When Jackie Mittoo and Leroy Sibbles migrated from Jamaica to Toronto in the early 1970s, the musicians brought reggae with them, sparking the flames of one of Canada's most vibrant music scenes. Professional reggae musician and scholar Jason Wilson tells the story of how reggae brought black and white youth together, opening up a cultural dialogue between Jamaican migrants and Canadians along the city's ethnic frontlines. This underground subculture rebelled against the status quo, broke through the bonds of race, eased the acculturation process, and made bands such as Messenjah and the Sattalites household names for a brief but important time.

Jamaican deejay Yellowman divided a country with his bawdy songs and his very body: he has been wildly popular among dancehall fans, yet widely despised by polite society. Even though his contribution to Jamaican musical culture is immense, scholars have ignored him and reggae histories have largely misunderstood him. King Yellowman: Meaningful Bodies in Jamaican Dancehall Culture is the first serious study of one Jamaica's most significant artists and dancehall's first major international star. It is a critical biography designed to satisfy fans while furthering academic discourse on dancehall by offering a new perspective on the way Yellowman negotiates the slackness/culture binary in Jamaican music. Based on years of ethnographic fieldwork, Brent Hagerman begins with the compelling story of Winston Foster's early life as an abandoned ghetto outcast and his hard-fought journey to become the King of Dancehall, then goes on to a critical exploration of the marginalization of people with albinism in Jamaica and the use of slackness in Caribbean music. Through slackness and his mobilization of Rastafarian symbols, Yellowman subverts embedded Jamaican cultural notions of sexuality, gender, and race to overcome his cultural displacement, promote his yellow body as sexually appealing and forge a place for himself among the Jamaican body politic.

An important center of dancehall reggae performance, sound clashes are contests between rival sound systems: groups of emcees, tune selectors, and sound engineers. In World Clash 1999, held in Brooklyn, Mighty Crown, a Japanese sound system and the only non-Jamaican competitor, stunned the international dancehall community by winning the event. In 2002, the Japanese dancer Junko Kudo became the first non-Jamaican to win Jamaica's National Dancehall Queen Contest. High-profile victories such as these affirmed and invigorated Japan's enthusiasm for dancehall reggae. In "Babylon East," the anthropologist Marvin D. Sterling traces the history of the Japanese embrace of dancehall reggae and other elements of Jamaican culture, including Rastafari, roots reggae, and dub music.

Sterling provides a nuanced ethnographic analysis of the ways that many Japanese involved in reggae as musicians and dancers, and those deeply engaged with Rastafari as a spiritual practice, seek to reimagine their lives through Jamaican culture. He considers Japanese performances and representations of Jamaican culture in clubs, competitions, and festivals; on websites; and in song lyrics, music videos, reggae magazines, travel writing, and fiction. He illuminates issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class as he discusses topics ranging from the cultural capital that Japanese dancehall artists amass by immersing themselves in dancehall culture in Jamaica, New York, and England, to the use of Rastafari as a means of critiquing class difference, consumerism, and the colonial pasts of the West and Japan. Encompassing the reactions of Jamaica's artists to Japanese appropriations of Jamaican culture, as well as the relative positions of Jamaica and Japan in the world economy, "Babylon East" is a rare ethnographic account of Afro-Asian cultural exchange and global discourses of blackness beyond the African diaspora.

Rough Riding: Tanya Stephens and the Power of Music to Transform Society is a groundbreaking collection of articles that explore the contribution of the cultural worker, feminist organic intellectual, and controversial reggae and dancehall artiste Tanya Stephens. An accomplished lyricist on par with the genre's celebrated male performers, Stephens has been producing socially conscious and transformative music that is associated with revolutionary reggae music of the 1970s and 1980s. The contributors to this anthology - a diverse group of scholars, activists and reggae professionals - explore the range of ideas and issues raised in Stephens's extensive body of work and examine the important role cultural workers play in inspiring shifts in consciousness and, ultimately, the social order.Contributors: Tanya Batson-Savage, Elsa Calliard-Burton, Karen Carpenter, Melville Cooke, Ajamu Nangwaya, Adwoa Ntozake Onuora, Alpha Obika, Anna Kasafi Perkins, Nicole Plummer, Chazelle Rhoden, Sara Suliman

