Dub reggae and the techniques associated with it have, since the
late-1980s, been used widely by producers of dance and ambient
music. However, the term was originally applied to a remixing
technique pioneered in Jamaica as far back as 1967. Recording
engineers produced reggae tracks on which the efforts of the
producer were often more evident than those of the musicians -
these heavily engineered tracks were termed 'versions'. The
techniques used to produce versions quickly evolved into what is
now known as 'dub'. The term, in this sense, arrived in 1972 and
was largely the result of experiments by the recording engineer
Osbourne Ruddock/King Tubby. Over the decades, not only has dub
evolved, but it has done so especially in the UK. Indeed, much
contemporary music, from hip hop to trance and from ambient
soundscapes to experimental electronica and drum 'n' bass is
indebted to the 'remix culture' principally informed by dub
techniques. However, while obviously an important genre, its
significance is rarely understood or acknowledged. Part One of the
book examines the Jamaican background, necessary for understanding
the cultural significance of dub, and Part Two analyses its
musical, cultural and political importance for both
African-Caribbean and, particularly, white communities in the
United Kingdom during the late-1970s and early 1980s. Particular
attention is given to the subcultures surrounding the genre,
especially its relationship with Rastafarian culture - the history
and central beliefs of which are related to reggae and examined.
There is also analysis of its cultural and musicological influence
on punk and post-punk, the principal political music in late-1970s
Britain. Finally, moving into the period of the decline of
post-punk and, indeed, British dub in the early 1980s, there will
be an examination of what can be understood as the postmodern turn
in dub. In summary, the book is a confluence of several lines of
thought. Firstly, it provides a cultural and musical history of dub
from its early days in Jamaica to the decline of post-punk in
early-1980s Britain. Secondly, it examines the religio-political
ideas it carried and traces these through to the ideologies
informing the subcultures of the late-1970s and, finally, to their
transformation and, arguably, neutralisation in the postmodern
pastiche of post-punk dub. Thirdly, with reference to these lines
of thought, it looks at dub's and roots reggae's contribution to
race relations in 1970s Britain. Finally, it analyses the aesthetic
and arguably 'spiritual' significance of dub, looking at, for
example, its foregrounding of bass and reverb.
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