09 · STREAMING & THE LIVING ARCHIVE
Jamaican music is everywhere and still deeply local.
2010s–Today
Streaming, social video, diaspora networks and collaborations accelerate exchange while local scenes keep inventing.
Inside this era
∞ Reach
The riddim leaves the island
Dembow, built from a Shabba Ranks B-side by way of Panama, becomes the engine of reggaeton. Afrobeats, UK funky, grime and dancehall-pop all take the same rhythmic ideas somewhere else. Steely & Clevie's long-running claim over the Fish Market rhythm has put the question of who owns a Jamaican riddim in front of an American court.
◎ Recognition
Reggae on the record
UNESCO inscribed reggae on its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2018. Kingston joined the UNESCO Creative Cities network as a City of Music in 2015. Jamaica marks Reggae Month every February, and the Jamaica Music Museum, the National Library and the African Caribbean Institute hold the paper the music left behind.
▤ Archive
A living, community-edited record
Much of this history was never written down: it lives with the box-man, the selector, the dancer and the family who kept the photographs. This archive publishes records with their sources, their rights status and their disputed claims visible, and takes contributions and memories from the people who were there.
Close up
Scene
The revival generation
Chronixx, Protoje, Kabaka Pyramid, Koffee and Lila Iké returned to roots songwriting with contemporary production from the 2010s on. Koffee's Rapture took the Grammy for Best Reggae Album in 2020 — the first won by a woman, and by the youngest winner in the category.
Business
The diaspora infrastructure
VP Records in Queens, Greensleeves in London, Jet Star, Dub Vendor and Peckings: the shops, distributors and labels that kept Jamaican music in circulation abroad, and in several cases preserved catalogues that no longer existed in Kingston.