NOW VIEWINGListen
The Music Room

LISTEN / SONIC GROUPINGS / EMBEDS

The sounds of the island — grouped by how they sound

1,116 playable recordings, interviews, documentaries and sound tapes from the archive, sorted into nine sonic groupings. Each grouping tells you what to listen for, so the difference between a ska chop and a one drop is something you can hear rather than something you have to take on trust.

SONIC GROUPINGS

Nine ways the island sounds.

Most groupings follow a period of sound — the tempo drop into rocksteady, the machine arriving in 1985. Clash and dubplate is the exception: it is a practice rather than a decade, so a record lands there for what it shows, not for when its artist worked. A recording can sit in more than one.

Deep background

Drum roots

Three Nyabinghi drums in conversation — the bass drum on the downbeat, the funde holding a steady heartbeat pulse, the repeater improvising across the top. Kumina and revival singing work the same way: a fixed pulse with a voice moving freely over it.

46 recordings

1940s–50s

Mento

An acoustic band with no drum kit: banjo, guitar, hand drum and a rhumba box — a big thumb piano the player sits on — plucking the bassline. The lilt leans on the last beat of the bar, which is why mento swings where calypso struts.

27 recordings

1950s–early 60s

Sound-system foundation

American R&B and shuffle boogie played through valve amplifiers and home-built bass bins. The thing to hear is not the song but the system: bass weight the record was never mastered for, and a selector talking over it.

17 recordings

1962–66

Ska

The chop on the offbeat — guitar and piano stabbing the up-strokes between the drums — at a pace close to a run. Horns carry the melody, jazz-schooled and loud, and the bass walks rather than repeats.

56 recordings

1966–79

Rocksteady, reggae and dub

The tempo drops and the bass steps forward as the lead instrument. Count to four: in a one drop there is nothing on beat one, and kick and snare land together on three. Then dub takes the same tape and removes most of it, leaving reverb where the singing was.

249 recordings

1979–90

Dancehall and the digital turn

One riddim under many different voices. After Sleng Teng in 1985 the backing is a machine rather than a band, so the timing is exact and the same instrumental can carry a love song, a boast and a warning in the same session.

289 recordings

1990s

Clash and dubplate

A familiar tune with the words changed — an artist singing a rival sound into the ground and calling your sound by name. These are specials, cut one at a time for one system, and the crowd noise is the scoring.

242 recordings

2000s

Street dance

Records built for a specific move, with the instruction in the lyric. The tempo and the gaps in the beat are shaped around what a body has to do on the floor.

137 recordings

2010s onward

Global and the living archive

Old riddims resurfacing — a Studio One bassline under a new voice, a revival singer reaching back past dancehall to roots. Listen for what is being quoted.

368 recordings

LISTENING — ROCKSTEADY, REGGAE AND DUB

Rocksteady, reggae and dub

The tempo drops and the bass steps forward as the lead instrument. Count to four: in a one drop there is nothing on beat one, and kick and snare land together on three. Then dub takes the same tape and removes most of it, leaving reverb where the singing was.

249 recordings Clear filters

Alton Ellis with ASPO - I'm Still in Love (multi-camera)

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · releases

Multi-camera upload, channel: pataterecords; embedded as reference.

Source link ↗

Cool Out Son

SPOTIFY · rights discovery only · releases

Spotify track, artist and title verified as Junior Murvin, "Cool Out Son" through the embed payload. Spotify carries more than one entry for this recording and the release behind this one is not identified; the Apple Music row on the same record names the anthology it comes from.

Source link ↗

Doe Maar, Sinds 1 Dag Of 2

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · releases

Official VEVO channel (DoeMaarVEVO); embedded as reference.

Source link ↗

Doe Maar, Sinds 1 dag of 2 (32 jaar), TopPop 1983

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Official TopPop archive channel, the Dutch broadcaster's own pop programme archive; embedded as reference.

Source link ↗

Postmen live at Paradiso, Amsterdam, 4 May 2013

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · releases

Filmed and uploaded by World A Reggae (channel: World A Reggae); embedded as reference.

Source link ↗

Noel Ellis — Dance With Me (Light In The Attic Records)

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · releases

Label YouTube upload (channel: Light in the Attic), the reissuer of the Summer Records album; embedded as reference.

Source link ↗

Can't Even Walk

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · releases

YouTube auto-generated "Topic" channel (rights-holder distribution, not a hand-run artist channel); embedded as a discovery-only reference pending editorial review.

Source link ↗

Neville Garrick remembered: Bob Marley's graphic artist

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Uploaded by BIG STONE TELEVISION as "BOB MARLEY'S GRAPHIC ARTIST NEVILLE GARRICK HAS PASSED ON.". Title and channel confirmed from YouTube oEmbed metadata. A memorial segment marking his death in 2023.

Source link ↗

John T with Touter Harvey of Inner Circle, WAVS 1170, 5 October 2012

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · interviews

Inner Circle's keyboardist in the WAVS studio with John T Hodgson. Courtesy WAVS 1170 AM.

Source link ↗

Dirty Harry, Bobby Ellis and Soul Syndicate - Djamballa

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · releases

Recording upload.

Source link ↗

Clive Hunt Reggae Arranger who Survived Gunshots and Drug Addiction | TVJ Entertainment Report

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

TVJ Entertainment Report.

Source link ↗

Ansel Collins - Stalag 17 - Angen 7inch 1975

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · releases

Original 7inch transfer.

Source link ↗

Pam Hall - Dear Boopsie - Reggae Music

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · releases

Music video.

Source link ↗

Official Reggae History: Junior Delgado Musical Journey

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Biography documentary.

Source link ↗

Story of The Magnificent Joseph Hill & Culture

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Biography documentary.

Source link ↗

The Best Of Reggae Sunsplash (1982) Jarrett Park, Montego Bay, Jamaica (VHS)

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Public YouTube upload; embedded as a discovery-only reference pending editorial review.

Source link ↗

Alton Ellis - Gone (Unreleased) A Vincent 'Randy' Chin Production - Federal Recording Studio, 1965

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · releases

Gone, an unreleased Alton Ellis side Vincent Chin produced at Federal Recording Studio in 1965.

Source link ↗

Clive Chin on Randy's Records, Dub Music and Soundsystems | Red Bull Music Academy

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · interviews

Clive Chin on Randy's Records and Studio 17, the shop and studio his father Vincent built.

Source link ↗

Errol Brown with Bob Marley @ Tuff Gong Studio 1980

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Errol Brown at the Tuff Gong desk with Bob Marley, filmed during a 1980 session.

Source link ↗

I-Roy vs Prince Jazzbo — Step Forward Youth (1975)

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · releases

The two deejays answering each other on record — a feud conducted entirely in songs.

Source link ↗

Jah Thomas — Midnight Rock (GG's Records 7", 1976)

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · releases

The 1976 single that gave his label its name, cut for Alvin Ranglin's GG's.

Source link ↗

Jah Thomas — Shoulder Move (Midnight Rock LP, 1983)

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · releases

From the album on his own Midnight Rock label, deejaying over his own production.

Source link ↗

Prince Jazzbo — Ital Corner (1975)

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · releases

Cut with Lee Perry at the Black Ark, and the record Jazzbo is best remembered for.

Source link ↗

I Roy — Black Man Time (Impact! 7", c.1973)

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · releases

The 1973 seven-inch, transferred from the original Impact! pressing.

Source link ↗