The main stream spread of reggae music; it has become a catalyst for change in countries other than its root country Jamaica. The influence of reggae music has been tremendous due to artist like Peter Tosh, Burning Spear and the Legendary Bob Marley. To discuss the influence of reggae music; we will focus on the African Country of South Africa. Before we dive into the meat of the matter there is an important term that must be defined as you will be hearing a lot about it in this presentation.
Apartheid – An official policy of racial segregation formerly practiced in the Republic of South Africa, involving political, legal, and economic discrimination against nonwhites. Through the music of Jamaican artist such as Peter Tosh, Burning Spear and Bob Marley, Young South Africans who were anti-apartheid found inspiration, motivation and influence. They used the Jamaican musical genre as a voice to their cause or theme songs to their fight. For example in 1977 Reggae Star Peter Tosh produced the song Fight Apartheid. Now I would like to pay close attention to the line where he mentions about prisons and keep it in mind as it will resurface later on in this presentation.
There is a saying with goes imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Although they were exposed to Jamaican songs it would not have such an impact if artist such as Johnny Clegg, O’Yaba and Lucky Dube did not start to sing and produce their own reggae music in English as well as their own languages of Zulu or Afrikaan. With reggae music South African Artist were able to break down social barriers. Johnny Clegg formed the first inter racial band in South Africa which was against apartheid laws. Despite that fact and the many concerts that were shut down and cancelled due to apartheid the band still continued to produce and perform songs against Apartheid. O’yaba which was an all-black South African band produced many songs against the apartheid, although they got banned on the airwaves and could only play on black stations. However Lucky Dube shattered the barriers through his songs, by having the first anti-apartheid song to play on a white station. This song became the soundtrack for the Anti-apartheid movement.
The Review on The Birth and Growth of Reggae Music
Popular culture are patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give them significance and importance. These activities are popular, well-liked and common. They are often defined and determined by the mass media. It is deemed as what is popular within the social context — that of which is most strongly represented by what is perceived to be popularly accepted among society. Popular ...
With his many songs against apartheid Lucky Dube was able to speak against apartheid and influence many generations of South Africans. Lucky Dube has been noted to have said that he was in thrall to the music of Bob Marley and the chief guitarist of the Wailers, Peter Tosh, envying the drive and edge of Jamaican reggae. At his own concerts he would dive off into that music, with its undertow of social and political subversion couched in blatant English, and find that the crowd loved it. Only one genre of music could have had such a great impact, you can call me bias. But reggae music’s conscious vibe, political and social messages was able to impact a generation of youth and comfort a nation in one of its darkest times.
