HOME

About the Roots Reggae Library

The Roots Reggae Library is a website dedicated to Roots Reggae music. It features a collection of written testimonies to the discographies of Ska, Rocksteady and Reggae artist. Each discography includes the studio recordings of an artist or group, often including some rare pieces or unique indexation. The full discography is presented together with reviews of each and every song. To collect music that is presented on this website, please be redirected to the Contact page.

The sidebar of this website presents the artists discographies currently available. There are two more overview possibilities. One is a Roots Reggae Timeline, a page which shows all the albums available on this website categorized on release year. The other is a the Roots Reggae Artist view, which shows each artist and his discography overview. Click on the logo to be redirected to the correct page. Each album can be clicked, in order to listen to the music. 

Since December 2014 the Roots Reggae Library Wikipedia page has been launched. It gives a full description of this website. Happy reading!

In March 2014 I was happy to speak my mind for Intellect Collected by them publishing my article "Lifting The Reggae Blindfold", of which a Copy is reproduced on the Roots Reggae Library itself. In January 2015 the Rhythm'nhistory series kicked of at A Twist Of Lime. These series were written in Dutch, and an improvised version of what is being said will appear on the current Homepage. I must add that in my view of Reggae music presented below I was influenced by tons of sources such as documentaries, musicians, Roger Steffens and the Midnight Raver website. I feel very humble mentioning those who have influenced my life dramatically.

Caribbean Music

Caribbean music makes people think 'Reggae', generally. That is by itself not a bad thought, albeit an incomplete one. Reggae is a 'label' that is too often used for all Caribbean music. In my opinion it is important to distinguish between different styles of music. An 'Indie' musician would like to find his music labelled as 'Pop' either. I'd therefore like to get rid of a couple of stereotypes.

We go four centuries back in a time machine and find the Carribean islands being populated with African slaves by countries such as England, France, Spain and the Netherlands. To either work in mines or sugar cane fields. The people were rid of everything, except for rhythm. Being forced to work in such harsh conditions was fortunately abolished in the 19^th century. By then, large amounts African populations inhabited the islands.

After the second world war keeping colonies was a hot point of debate. One by one countries agreed to or were forced to let countries gain independence. For the Carribean in that sense the 60's and 70's were important decades. Many islands became independent, even though some already were or never gained independence, just yet. 

This is not just an interesting history lesson. On the one hand it is important to know a few details about the backlog of the music, and on the other hand a lot of lyrics from Carribean music focus on this topic, along with others.

In the 20^th century many musical styles emerged in various Carribean islands. For instance 'Zouk' on Martinique and Guadeloupe, 'Kadans' on Haiti and Dominica, 'Kalypso' on Trinidad and yes of course, 'Reggae' on Jamaica All these styles came from predecessors. Zouk from 'Gwo Ka', 'Bele' and 'Biguine', and Reggae has his next of kin 'Mento', 'Ska' and 'Rocksteady'. 

For every genre we would be able to pick out the obvious ambassador. Zouk music was enlarged by the band Kassav, Kadans got an audiance through saxophonist Webert Sicot. The artist that was credited with most attention however, was obviously Bob Marley. We could blame Marley for this general Reggae-label on Carribean music, or rather his fans and non-fans. However, we must realize that Bob Marley is only part of the miscellaneous collection of Jamaican artists. There was a large group of musicians who played Ska, slowed it down, jamming to Rocksteady and one for one following up for the mellow Reggae rhythm. But it is clear why ultimately it was subgenre Reggae that marked Carribean alltogether.

It wasn't the last involved of labelling and stereotypes that Reggae got into. Society sees Reggae as an all-happy-witty music which musicians smoke weed all day long, as I had mentioned in Lifting The Reggae Blindfold. Besides that, many Reggae songs on the internet are credited to Bob Marley, while he was never involved in the track. Often those tracks were made after his death. I will call these the Weed-label, the Happy-label and the Marley-label, and will discuss them in that order.

The Weed-label, is that fair? It is undeniably true that the majority of Regae artists smokes marijuana. Bob was often portraid with a joint on his lips. However, take the Rolling Stones for instance, they love to drink a pint or two. But do we label their music with Alcohol. It is highly unfashionable to label any musicians as a heavy drinker whilst their music was good enough. They'd be labelled Rock-stars. True, Bob Marley sings about herb in 'Kaya', Steel Pulse wants to get high in the nights on 'Macka Splaff', and Peter Tosh dedicates a whole album, including album art, to 'Legalize It'. But compare that to the vast amount of songs that describe alcohol and other drugs. Sure Reggae is partially about smoking weed, but it is about a massive amount of other topics. So let's get rid of the Weed-label.

