Conscious reggae
Conscious reggae (engl. Conscious "conscientiously responsible,") is an expression of the reggae , which is defined primarily by textual content. With their songs that are both religious and socially critical, this trend is in the tradition of well-known reggae artists such as Bob Marley . Conscious Reggae emerged in the mid-1990s , after a time that was shaped by so-called "Slackness Reggae" (an early form of today's dancehall reggae related to the sexist, superficial texts ), which arose since Marley's death in 1981.
Stylistically, roots reggae can be distinguished from conscious reggae by a few elements. The main difference lies in the influences: while roots reggae was influenced by soul , blues , jazz and calypso and to a lesser extent also by punk and rock and was in the direct tradition of mento , ska and rocksteady , conscious reggae contains roots reggae alongside roots even as a main influence mainly influences from the more electronic mainstream genres dancehall / raggamuffin , hip-hop and R&B ; lyrically, both styles are very similar, whereby Roots Reggae deals with more orthodox Rastafarian topics ( e.g. Haile Selassie as divine reincarnation) and Conscious Reggae deals with the predominant (more liberal) Rastafari topics as well as "more secular" topics ( e.g. Judaism ). The transition between Roots Reggae and Conscious Reggae is fluid.
Well-known representatives of Conscious Reggae are, for example, Headcornerstone , Burning Spear , Steel Pulse , Gentleman and Ganjaman .
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- ^ Paul L. Wexler: Rastafarian Spirit Replacing Violence In Dancehall Lyrics . in: Billboard , November 19, 1994, p. 1 and 22, full text in google book search
Web links
Interview with Highna aka Conscious Fiyah from Headcornerstone