Dub

by Veal, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780819565723
• ISBN10: 0819565725
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-04-30
• Publisher: Wesleyan Univ Pr

Summary

When Jamaican recording engineers Osbourne "King Tubby" Ruddock, Errol Thompson, and Lee "Scratch" Perry began crafting "dub" music in the early 1970s, they were initiating a musical revolution that continues to have worldwide influence. Dub is a sub-genre of Jamaican reggae that flourished during reggae's "golden age" of the late 1960s through the early 1980s. Dub involves remixing existing recordings--electronically improvising sound effects and altering vocal tracks--to create its unique sound. Just as hip-hop turned phonograph turntables into musical instruments, dub turned the mixing and sound processing technologies of the recording studio into instruments of composition and real-time improvisation. In addition to chronicling dub's development and offering the first thorough analysis of the music itself, author Michael Veal examines dub's social significance in Jamaican culture. He further explores the "dub revolution" that has crossed musical and cultural boundaries for over thirty years, influencing a wide variety of musical genres around the globe.

Author Biography

MICHAEL VEAL is associate professor of ethnomusicology at Yale University, where he specializes in ethnomusicology and African-American music. He is the author of Fela: The Life and Times of an African Musical Icon (2000).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. viii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Electronic Music in Jamaica: Dub in the Continuum of Jamaican Music	p. 26
"Every Spoil Is a Style": The Evolution of Dub Music in the 1970s	p. 45
The "Backbone" of Studio One	p. 95
"Jus' Like a Volcano in Yuh Head!"	p. 108
Tracking the "Living African Heartbeat"	p. 140
"Java" to "Africa"	p. 163
"City Too Hot:" The End of the Roots Era and the Significance of Dub to the Digital Era of Jamaican Music	p. 185
Starship Africa: The Acoustics of Diaspora and of the Postcolony	p. 196
Coda: Electronica, Remix Culture, and Jamaica as a Source of Transformative Strategies in Global Popular Music	p. 220
Recommended Listening	p. 261
Notes	p. 271
Bibliography	p. 301
Index of Songs and Recordings	p. 317
Index of General Subjects	p. 323
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