Reggae Stories provides a range of perspectives on the development of Jamaican popular music and culture, in particular reggae and dancehall, and opens the door to new debates on these music forms and their producers and creators. It moves through early musical debates and incendiary intellectual contributions in Jamaican reggae to trace Jamaican popular music in new geographical locales, and then returns home to contemporary dancehall posturing. The contributors to this collection incorporate a range of approaches that include cultural studies, musicological analysis, lyrical analysis and historical contextualization. The collection makes a seminal contribution with its presentation of significant work on reggae music in the Hispanic Caribbean (Mexico), particularly for the benefit of English speakers who may have faced restrictions in accessing such material. In a similar vein, the work also introduces material on reggae music in the former Soviet Union (Belarus), again opening spaces that may have been hidden from the anglophone debates. The work also makes another significant contribution in tackling Peter Tosh's intellectual and lyrical legacy as a reggae revolutionary in an era where he has received scant literary and academic attention. Additionally, the work adds considerably to contemporary debates on dancehall music and culture's post-millennial identity debates by introducing a critical academic discourse on the lyrical and cultural posturing of popular dancehall artistes Tommy Lee and Vybz Kartel. ReggaeStories spans several important and connected points in the debates around adoption and adaptation of Jamaican popular music and culture in different cultural and geographical contexts and extends the discussion on how these musical and cultural forms have been transformed or retained in differing localities.

Reggae and Dancehall music and culture have travelled far beyond the shores of the tiny island of Jamaica to find their respective places as new genres of music and lifestyle. In Reggae from Yaad, Donna Hope pulls together a remarkable cast of contributors offering contemporary interpretations of the history, culture, significance and social dynamics of Jamaican Popular Music from varying geographical and disciplinary locations. From Alan 'Skill' Cole's lively and frank account of the Bob Marley he knew and David Katz's conversation with veteran music producers Bunny 'Striker' Lee, King Jammy and Bobby Digital; to Heather Augustyn and Shara Rambarran who both explore the role of music in the relationship between Britain and Jamaica in the post-independence 1960s, the contributors bring a new dimension to the discussion on the impact of Jamaican music. Drawn from a selection of presentations at the 2013 International Reggae Conference in Kingston, Jamaica, Reggae from Yaad continues the ever-evolving discourse on the meaning behind the music and the cultural and social developments that inform Jamaican Popular Music. Contributors: Heather Augustyn - Winston C. Campbell - Alan 'Skill' Cole - Brent Hagerman - Patrick Helber - Donna P. Hope - David Katz - Anna Kasafi Perkins - Shara Rambarran - Jose Luis Fanjul Rivero - Livingston A. White

The Ultimate Guide To Great Reggae celebrates (and helps you find) the greatest songs of reggae. It focuses on every style of reggae, from mento to Jamaican R&B, ska, rock steady, dub, DJ roots, dancehall and more. It opens with an exceptionally comprehensive brief history of reggae. This is followed by 52 chapters, each devoted to in-depth descriptions of the greatest songs for a particular artist or style. Over 750 great songs are detailed, and many more are discussed. More than 200 of reggae's stars, cult artists, one-hit wonders and forgotten greats are profiled, encompassing the music's full six decade span. Many of the songs and artists receive their overdue first coverage in print. The seven chapters on Bob Marley describe every one of his more than 600 recordings, his 200 best songs receiving detailed profiles. Well written, insightful and engaging, The Ultimate Guide To Great Reggae is more than an invaluable buyer's guide and more than a comprehensive history. It's a love letter to reggae that's joy to read. It's the one essential book for any reggae fan, and is interesting and accessible for anyone who enjoys reading about music.

