Reggae Gone Mainstream

Groundins

By: Charles H.E. Campbell

In the Jamaica Observer of Friday October 1st 2010, Stephen Jackson quoted Jon Baker of Geejam Records, and Manager of the Jolly Boys Mento Band as saying, “We going through a stagnation of creativity in Reggae for the last five years.” As proof of this, he points to the fact that during this period, Reggae music has not achieved an international hit song which successfully crossed- over into the mainstream. It is within this perceived vacuum that Jon attributes the recent commercial success of the Jolly Boys, whose CD Great Expectations was in “the top 10 in nine markets on itunes reggae albums which is the largest online music store” as reported by Stephen Jackson. The same article proceeds to inform us that Baker is not marketing the band as reggae, “in order to avoid restricting the album’s sales potential.” Take note, the reggae charts, now isn’t this an ironic twist?

First of all, I,along with most other Jamaicans, I am sure, celebrate the success of this album and the entré of the Jolly Boys onto the live music circuit in Europe. I have been enjoying their live music, especially at social events in Portland and later, on the Jamaica Festival Programme, since I was a small child. Their commercial breakthrough is a reward richly deserved, and I hope they achieve similar results when the album is released in Japan and North America.

That said however, I have to express my fundamental disagreement with Jon Baker, on his premise for the album and group’s success. Since my participation in WOMEX, The World Music Exposition in Copenhagen Denmark, and even in my most recent commentary for this newspaper on Sunday September 26th 2010, I have been informing our industry and the readers, of a post- modern musical fascination in the European marketplace, with indigenous music from Africa, Asia and the orient; especially music which incorporates the playing of unusual, acoustic instruments.

Many promoters, booking agents and venue operators with whom I spoke during my stay, actually asked me to explore the possibilities of booking Jamaican bands or groups who are creating and performing indigenous/roots or folk music in a raw, unrefined format. Furthermore, promoters in these countries are able to access government funding to bring foreign acts for festivals promoting cultural exchange, hence there has been the inevitable mushrooming of this type of event, since the advent of this public policy.

Yet, everywhere I went in Denmark and France, including hotels, restaurants, night clubs, taxi cabs and even on the airplane as well as public radio, unadulterated reggae music or strains thereof, was being played. What we also need to fully grasp, is that reggae music has so permeated these societies that they now have their own domestic reggae producers, musicians and artistes who command significant pulling power for their live shows.

It is one thing to say, that the sales of recorded reggae music, like all others, have seen a steady decline in recent years, but to categorize it as “niche or specialist” is grossly inaccurate either to describe or analyse its current status and impact. In fact, reggae has never been more mainstream. Strains of its unique rhythm and vocal stylings have become integrally interwoven into other pop genres. Also, authentic reggae is now incorporated into the recorded works and live repertoires of many top flight North and South American, European, African and Asian acts. This list includes such acts as John Legend, Beyonce, Estelle, Jasmine Sutherland and No Doubt.

One of France’s biggest pop acts, Bernard Lavilliers has five reggae songs on his latest album. House of Shem, an act based in New Zealand who plays reggae is tremendously popular in Australia, Europe and North America. They regularly draw crowds of over fifty thousand patrons to their live shows. Madonna included a reggae song on her most recent album, while Shinead O’Connor released an entire album of reggae standards backed by Sly and Robbie. Not to be excluded, Jamaican artistes like Taurus Riley, Queen Ifrica, Etana, Sean Paul, Shaggy, Damian “Jr. Gong Marley, Rootz Underground, Morgan’s Heritage, Uprising Rootz and so many others have displayed a high level of creativity, which has driven their successful careers in the last five years.

These acts bridge the generational divide, while continuing in the great reggae tradition, to give the world excellent music and fly our Jamaican reggae banner high, on the international circuit. While they may not at this moment have a hit song on the high profile charts, their tour schedules are multi-national and extensive. Touring is their main source of income; that’s the structure of the market, so we should not have unrealistic expectations.

What the European person or business entity is unhappy about, is the unethical business practices and unreasonable demands of our Jamaican artistes, their handlers and entourage on tour. We need to urgently, methodically improve our business model, so as to stem the erosion of our market share. In this regard, Jon Baker himself is following in the footsteps of other innovative Jamaican producers and artistes, who have not yet been given their due credit by him or the Jamaican media, for their creativity and business savvy, of which he is a direct beneficiary.

The mento trailblazer, and still the most well known mento artiste in Europe today, even after his death, is Stanley Beckford. Backed by the Blue Glazed mento band, his successful album Stanley Beckford plays Mento was compared in France to Compay Segundo of the Buena Vista social club. This was followed up by Reggaemento, released by Warner in 2004. In 2008, Stephen Stewart and Sam Clayton Jr. produced Sweet Sweet Jamaica, a mento album by Gilzene and the Blue Light Mento Band for Jean Herve Michel of Neuva Onda Productions, a French tour agency and production company. The band was eventually selected to perform at WOMEX in October 2009, making them the first ever Jamaican band to be invited.

They secured a distribution contract with World Village, a sub label of Harmonica Mundi, the world’s largest independent label. Since then, the band has performed at many of Europe’s premier festivals and venues. This summer alone, they performed at WOMAD (UK) where they made three appearances, the Barbican and Shoreditch Park festival in London England, the Sakifo festival in Reunion Island and six appearances in the Radio France festival which saw them performing in six different cities in the south of France. They made several television and radio performances including BBC radio, France Culture, FIT, RFI, Radio 2, RFO (radio and television), Danish and Belgian national radios.

We should be mindful to inform of the historical antecedents, when we are relating the story of our music. Respect should be given to whom it is due. There is no need to tear down everything else, in promoting our own product.

Email: che.campbell@gmail.com