couldn't find a thread for this.
http://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/167-that-chop-on-the-upbeat
http://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/167-that-chop-on-the-upbeat
ROSCO GORDON AND THE BIRTH OF SKA (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter d gray
- Start date
mjp
Founding member
Dang, that's good.
"ska was born in Tennessee," is no joke. It was American music that inspired the Jamaicans to come up with ska, and the influence stayed on into rocksteady and reggae. You can hear the soul and blues in the Wailers rocksteady tracks from the late 60s and when rocksteady became reggae, the influences were still there. Not only influences, but sometimes the outright lifting and "interpreting" of songs. Everyone in Jamaica reworked American songs (and then put their names on them).
It's what the Jamaicans did with the influences that's so great. That they melded them with the island influences to come up with something brand new, and then took it worldwide - it was kind of incredible and unlikely. That rap and hip hop then came from that just makes it all the more ridiculous.
(I might have a tape of that 1985 Roger Steffens interview with Junior Braithwaite, I'll have to look.)
"ska was born in Tennessee," is no joke. It was American music that inspired the Jamaicans to come up with ska, and the influence stayed on into rocksteady and reggae. You can hear the soul and blues in the Wailers rocksteady tracks from the late 60s and when rocksteady became reggae, the influences were still there. Not only influences, but sometimes the outright lifting and "interpreting" of songs. Everyone in Jamaica reworked American songs (and then put their names on them).
It's what the Jamaicans did with the influences that's so great. That they melded them with the island influences to come up with something brand new, and then took it worldwide - it was kind of incredible and unlikely. That rap and hip hop then came from that just makes it all the more ridiculous.
(I might have a tape of that 1985 Roger Steffens interview with Junior Braithwaite, I'll have to look.)
