Reggae and dub in the Netherlands

The Dutch scene is unusual in the reggae diaspora because it was not built by Jamaican migration. The Netherlands has no Brixton and no Little Jamaica; what it has instead is a large Surinamese and Antillean population, concentrated in Amsterdam Zuidoost, Rotterdam and The Hague, whose Caribbean listening made a ready audience, and a squat and free-radio culture in Amsterdam that gave sound systems rooms and airtime when nobody else would.

Bob Marley reached Amsterdam in 1976 and Paradiso and the Melkweg became the country's roots reggae halls; the sound system side stayed small and underground until King Shiloh built a rig in 1991 and made Amsterdam a stop on the European dub circuit. Since the mid-2000s a second generation of English-style roots and steppers sounds has spread the scene beyond the capital to Rotterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven and Den Bosch.