Dub music
Encyclopedia
Dub is a genre of music
which grew out of reggae
music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae. Music in this genre consists predominantly of instrumental remix
es of existing recordings and is achieved by significantly manipulating and reshaping the recordings, usually by removing the vocals from an existing music piece, emphasizing the drum
and bass
parts (this stripped down track is sometimes referred to as a 'riddim
'). Other techniques include dynamically adding extensive echo
, reverb
, panoramic delay, and occasional dubbing
of vocal or instrumental snippets from the original version or other works. Dub also sometimes features electronically generated sound effects, or the use of distinctive instruments such as the melodica
by artists such as Augustus Pablo
.
Dub was pioneered by Osbourne "King Tubby" Ruddock
, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Errol Thompson and others in the late 1960s. Similar experiments with recordings at the mixing desk outside of the dancehall environment were also done by producers Clive Chin
and Herman Chin Loy
. These producers, especially Ruddock and Perry, looked upon the mixing desk as an instrument, manipulating tracks to come up with something new and different.
Dub has influenced many genres of music, including rock
(most significantly the sub-genre of post-punk
and other kinds of punk
), pop
, hip hop
, disco, and later house
, techno
, ambient
, and trip hop
. Dub has become a basis for the genres of jungle
/drum'n'bass and dubstep
.
The term dub had multiple meanings in Jamaica around the time of the music's origin. The most frequent meanings referred to either a form of erotic dance or sexual intercourse; such usage is frequently present in names of reggae songs, for instance, of The Silvertones
' "Dub the Pum Pum" (where pum pum is Jamaican slang for female genitalia), Big Joe and Fay's "Dub a Dawta" (dawta is Jamaican slang for girlfriend). I-Roy
's "Sister Maggie Breast" features several references on sex
:
I man a-dub it on the side
Say little sister you can run but you can't hide
Slip you got to slide you got to open your crotches wide
Peace and love abide
Some musicians, for instance Bob Marley and The Wailers, had alternative meanings for the term dub. In concert, the order "dub this one!" meant "put an emphasis on bass and drums". Drummer Sly Dunbar
points to a similar interpretation, relating the term dubwise to using only drums and bass. Another possible source was the term dub plate, as suggested by Augustus Pablo
. John Corbett has suggested that dub could derive from duppie, a Jamaican patois word for ghost, as illustrated by Burning Spear
having named the dub version of his Marcus Garvey
album Garvey's Ghost
, and by Lee Perry stating that dub is "the ghost in me coming out".
of 45 RPM
records and typically emphasizing the drums and bass for a sound popular in local sound systems. The instrumental tracks are typically drenched in sound effects such as echo
, reverberation
, with instruments and vocals dropping in and out of the mix. Another hallmark of the dub sound is the prominent use of bass guitar. The music sometimes features other noises, such as birds singing, thunder and lightning, water flowing, and producers shouting instructions at the musicians. It can be further augmented by live DJs. The many-layered sounds with varying echoes and volumes are often said to create soundscapes, or sound sculptures, drawing attention to the shape and depth of the space between sounds as well as to the sounds themselves. There is usually a distinctly organic feel to the music, even though the effects are electronically created.
Often these tracks are used for "toasters" rapping heavily rhymed and alliterative lyrics. These are called "DJ Versions". In forms of sound system based reggae, the performer using a microphone is referred to as the "DJ
" or "deejay
" (where in other genres, this performer might be termed the "MC", meaning "Master of Ceremonies", or alternately, the later developed slang terms: "Microphone Commander" or "Mic Control"), and the person choosing the music and operating the turntables is called the "selector
" (sometimes referred to as the DJ in other genres).
A major reason for producing multiple versions was economic; a record producer
could use a recording he owned to produce numerous versions from a single studio session. A version was also an opportunity for a producer or remix engineer to experiment and express their more creative side. The version was typically the B-side
of a single, and used for experimenting and providing something for DJs to talk over, while the A-side
was more often the dedicated to the original vocal-oriented track. In the 1970s, LP album
s of dub tracks were produced, often simply the dub version of an existing vocal LP, but sometimes a selection of original instrumental tracks produced in dub style for which no vocals existed.
and Prince Buster
among others, were toasting over instrumental versions of reggae and developing instrumental reggae music.
's Treasure Isle studio to cut a one-off dub plate. Engineer Byron Smith left the vocal track out by accident, but Redwood kept the result and played it at his next dance with his deejay Wassy toasting over the rhythm. The instrumental
record excited the people at the sound system and they started singing lyrics
of the vocal track over the instrumental. The invention was a success, and Ruddy needed to play the instrumental continuously for half an hour to an hour that day. The next day Byron Lee
who was a witness to this, told King Tubby
that they needed to make some more instrumental tracks, as "them people love" them, and they dubbed out vocals from "Ain't Too Proud To Beg
" by Slim Smith
. Because of King Tubby's innovative approach, the resulting instrumental track was more than just a track without a voice – King Tubby interchanged the vocals and the instrumental, playing the vocals first, then playing the riddim, then mixing
them together. From this point on, they started to call such tracks "versions". Another source puts 1967 and not 1968 as the initial year of the practice of putting instrumental versions of reggae tracks to the B-side of records.
At Studio One the initial motivation to experiment with instrumental tracks and studio mixing was correcting the riddim until it had a "feel", so a singer, for instance, could comfortably sing over it.
