Aotearoa (NZ) Dub & Roots Reggae

Dub

Dub is a Jamaican genre and production style that emerged in the early 1970s out of reggae, built by remixing existing recordings rather than composing new songs. Pioneered by engineers such as King Tubby and Lee “Scratch” Perry, it is characterised by stripping a track back to its bass and drums, dropping vocals and instruments in and out, and drenching the result in studio effects like long reverb tails, echo and delay. Dub turns the mixing desk into an instrument. It grew from the Jamaican sound-system practice of issuing instrumental “versions” on the B-sides of singles for deejays to toast over. Dub’s techniques and aesthetic proved enormously influential, feeding directly into remix culture, hip-hop and a wide range of electronic music including jungle, dubstep and dub techno; it remains a foundational reference point for bass-focused music worldwide.

Roots Reggae

Roots reggae is the spiritually and politically conscious strand of reggae that flourished in Jamaica in the 1970s. It is characterised by the slow, steady “one drop” rhythm, prominent bass and lyrics centred on Rastafari belief, social justice, repatriation to Africa and resistance to oppression. The “conscious” lyrics set it apart from the lighter love songs of earlier reggae. It grew out of ska and rocksteady and the rise of the Rastafari movement, with artists such as Burning Spear, Culture and Bob Marley and the Wailers popularizing it with global audiences. Its devotional weight and rhythmic foundation directly shaped dub, which remixed its recordings, and it established the template of reggae as a music of message that later styles, from dancehall to international reggae scenes like New Zealand, would all respond to.