Tomorrow marks Jamaica's 50th year of "independence" from Great Britain. As a Jamaican music lover, it would be wrong for me to not talk about how Jamaica has given back to the former mother Britain since 1st August 1962. I'd be interested to know which other former colonies have contributed as much to British culture. Not saying Jamaica is 100% the biggest contributor, just out of interest. I know Brits love Curry and tea which are both imports from Asia, but I think they have been a part of British culture since invasion. America is an obvious leader.
Anyway, I digress. Jamaican music (ska/reggae/dancehall) scored it's first of what would become many hit with the contagious ska record "My Boy Lollipop" by daughter of sugar plantation overseer, Millie Smalls reaching number 2 in 1964. The cover of Barbie Gaye's 1956 single was recorded and released in Jamaica by Coxsonne Dodd, founder of the iconic label, Studio One, the single went onto become the first hit for a Jamaican-raised man named Chris Blackwell, founder of Island records.
As a testament to it's success and impact on British culture, the song featured during the opening ceremony at the London 2012 Olympics. Dandy Livingstone's "Rudy, A Message To You" is another Jamaican song that featured. Oh, and Rizzle Kicks "When I Was A Youngster" is ska-influenced, Soul II Soul "Back To Life" has reggae as one of it's contributing factors to it's success - Jazzie B successfully merged London's black community's two rival sounds; soul and reggae. I'll get onto that later this week.
p.s. I don't remember (m)any hip hop or r&b songs during the ceremony, thus making Jamaican/Jamaican-influenced music the most represented M(usic) O(f) B(lack) O(rigin) sound during the ceremony? Hint, hint MoBO's...
As I write this, I know there will a whole bunch of Jamaican music sites focusing on Jamaican music. Therefore, being a proud British-Jamaican, I will write these posts from my perspective of how Jamaican music impacted and continues to impact mother Britain (to the best of my memory's ability) and post links to those on twitter (follow me @MarvinSparks).
Disclaimer: There shouldn't be (m)any, but forgive any inaccuracies of time period. Feel free to correct me if it's that. Also, there may be songs or artists that you feel are more important, but either I didn't remember them at the time, didn't realise or didn't care (lol just kidding). It's impossible for me to cover everyone over five decades, so I have picked a few.
And the one post a day for 50 days was hard to keep up with but I've already written most of these posts, so one a day is simple things.
Mr. Vegas - "Sweet Jamaica" can be purchased from here
Anyway, I digress. Jamaican music (ska/reggae/dancehall) scored it's first of what would become many hit with the contagious ska record "My Boy Lollipop" by daughter of sugar plantation overseer, Millie Smalls reaching number 2 in 1964. The cover of Barbie Gaye's 1956 single was recorded and released in Jamaica by Coxsonne Dodd, founder of the iconic label, Studio One, the single went onto become the first hit for a Jamaican-raised man named Chris Blackwell, founder of Island records.
As a testament to it's success and impact on British culture, the song featured during the opening ceremony at the London 2012 Olympics. Dandy Livingstone's "Rudy, A Message To You" is another Jamaican song that featured. Oh, and Rizzle Kicks "When I Was A Youngster" is ska-influenced, Soul II Soul "Back To Life" has reggae as one of it's contributing factors to it's success - Jazzie B successfully merged London's black community's two rival sounds; soul and reggae. I'll get onto that later this week.
p.s. I don't remember (m)any hip hop or r&b songs during the ceremony, thus making Jamaican/Jamaican-influenced music the most represented M(usic) O(f) B(lack) O(rigin) sound during the ceremony? Hint, hint MoBO's...
As I write this, I know there will a whole bunch of Jamaican music sites focusing on Jamaican music. Therefore, being a proud British-Jamaican, I will write these posts from my perspective of how Jamaican music impacted and continues to impact mother Britain (to the best of my memory's ability) and post links to those on twitter (follow me @MarvinSparks).
Disclaimer: There shouldn't be (m)any, but forgive any inaccuracies of time period. Feel free to correct me if it's that. Also, there may be songs or artists that you feel are more important, but either I didn't remember them at the time, didn't realise or didn't care (lol just kidding). It's impossible for me to cover everyone over five decades, so I have picked a few.
And the one post a day for 50 days was hard to keep up with but I've already written most of these posts, so one a day is simple things.
Mr. Vegas - "Sweet Jamaica" can be purchased from here
Comments
Post a Comment