Dub reggae and the techniques associated with it have, since the
late-1980s, been used widely by producers of dance and ambient music.
However, the term was originally applied to a remixing technique
pioneered in Jamaica as far back as 1967. Recording engineers produced
reggae tracks on which the efforts of the producer were often more
evident than those of the musicians these heavily engineered tracks were
termed versions. The techniques used to produce versions quickly evolved
into what is now known as dub. The term, in this sense, arrived in 1972
and was largely the result of experiments by the recording engineer
Osbourne Ruddock/King Tubby. Over the decades, not only has dub evolved,
but it has done so especially in the UK. Indeed, much contemporary
music, from hip hop to trance and from ambient soundscapes to
experimental electronica and drum 'n bass is indebted to the remix
culture principally informed by dub techniques. However, while obviously
an important genre, its significance is rarely understood or
acknowledged. Part One of the book examines the Jamaican background,
necessary for understanding the cultural significance of dub, and Part
Two analyses its musical, cultural and political importance for both
African-Caribbean and, particularly, white communities in the United
Kingdom during the late-1970s and early 1980s. Particular attention is
given to the subcultures surrounding the genre, especially its
relationship with Rastafarian culture the history and central beliefs of
which are related to reggae and examined. There is also analysis of its
cultural and musicological influence on punk and post-punk, the
principal political music in late-1970s Britain. Finally, moving into
the period of the decline of post-punk and, indeed, British dub in the
early 1980s, there will be an examination of what can be understood as
the postmodern turn in dub. In summary, the book is a confluence of
several lines of thought. Firstly, it provides a cultural and musical
history of dub from its early days in Jamaica to the decline of
post-punk in early-1980s Britain. Secondly, it examines the
religio-political ideas it carried and traces these through to the
ideologies informing the subcultures of the late-1970s and, finally, to
their transformation and, arguably, neutralisation in the postmodern
pastiche of post-punk dub. Thirdly, with reference to these lines of
thought, it looks at dubs and roots reggaes contribution to race
relations in 1970s Britain. Finally, it analyses the aesthetic and
arguably spiritual significance of dub, looking at, for example, its
foregrounding of bass and reverb.
