What are the origins of reggae

A.� Like most musical genres, reggae did not evolve from an individual source, but from a mixture of musical, religious, and cultural influences rooted in America.

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Q.� How does American music figure in a style of music that comes from Jamaica

A.� Because the Jamaican music scene grew up from the Jamaican musicians in the 1950s who listened to big band dance music on American radio broadcasts. The dance band sound became popular amongst the middle classes who hired society bands to play for social occasions.

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Q.� It's hard to believe that big band jazz could evolve into reggae.

A.� It wasn't entirely the big band influence�- with the rise of calypso music in the 1960s, and the increase in American r 'n' b, Jamaicans who visited the US brought records back and the sound of Ska grew out of the hybrid sound. Ska was a shuffle rhythm with an r 'n' b backbeat, adding an afterbeat strummed on guitar.

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Ska was rapid dance music, and proved unsuitable for the stifling heat of Jamaica in the summer, and so it slowed down into 'rock-steady', which created a new strand�- 'lover's rock' and the various styles continued to grow and borrow from each other throughout the 1960s.

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Q.� So how did reggae obtain its political and cultural status

A.� In the 1960s, the young black population of Jamaica looked for a voice for their increasing frustration with the remnants of the Empire domination. Reggae and Rastafarianism became the dual focus of the disaffected youth, and both became major influences in Jamaican culture.

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Q. Where does the word 'reggae' come from

A.� No one is sure where the word 'reggae' comes from, but there are various theories. One is that the word originated in a song Do The Raggay which came out in 1968, another is that the word comes from the Regga tribe in Africa, and yet another says it's a corruption of 'steggae', which is Jamaican street slang for prostitute. Whatever the origin of the word, the music has spread throughout the world thanks to the work of one man�- Bob Marley.

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Q.� Is Bob Marley synonymous with reggae

A.� To Western audiences, Bob Marley is the power behind the spread of reggae from Jamaica. Serious students of the form will point to a list of major reggae stars, Desmond Dekker, The Abyssinians, Prince Buster, and others, but it is Bob Marley And The Wailers who brought the reggae sound and culture to its widest audience.

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Bob Marley introduced the world to reggae as a musical style rooted in both culture and politics. With his 'dreadlocks' and protest songs, Marley intrigued western audiences into finding out why he looked and sounded the way he did.

Q.� So why did he look and sound like that

A.� Marley's appearance is based on his Rastafarian faith. Briefly, Rastas believe that the late Haile Selassi, Emperor of Ethiopia is a living god, and that Africa is the spiritual home of all black people, to which they will one day return. Rasta men do not cut or comb their hair, growing it into 'dreadlocks' (the theory is that people are frightened of their appearance and the religious zeal it indicates) and they smoke copious amounts of marijuana, known as ganja, to induce spiritual states of mind necessary to their worship practices.

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Sound wise, Marley's music embraces the political struggle of Jamaican black people against the white oppression they have endured, as well as the love songs that foster the ideology of all people living together�- typified by one of reggae's biggest hit songs No Woman No Cry.

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Q.� How popular is reggae now

A.� Due entirely to Marley's influence, reggae is now a huge part of worldwide music culture. Apart from the undiluted Rasta-based Marley sound, the influence of reggae beats on dance music is heard in a variety of forms and styles.

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Q.� Did Bob Marley live to see the success of his influence

A.� Marley certainly knew he was the biggest ambassador for reggae and Rastafarianism in the world by the time he died from cancer in 1981,�but he can only have dreamed of the ongoing influence he has had as a figurehead in the following twenty years.

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