The pulsating and seductive rhythms that make up Jamaican popular music extend far beyond reggae; and recently, a greater appreciation has emerged for the island's rich musical heritage and international impact. From ska, rocksteady and reggae to dancehall and dub, Jamaican popular music has made significant contributions to international pop culture. In The Creative Echo Chamber, Dennis Howard explores the unique nature of popular music production in Jamaica, which, though successful, runs counter to the models of the music industry in the developed world. The influence of the sound system in particular, the dynamics of intellectual property rights and value chain logic which are peculiar to the Jamaican music industry are part and parcel of the structures, production modes and business models which have led to hybridity, and unparalleled innovation. Using his background as an academic as well as a 30-year veteran in the media and entertainment industries, Howard, a Grammy-nominated producer brings fresh insight and perspective to the distinctive nature of Jamaican popular music.

A Reggae History and Autobiographical account of life in Kingston, Jamaica during the rise of the Reggae genre.Key players that went on to become world famous and the inside story to some of their humble beginnings. A virtual who is who of the genre from the sound systems of Coxsone Dodd and Duke Reid through the Wailers and Third World to Tenor Saw and Frankie Paul. While keeping pace of the life struggles of family life along with political violence. A journey that starts on the Jamaican island and travels through North America and Europe, the Reggae inside story from the inside.

In this revealing and poignant account of the life of her son, reggae icon Bob Marley (1945-1980), Mother Cedella Marley Booker traces the unique history of Bob Marley and his contribution to popular music as only a parent could. Booker recalls her poor rural upbringing in the district of Nine Miles in Jamaica, her parents' relationship, and her courtship with Captain Marley, the white man forty years her senior who turned up one day in her father's fields and took Cedella to his bed when she was just sixteen. Their child was Bob Marley, who would introduce the world to reggae, and whose talent would later transform the course of popular music with such classics as "Get Up, Stand Up," "Buffalo Soldier," "No Woman, No Cry," Stir It Up," and "One Love." With admirable candor, Booker shares her struggles in raising Bob on her family's farm in St. Ann's and the crime-riddled streets of Kingston, and her courageous move to start a new life in the United States. Bob stayed behind in Jamaica to perfect his music, though the two remained close as he began his transformation into reggae superstar and cultural prophet. Booker details Marley's embrace of Rastafarianism, the women in his life, his use of ganja, and his last months when Cedella nursed him until he succumbed to cancer. This book is a true look at Marley's life-not just as a cultural icon, but as a son.

These plenary lectures from the "Global Reggae" conference convened at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica in 2008 eloquently exemplify the breadth and depth of current scholarship on Jamaican popular music. Radiating from the Jamaican centre, these illuminating essays highlight the "glocalization" of reggae - its global dispersal and adaptation in diverse local contexts of consumption and transformation. The languages of Jamaican popular music, both literal and metaphorical, are first imitated in pursuit of an undeniable "originality". Over time, as the music is indigenized, the Jamaican model loses its authority to varying degrees. The revolutionary ethos of reggae music is translated into local languages that articulate the particular politics of new cultural contexts. Echoes of the Jamaican source gradually fade. But new hybrid sounds return to their Jamaican origins, engendering polyvocal, cross-cultural dialogue. From the inter/disciplinary perspectives of historical sociology, musicology, history, media studies, literature, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, the creative/cultural industries and, above all, the metaphorical "life sciences", the contributors to this definitive volume lucidly articulate a cultural politics that acknowledges the far-reaching creativity of small-islanders with ancestral memories of continents of origin. The globalisation of reggae music and its "wild child" dancehall is, indeed, an affirmation of the unquantifiable potential of the Jamaican people to reclaim identities and establish ties of affiliation that are not circumscribed by the Caribbean Sea: To the world!

