🎵 How Good Are They Really 🎵 Toots & The Maytals

[NeilYoung]

Its brilliant.

[pichaelmarker]

We’re doing Toots and the Maytals before The Beatles…

Is there a system here?

[shrewbie]

doing all the bands in order from best to worst

[anon19035908]

Yes, working one by one through a list I wrote then jumbled up into a random order.

[colon_closed_bracket]

It’s not just trustafarians. In the early-mid 90s (some of my formative years), mainstream music was awash with really crap reggae-lite. Most other genres had a NME-friendly gateway act (like, I dunno, DJ Shadow or the Aphex Twin for example) I can’t think of anyone from that era who would have acted as a decent gateway into reggae. So then you’re delving back into music from what would have been my dad’s generation.

And I guess years have passed and I’ve gone without reggae in my life.

[Avery]

Yeah, i suppose I was lucky enough to have a good scene around me and friends who wanted to get involved by DJing it instead of jamming it

[nav]

Toots & The Maytals >>>> The Beatles

[Unlucky]

And this is england which everyone has seen.

[anon9806217]

Mid 90s were some of my formative years too. Remember exactly what you are talking about - artists like Snow and Shaggy having huge hits. Can see why this might put you off reggae, but to me it’s a bit like being put off house music by Whigfield. Bit of a shame if these guys scarred you for life!

Think the bigger issue in the 90s for reggae was that there was no contemporary stuff to counteract the cod reggae. Jamaican music was solidly into its dancehall/ragga phase by then and this stuff is less universally appealing than reggae is. Like @Avery, was pretty lucky to have mates who DJ’d classic reggae (mixed in with other stuff) and that the buyer of my local Our Price was a huge reggae fan and there seemed to be about three people in my town who liked it, so he’d always spend ages with me recommending some choice stuff. Was totally listening to my dad’s era of music though, I agree. With a few exceptions, wasn’t really listening to much ragga

[Kallgeese]

Occasionally drop this sort of thing into Not Earth live sets, though we took it from James Brown. Big fan of that sort of messing.

[Icarus-Smicarus]

When I was a first year uni student about 12 years ago me and my friend went to the back bar in Laverys one Monday night and found there was a DJ spinning reggae tunes in the corner. Neither of us were known reggae fans or really knew any of what was being played or ever found out, but we really liked something about the vibe and it became our thing to go there every Monday. Good times.

[1101010]

I know of Fela Kuti but I have not really heard enough to feel right in voting in a poll.

[1101010]

I guess the biggest Reggae white/crossover band were The Police who were MASSIVE at the time.

My recollection of c. 1980 is that Reggae was a huge dominant form of pop music. I think the mention of trustafarians or whatever is actually about a deeper thing (brought in other places on here) about society being quick to dismiss and attempt to discredit counter-culture.

Reggae is strongly associated with people who like dope and, I guess because that’s how people are, the fact they were marginalised meant they became quite ‘radical’ about their love of dope and it’s helped to push that.

I mean even this sort of dismissal of someone who is into this while rich speaks volumes of a knee-jerk attitude that has been instilled in us.

Anyway, I like reggae but I don’t know enough about it.

[SunnyB]

Done

[thewarn]

Guess as a kid, reggae for me was:

UB40 (hated them)
Bob Marley (didn’t like any of this either)

There was a LOT of shit 80s/90s pop/reggae or reggae-inspired pop, which put me off exploring further for a very, very long time:

Snow
Chaka Demus and Pliers
Apache Indian
Maxi Priest
Bobby McFerran

Then you got Shaggy/Shabba Ranks and the raga-crossover stuff that I didn’t like either.

Only much much later, when I’d heard the likes of Jimmy Cliff, Dillinger, friends Trojan comps etc that I realised that reggae wasn’t all like this.

Recently heard yellowman for the first time: mister yellowman is by some distance the best reggae album I’ve heard so far and I’ll be checking out more as a result.

[nav]

Anyway, I like reggae but I don’t know enough about it.

early lyrics were less catchy

this song links to a lot of the issues in the thread about reggae too. I think cod reggae probably had a negative effect on the genre in a way that Vanilla Ice definitely didn’t on rap music and that nobody quite did to any forms of African music - even someone like Paul Simon seems respected enough to not be stealing or diluting the genre and it’s stylistic traits. Reggae got watered down and re-packaged and re-appropriated whilst a lot of people sneered at the originators, or enjoyed it ironically, or listened to three Bob Marley songs and a lot of white artists. This is only scratching the surface and I don’t think it’s a reach to examine this relationship alongside the Jamaican-British political and cultural history.

[anon9806217]

I think the mention of trustafarians or whatever is actually about a deeper thing (brought in other places on here) about society being quick to dismiss and attempt to discredit counter-culture.

I think there is quite a bit in this, tbh. Not suggesting that anyone on here is doing this for one second, but I also think for some people there is an inherent tendency to also discredit people who have an interest in music or culture that is not from their own country.

Reggae is strongly associated with people who like dope and, I guess because that’s how people are, the fact they were marginalised meant they became quite ‘radical’ about their love of dope and it’s helped to push that.

This is also true, but again it’s a misappropriation. Reggae, and particularly roots reggae, is very strongly associated with Rastafarianism. I’m not going to pretend to have even a basic understanding of the religion itself, but I know that one of the “principle rituals" of Rastafari involves smoking cannabis during religious discussion (‘groundings’). Rastafarianism was originally (an mainly still is) a working class religion, and Rastas were viewed as the lowest class of person and heavily persecuted by the police and conservative ruling class in Jamaica. So, when you see pictures of Bob Marley or Peter Tosh smoking weed on album covers, it isn’t some form of “Wooo 420! BLAZE IT!” celebration, it’s more an act of defiance and a promotion of their Rastafarian beliefs. Obviously, this has been misinterpreted and a lot of people see reggae’s references to weed as its defining aspect, and therefore as nothing more than a soundtrack to getting high. Also makes it easy for detractors to dismiss it as ‘music for stoners’ without even listening to it.

I mean even this sort of dismissal of someone who is into this while rich speaks volumes of a knee-jerk attitude that has been instilled in us.

Completely agree. Rich people / trustafarians etc are allowed to like music too. Just another facet of people dismissing or denigrating other people because they like a music or culture that is not their native one. (Again, not suggesting anyone on here is doing that).

[Icarus-Smicarus]

Bobby McFerran

I found out recently that loads of people think Don’t Worry Be Happy is a Bob Marley song. Look what happens when you google it

Their voices are absolutely nothing alike aside from the accent! Seems staggeringly ignorant.

[zanimos]

I still assume ubiquitous Summer Hits will be cod reggae whereas they are more likely now to be Latin influenced or just generic edm/novelty dance. Mysterious Girl was probably peak cod reggae wan’t it.

Are we doing HGATR The Police? Would like to hear from fans as I always found them completely baffling and they were absolutely massive.

[nav]

mad isn’t it.

this has 127 million views.

fwiw the official Bobby McFerrin video has 140 million.