Reggae was born from the newly free country of
Jamaica to find it's own music, once the shuffle beated records dissapeared from US radio and production. The island nation had a crew of
sound systems specialists that would promote and battle each other in
sound clashes to promote the best music to the
Dancehall parties. These crews required their own sounds to differentiate themselves.
The lack of new music from the US, meant that the small country of Jamaica had to tap it's own talent pool, and from this beginning came new sounds. Limited
acetate pressings of
dub music, music without vocals on the record itself, gave room for the
selector and the
deejay to perform live and to
toast other sound systems. These new performances that were recorded with similar rhythms were known as
Versions, perhaps the first known place
sampling occurred.
The
instrumental background with dub began the original music feel, while the deejay's rapping style (with the Selector spinning records), slowly evolved into its own flavours. Deejays have evovled to well known figures today such as
Buju Banton,
Supercat,
BeenieMan &
Shabba Ranks, while others such as
Bob Marley,
Burning Spear,
Black Uhuru,
The Scientist, and
King Tubby progressed deeper into the
Dub Soul arena.
(Aside to Stepping Razor: Ska was developed by the sound systems, so Reggae and Ska came from the same source, not from each other)