Recordings

Single records that changed the direction. 8

Recording Nanny Goat 1968 · rocksteady turning into reggaeStudio One · Kingston

Larry & Alvin’s 1968 Studio One cut sits right on the fault line between rocksteady and reggae.

 Recording Marcus Garvey 1975 · roots-reggae landmarkJamaica · Jack Ruby production → international release

Burning Spear turned Garvey’s memory into a roots-reggae anthem in 1975.

 Recording Police and Thieves recorded May 1976 · international afterlife from 1976–77Black Ark · Kingston → Britain and beyond

Junior Murvin’s falsetto floated over a country in political violence.

 Recording Two Sevens Clash 1977 · roots-reggae landmarkJamaica

Culture’s 1977 warning became so powerful that schools and businesses closed when 7/7/77 arrived.

 Recording Uptown Top Ranking recorded 1977 · UK No. 1 in February 1978Joe Gibbs’ Kingston operation → United Kingdom

Two Jamaican schoolgirls answered a deejay record over an older Alton Ellis foundation and wound up at No.

 Recording Bam Bam 1982 dancehall recording · decades of sampling afterlifeJamaica → global sample culture

Sister Nancy voiced the Stalag riddim in 1982 and made a dancehall record with an afterlife nobody could have predicted.

 Recording Ring the Alarm 1985 · dancehall sound-clash anthemJamaican sound-system culture

Tenor Saw turned a sound clash into an anthem in 1985.

 Recording Dem Bow 1990 dancehall recording · major Latin Caribbean afterlifeJamaica → Panama and Puerto Rico → global Latin music

Shabba Ranks’ 1990 dancehall cut gave a rhythmic idea a name that travelled far beyond the record.

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