Tuesday, 11 August 2009
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Music I Miss: The Reggae Revolution
For some reason, I started thinking of the Reggae Revolution in the 90s, and thought a lot of my favorite song that was clearly sexual and had high rotation on the radio and the TV. It was Inner Circle's "Sweat". "Girl, i'm gonna make you swet/Sweat till you can't sweat no more/And if you cry out, I'm gonna push it some mo-o-ore", the front man sang. And the music doesn't even have to heavily breathe orr have diry beats to convince you. He just sang it over a happy beat that kids can groove you, despite them not being able to understand it, becausethey are singing to the onomatopoeic chorus.
Either reggae could sound romantic, sexual OR it was just something fun, you didn't have to be Jamaican, Asian or even black to enjoy it.
The breakout poured out everyone from Mad Cobra's sensual "Flex" which went "flex/time to have sex" without use of stupid and embarrassing innuendos (and not even radio betting an eye) to Shabba Ranks lavish' tune "Mr. Loverman" to Shaggy and different girl-directed hits ranging from "Boombastic" to "That Girl". Those were hits that made dancing subtle enough to either make love or have sex to.
Sometimes, the song either got you high or just sounded like unlikely hits, thanks to the likes of UB40's "Red Red Wine" and Ini Kamoze's gangstafied "Here Comes the Hotstepper". Before Rap, and pop took over the airwaves (*NSYNC and Backstreet Boys were getting airplay on the radio stations that people who loved R&B and Rap listened to, funny enough.), Reggae had a chance to rule the airwaves, and considering how great these songs were, you can pretty much say I miss it.
If you had to pick an invasion in music, which one did you miss?
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- From: mynameisblueskye@xanga
- Name: Chris
- Location: Boston, Massachusetts
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Comments (9)
The 3rd wave ska revival during the 90s was awesome- Mighty Mighty Bosstones, early No Doubt, the Planet Smashers, the Toasters, Mustard Plug, old Catch 22/Streetlight Manifesto (they might have come around after 2000 actually)...still really fun music.
Also, call it what you will, but that resurgence of garage rock that the Strokes and the White Stripes started around 2000 was a breath of fresh air while gangster rap and crappy pop music was saturating the music scene.
I love Reggae. Always have, always will :)
jeez i love these songs. i have a special place in my heart for reggae.
Oops! You guys migt not want to click on "Red, Red Wine". I accidentally copied "Sweat" there. If you want "Red, Red Wine", click here.
ahhhhh. the moment i saw the video name i started jammin!
@turnyalightsdownlow@xanga - I also remember my brother watching this show that used to be on BET called "Carribean..." something. But it played all reggae videos on the weekends.
Im excited cos i'll be seeing Inner Circle live soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I miss Shaggy =(
admittedly reggae still lives though i definitely agree that it should get more air play. it's funny, i was chaperoning a high school dance this summer and all the younger set was standing on the sidelines not dancing especially not liking the music being played mostly gangsta rap and radio stuff. The older set was jammin' out mostly 'cause it was a dance and they weren't gonna get to really hang out with each other the rest of the summer. A complaint after the dance was done was that the dj didn't have enough reggae stuff to get the party really going. He played a few but he really needed more.