Dimensions
195 x 270 x 13mm
Through sheer force of its personality, reggae music has conquered the world and rocked successive generations - all on its own terms. Jamaican music was, and remains truly an urban folk music. In its purest form it is entirely an oral experience: unlicensed, uncopyrighted, uncensored and even to this day untamed. It chronicles the highs and lows of the day-to-day existence of Jamaican sufferahs. Although reggae came from the streets of Kingston, it remained on the streets wherever it roamed, London, Birmingham or New York. Allied to this was the fierce competition between the many small recording studios and some bizarre marketing tactics. This book will bear witness to the durability of the reggae movement over the last 40 years, tracking the constant human and cultural traffic between Kingston, London and the US. Bradley highlights the social and political history of a newly independent people and their displaced brothers and sisters in Britain and the states, through the expression of its greatest art form, reggae music. Through newly recorded interviews he also tells the stories of the major figures in the development of reggae - including Prince Buster and Coxsone Dodd through Bunny Wailer, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Lee Perry and Jimmy Cliff to Sly and Robbie and Shabba ranks - while major performers, such as Fatboy Slim and Chuck D pay tribute to how reggae has informed their own paths. Comprehensive and generously illustrated this book offers a unique history of reggae.
