reggae into pop music and where it stands today.
Reggae music came about in the 1960’s and was propelled to the forefront of modern music through Bob Marley and the Wailers. What is interesting about Reggae is that sometimes you aren’t really aware of how present it is. Take for example The Beatles song Ob la Di Ob la Da. This is a case where a song was Reggae influenced, but wasn’t completely over-the-top reggae and therefore more appealing to the general public. Don’t get me wrong Reggae is a cool genre of music, but it is definitely not for everyone.
There are some obvious reggae-fusion hits that are really mainstreamed for example UB40’s Red Wine, or The Clash’s (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais, but there are other more recent artists who have been blending Reggae fusion with traditional pop means. Take for instance No Doubt. Gwen Stefani knows how to rock, but in No Doubt’s album Rock Steady many of their songs were highly influenced by Reggae, for example Underneath it All, and Hey Baby. These songs rose to the top of the pop billboard charts even though they are actually Reggae hits. Other artists like Shaggy and Sean Kingston have used their Jamaican roots to create modern Reggae/Pop hits (like Shaggy’s It Wasn’t Me or Sean’s Letting Go). Other examples of Reggae-influenced popular billboard artists are The Fugees and Sublime. There have also been a few more recent reggae (or reggae fusion) songs that blew up the billboard charts; Travie McCoy’s Billionaire and Michael Franti’s Say Hey (I love you) to name a few. Its clear to me that early Reggae roots have definitely influenced more modern American pop for the better, so we are able to have a more diverse sound among the sea of “all the same melodies.”
Why do you think Reggae is such a recent popular American genre?
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