As I pointed out previously, much of the music's lyrics are about the history of the ethnic group playing it. Besides that, often is sung about social injustice, inequality, war, education, chances for the youth and Rastafari faith. Even though rhythms may sound happy-witty at first glance, it's lyrics are often to be taken serious. Take Prince Lincoln his 'Natural Wild' and the album with the same name. The music sounds happy, but he discusses personal- and world problems. I would consider it far to easy and am skeptical of granting Reggae its Happy-label.

The Marley-label works in the same way as the general Reggae-label did for Carribean music. It is an internet phenomenon which, I am afraid, has gotten beyond that. You'll finds songs of Inner Circle such as 'Bad Boys' and 'Sweat (A La La La Long)' credited to Bob Marley, as well as Red Red Wine of UB40. Not only is this completely wrong, it is also disrespectful to the actual artist and to Bob Marley for not knowing his entire discography.

Menty & Calypso

Back to the 50's, a good odd 20 years before Reggae took off. It was the time of Mento in Jamaica and Calypso on Trinidad. And the music went beyond those islands. I feel goosebumps when my father in law tells me his stories of Dominica, and the Calypso matches that took place when the roosters needed a day of rest, tired from fighting. You may be less known to Mento and Calypso then you are to Reggae, but it should not be left out in your knowledge of music. These genres are the footstools of Reggae and can vividly colour a picture in your mind from the time which most of those from my generation can only picture in black and white. 

The two genres are often confused with one another. It is as simple as this; Mento came from Jamaica and Calypso came from Trinidad. The mix-up can be understood though, as they are much alike rhythmic and lyrically. Also, the best known Mento artist, Harry Belafonte, presented his music as Calypso, writing an album with that name and was called the King of Calypso. Another band playing Mento called themselves The Calypsonians. The frontman of the band explained the situation once, saying that the tourists are looking to buy Calypso, so that's what he sells them. As long as you were selling records that was all that mattered.

Personally I think that confusing Mento for Calypso has a lot to do with age as well. Calypso had existed as early as the 17th century, much longer than Mento and had a larger status therefore. Mento hooked onto that status.

I can´t be all that mad about the mislabeling of Mento and Calypso. However, I would be about labeling Mento and Calypso as a Happy music. A good example of when this happens is with the 'Day O' song of Harry Belafonte, which most will know as the 'Banana Boat Song'. It is often seen as a funny song, which is not what it is meant to be. The song describes the working nights of longshoremen  who are tired of working and want to go home. The conditions of those workers were often horrible. Even though the songs of Harry Belafonte do indeed contain a lot of humour and sarcasm, they often carry a very serious tone. Listen good to songs such as 'Cotton Fields', 'John Henry' and 'Brown Skin Girl'. and you will hear. Calypso and Mento, as well as later Ska, Rocksteady and Reggae, are often about topics such as poverty, politics and social classes.

Sarcasm and irony are very important for both music genres. Take for example the song 'Wau Wau' from Lord Melody, a Calypso artist from Trinidad. He tells the story of a boy who repeatedly asks his father for permission to mary potential brides. However, his dad turns him down every single time because the girls are his half-sisters of which his mother knows nothing about. In the latest part of the song the tables are turned when he talks to his mother who tells him that it's all right because his dad is not his real father. Most of you might know this song as Peter Tosh his 'Shame And Scandel', played on a Ska rhythm.

Regardless of the now and then funny, story-telling quality, Mento and Calypso are styles with much reflection and criticism to be considered a serious cultural influence on the islands. Mid 20th century the number of recording studios on Jamaica and Trinidad dramatically grew. For many musicians this was the first change to record their music. With hindsight it is as if the music had its roots in the 20th century as all that remains is the music recorded in that period. But as I have said previously, the music is rooted much deeper than that and it was strong enough to develop even further.

Mento became Ska and became the dominant form of music on Jamaica. Calypso continued to exist on Trinidad and broadened to other islands in the region. Reggae may be the most well known music of the Caribbean region, but without Mento or Calypso it would not have existed as the rich, meaningful music that it is today.

Running into any difficulties? Please feel free to contact me.