STORIES
The written histories
Longer pieces about how the music actually happened — a studio, a rivalry, a rhythm, an argument that would not settle. Each one is tied to the records it concerns, and carries how firmly the atlas stands behind it.
144 published
From the rocksteady queens and the first female producer to the I-Threes, the lovers-rock pioneers and the dancehall crown, women have carried Jamaican music from the studio floor to the world stage.
The Downbeat and the Trojan: How Two Kingston Rivals Built the Sound SystemIn 1950s Kingston, Coxsone Dodd's Downbeat and Duke Reid's Trojan turned rival dances into the foundation of an entire music industry.
The Dub Revolution: How King Tubby and Lee Perry Turned the Mixing Desk Into an InstrumentIn the studios of 1970s Kingston, engineers learned to dismantle a finished song and rebuild it as something stranger, launching the version, the remix and the idea of the producer as author.
The Riddim Economy: One Riddim, Many VoicingsHow a preset rhythm on a consumer keyboard turned Jamaica's oldest studio economy into the digital age.
Festival Song and national memoryJCDC's Festival Song tradition is a route from popular music into Independence memory.
Reggae as a heritage calendarReggae Month, Grounation and UNESCO show how Jamaica presents reggae as living heritage.
Schools, archives and the soundAlpha, Folkways, NLJ and museum programmes show how Jamaican music knowledge is taught and preserved.
From dance floor to dubplate studioStreet dances, named moves, dance songs and voicing rooms made 2000s dancehall a fast feedback system.
Sound systems as artist schoolsHow operators, selectors and live tapes helped turn local deejays into recording artists.
King Tubby and the remixHow a Waterhouse engineer turned mixing into an instrument and previewed the remix age.
Mento: the first Jamaican popBefore ska there was mento — rural songs of humour, labour and double meaning.
Reggae and the UKHow the music took root in Britain and grew new branches.
Sound clash cultureRounds, dubplates and crowd judgement — how sounds went to war on the mic.
The studio bandHow a handful of session players shaped record after record.
Dub and the versionHow the B-side and the mixing desk became instruments.
Reggae goes globalHow Jamaican music crossed the water without leaving home.
Rocksteady slows it downWhen the tempo dropped, harmony and bass moved to the front.
Street dance and the moveHow a weekly dance built a global vocabulary of moves.
The birth of skaHow studio players turned imported R&B and local feel into a brand-new offbeat as a nation stepped forward.
Toasting and the micHow the sound-system deejay's live talk-over became recorded art.