Week 5 - Ska / Reggae

Bob Marley and the Wailers started their career making Ska records at Studio One in Kingston Jamaica.

Ska was partly inspired by the call and response vocal patterns of American RnB.

Jamaican musicians though used a distinctive syncopated off beat in which guitarist would play a scratchy 'ska' accent inbetween the beats:

  / 1 ska 2 ska  3 ska  4 ska  /

Many 'Ska' hits used the same chord pattern:

Tonic    Subdominant  Dominant   ( I IV V)













Bob Marley and the Wailers in the early 1970's signed to UK indie label Island Records.

They now favoured a more laid back style in which the guitar played a 'reggae' double beat
(the cola part of a coca-cola semi-quaver) inbetween each beat of the bar.

Reggae also tended to feature prominant bass riffs.
Aston Barrett plays a distinctive triad pattern on Stir it Up.

His brother Carlton favoured cross stick over snare back beat.

Notice how the kick drum plays on the backbeat too.




Bob Marley and the Wailers were inspired by the falsetto harmony of soul stars Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions.

The three part harmony on Stir it Up is based on the lead vocal singing the 3rd note of the scale.

The backing singers harmonise on the higher 5th and 8th note.

Eric Clapton was to cover a Bob Marley song can I Shot the Sheriff.  It went to number one in the USA.


Reggae rhythm was now fasionable and cool. It shared many musical ingredients with funk and disco. Especially the funky clavinet and wah wah toned guitars.

Many established performers including Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin flirted with Jamaican rhythm.


In the multi-cultural districts of London young white musicians were starting to add Jamaican flavour to Punk records







A group of young musicians in the midlands began to re-visit old Jamican ska recordings which they released on their own 'TwoTone' label. 

The label released a string of hit records by The Specials and Madness.




Contemporary performers continue to cover ska /reggae material:








 Do you recognise this obscure Reggae instrumental?








Do you recognise it now?

Funk Disco Hip Hop

Several musical styles converged to produce contemporary 'RnB' music


Funk + Disco + Hip Hop


Isaac Hayes made a very influential Funk recording in 1971.


'Theme from Shaft' written for the movie 'Shaft' won a 'Best Soundtrack Oscar. This was the first Oscar awarded to a black composer.









Stevie Wonder made another influential recording in 1972 


Superstition was dominated by a funky electric piano ostinato recorded using a guitar wah wah pedal.

The drum groove (played by Wonder) was  the drum pattern that would dominate Disco in the latter 70's.



The Bee Gees were white artists inspired by the slick production of the soul records made in Philadelphia. They called their music 'blue eyed soul'.

This record that would help define the 'disco'genre has the same rhythmic pulse as 'Superstition'

 


Disco was born in the nightclubs of New York city.


Live music venues were being replaced by 'discotheques' in which DJ's spun records often cross mixing tracks with similar BPM.


Popular dance floor tracks were then released on 12 " records with extended rhythmic breakdowns'









A classic disco track might have some of these ingredients:

1 BPM 100 110 120

2 'Four to the floor' - kick drum crotchets

3 Strong hi-hat rhythms

4 Syncopated Hi-Hat pedal 'shhhips' on the off-beat

5 A strong bass ostinato. 

6 Staccato rhythmic guitar riffs. 

7 'wah wah' EQ filter sweep effects.

8 Textured vocal harmony with Baritone & Falsetto



Even established rock & punk artists felt the need to record songs with a disco feel.

This Rolling Stones Disco inspired song revived their 1970's career:











HIP HOP




 In the late 1970's those with  money went to glamourous discotheques in Manhattan New York.

Across the river in the Bronx district poor young teenagers were also mixing together records. However these DJ's would only use the instrumental 'breaks'.

An MC would then rap over the break.

The most famous example used a sample from 'Good Times' by Chic

Salt n Pepa were one of the first female Hip Hop artists.


This song challenged the macho/sexist male persona of some Hip Hop artists: