EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
History of Rock, 1970-Present
John Covach, University of Rochester
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E Bob Marley and the Rise of Reggae Notes taken on June 20, 2015 by Edward Tanguay |
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Reggae is often grouped with black pop music of the 1970s
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but Reggae music is not really African American music
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it's music that comes out of Jamaica
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Jamaica
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1950s
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they were close enough to New Orleans that they could get the radio broadcasts
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rock and roll and R&B perhaps the most influential
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tried to imitate the sounds but ending up adding a lilting rhythm
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records were not easy for them to get
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The Sound System Men
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DJs that would play at various parties
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would scratch the labels off the records they had
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eventually made its way to New York
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was the foundation of a lot of Hip Hop and Rap
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Ska and Rocksteady
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both precede Reggae
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Reggae groups
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The Wailers
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Bob Marley
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Peter Toash
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Bunny Livingston
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some success in Jamaica but not much
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Chris Blackwell of Island Records came along
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wanted to release Jamaican music in the UK
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a small market
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signed the Wailers
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had some popularity in UK
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underground in US
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1973 Catch a Fire
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1973 Burnin'
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I shot the Sheriff
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Get Up, and Stand Up
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pretty much unknown in US in 1973
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later was Bob Marley and the Wailers
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two factors that lead to popularity of Reggae in the United States
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1. in 1973, a film: The Harder They Come
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starred and had sound track by Jimmy Cliff
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people were exposed to Reggae
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2. in 1974, Eric Clapton
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Album: 461 Ocean Boulevard
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had taken some time off
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his come-back album
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in Miami
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someone gives him a copy of the Wailers, I Shot the Sheriff
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he records it, it becomes a #1 hit
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so the first Reggae hit that most white rockers heard was by Eric Clapton
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they look into Bob Marley and the Wailers
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Bob Marley becomes a rock star in the United States
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when we talk about the rise of Reggae in America in the 1970s, we're really talking about the rise of Bob Marley and the Wailers
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Bob Marley
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1976: Rastaman Vibration
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1977: Exodus
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dies of cance in 1981
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as his death approached he became a symbol for freedom and peace