When I started this project to write an account of Jamaica's Reggae Heritage, I first wrote a preface, I now suggest you once again turn to this preface and read it one more time. A little slower, this time, before you continue to read any further. After the book was completed during February 2003, I was shocked to have read a part of a book that was being sold on the market by a Jamaican writer. I will quote a part of that book as I have read it where the word Sebastian was repeatedly spell wrong. The next two paragraphs are from this mistake of a book. As the only survivor of that early period, Clement Coxsone Dodd is often said to have invented the sound system concept. But according to the late Count Matchukie, the first real Dance-hall sound system was Tom The Great Sebastian, the ?nom de record? of the Chinese hardware merchant Thomas Wong: ?There were other sets playing about the place, but Tom was the first sound with an amplifier properly balanced for the Dance-hall. Tom The Great Sebastian started getting competition from Sir Coxsone Downbeat, Duke Reid ?The Trojan, ? and Lloyd (The Matador) Daley. Tom was turned off by the violent rivalry among systems downtown and opened The Silver Slipper Club at Cross Roads. One night he committed suicide by gassing himself in his car, supposedly over financial troubles. Shortly after the Silver Slipper Club burnt to the ground? End of excerpt from a bad mistake of a book] Tom (The Great) Sebastian did not own The Silver Slipper Club. Mr. Ho, who also ran the "Esquire Restaurant" on the same premises that now is called Silver Slipper Plaza, owned the club. He employed Tom on a gate percentage basis. The club did not burn to the ground, but was closed to make way for the Silver Slipper Plaza. Finally, Tom did not commit suicide over financial troubles, but over domestic problems. There are a large number of people who would like to associate themselves with the early history of Jamaica's music industry. They believe that you had to be standing on the corner of Luke Lane and Charles Street in downtown Kingston. Listening and sometimes dance to the sound of Tom The Great Sebastian (Sound System) Most of these so-called want-to-be were not old enough to realize what was happening concerning the new rising sound systems. I was under parent control at that time and will not lie to prove that I was there at the beginning. I was a part of the early building of Jamaica's Music Heritage, I contributed much more than most of these want- to- be's. I lived it then, not later. I was always a disc jockey, starting with my mother's RCA (His Master's Voice) table model gramophone. When I started high school I realize my dreams when I was introduced to Mr. Thomas Wong (Tom The Great Sebastian) and was taught the finer points of being a Sound system disc jockey. The lesson I retained the most was, as he told me. "You should not let the dance crowd lead you, you have to be the leader, what you play is what they have to enjoy" I was the third Disc Jockey for the Great Sebastian Sound System and remained with Tom (The Great Sebastian), playing at the Silver Slipper Club, Bournemouth Beach Club and many places where we always performed to pack dance halls. During this period, I met many Record producers, Artists and other Sound system operators. It was after Mr. Thomas Wong (Tom The Great Sebastian) untimely death that I decided to go it alone as a disc jockey. The Silver Slipper Club closed to make way for the Silver Plaza, during the late 1960s. I continued to operate The Great Sebastian Sound System with the help of Mr. Thomas Wong's son. The Great Sebastian Sound System played at the following nightclubs, The Blue Mist, Champion House, The Baby Grand, Johnson's Drive Inn and a number of other dance halls throughout Kingston and the countryside. The Great Sebastian sound system ended when Mr. Thomas Wong's son decided to close the Sound system business.

Breaking new ground in the field of Sound Studies, this book provides an in-depth study of the culture and physicality of dancehall reggae music. The reggae sound system has exerted a major influence on music and popular culture. Every night, on the streets of inner city Kingston, Jamaica, Dancehall sessions stage a visceral, immersive and immensely pleasurable experience of sonic dominance for the participating crowd. "Sonic Bodies" concentrates on the skilled performance of the crewmembers responsible for this signature of Jamaican music: the audio engineers designing, building and fine-tuning the hugely powerful "set" of equipment; the selectors choosing the music tracks played; and, MCs (DJs) on the mic hyping up the crowd. Julian Henriques proposes that these dancehall "vibes" are taken literally as the periodic movement of vibrations, and offers an analysis of how a sound system operates - not only at auditory, but also at corporeal and sociocultural frequencies. "Sonic Bodies" formulates a fascinating auditory critique of visual dominance and the dualities inherent in ideas of image, text or discourse. This innovative book questions the assumptions that reason resides only in the mind, that communication is an exchange of information and that meaning is only ever representation.