Another reason to experiment with mixing was rivalry among sound systems. Sound systems' sound men wanted the tracks they played at dances to be slightly different each time, so they would order numerous copies of the same record from a studio, each with a different mix.
Errol Thompson engineered the first strictly instrumental reggae album, entitled The Undertaker by Derrick Harriott
and the Crystallites. This album was released in 1970. This innovative album credits "Sound Effects" to Derrick Harriott.
In 1973, at least three producers, Lee "Scratch" Perry and the Aquarius studio engineer/producer team of Herman Chin Loy
and Errol Thompson simultaneously recognized that there was an active market for this new "dub" sound and consequently they started to release the first albums strictly consisting of dub. Lee Perry released Blackboard Jungle Dub in the spring of 1973. It is considered a landmark recording of this genre.
In 1974, Keith Hudson
released his classic Pick a Dub
, widely considered to have been the first deliberately thematic dub album, with tracks specifically mixed in the dub style for the purpose of appearing together on an LP, and King Tubby
released his two debut albums At the Grass Roots of Dub and Surrounded by the Dreads at the National Arena.
In the 1980s, Britain
became a new centre for dub production with Mikey Dread
, Mad Professor
and Jah Shaka
being the most famous. It was also the time when dub made its influence known in the work of harder edged, experimental producers such as Mikey Dread
with UB40 and The Clash, Adrian Sherwood
and the roster of artists on his On-U Sound
label. Many bands characterized as post-punk
were heavily influenced by dub. Better-known bands such as The Police
, The Clash
and UB40
helped popularize Dub, with UB40s Present Arms In Dub
album being the first dub album to hit the UK top 40.
Side by side with Reggae at this time (early 1980s) running B side dub mixes. American post-disco/R&B 12 inch singles started to arrive with alternative dub mixes (records such as The Peech Boys' "Don't Make Me Wait," Toney Lee
's "Reach Up," and many more artists on labels such as Prelude
, RFC, and West End
. Often these dub versions raised the beat of the record and made them easier to mix together one after the other, or to pick out key sections to play over other records, heightening the dancefloor effect.
, jungle
, drum and bass
, dubstep
, house music
, punk
and post-punk
, trip hop
, ambient music
, and hip hop
, with many electronic dub or dubtronica
tracks, as well as Ambient dub, produced by nontraditional rastafarian musicians from these other genres. Musicians such as Culture Club
, Bill Laswell
, Jah Wobble
, Leftfield
, Massive Attack
, Almamegretta
, The Clash
, Beastie Boys
and others demonstrate clear dub influences in their respective genres, and their innovations have in turn influenced the mainstream of the dub genre. In the UK, Europe, Japan, Australia and America, independent record producers continue to produce dub.
Before forming The Mars Volta, Cedric Bixler
and Omar Rodriguez
(members of the post hardcore group At The Drive In), along with friends Ikey Owens
and Jeremy Ward
, recorded a series of dub albums under the name De Facto
. The Polish punk/psychedelic and new wave bands Brygada Kryzys
and Republika
recorded dub tracks. Yugoslav New Wave
outfit Električni Orgazam
also experimented with dub music on their album Lišće Prekriva Lisabon
from year 1982, then bends like Azra
, in album Filigranski pločnici which was created also in 1982 and Šarlo Akrobata
. Other dub performers include Serbian dub band Black Ark Crew, Basque
dub band Basque Dub Foundation
, and Australian live dub outfit The Sunshine Brothers. In 1987, rock band Soundgarden
released a dub version of the Ohio Players
' song "Fopp" alongside a more traditional rock cover of the song. DJs appeared towards the end of the 1990s who specialised in playing music by these musicians, such as the UK's Unity Dub.
worked on collaborations involving Jamaican dub reggae creators like Lee Scratch Perry (whose "Police & Thieves", co-written with Junior Murvin, was covered by the Clash on their first album) and Mikey Dread
(on the Sandinista album). As well, the English group Ruts DC, a post Malcolm Owen incarnation of the legendary reggae
influenced punk group The Ruts
, released Rhythm Collision Dub Volume 1 (Roir session), with the expertise of the Mad Professor
. Many punk rock bands In the U.S. were exposed to dub via the rasta punk band Bad Brains
from D.C., which was established and released their most influential material during the 80s. Dub was adopted by the punk rock camp of the 90s, with bands such as Rancid
and NOFX
writing original songs in a Dub style. Often bands considered to be Ska-Punk play dub influenced songs; one of the first such bands to become popular was Sublime
, whose albums featured both dub originals and remixes. They went on to influence more recent American bands such as Rx Bandits
and The Long Beach Dub Allstars
. In addition, dub influenced some types of pop, including bands such as No Doubt. No Doubt's most recent album, Rock Steady http://www.nodoubt.com/music/, features an assortment of popular dub sounds like reverb and echoing. As noted by the band themselves, No Doubt
is heavily influenced by Jamaican musical aesthetics and production techniques, even recording their Rock Steady http://www.nodoubt.com/music/ album in Kingston, Jamaica
, and producing B-sides
featuring dub influences on their "Everything In Time
B-Sides" album. Some controversy still exists on whether pop-ska bands like No Doubt can regard themselves as a part of dub lineage. Other bands followed in the footsteps of No Doubt, fusing pop-ska and dub influences, such as Save Ferris
and Vincent.
There are also some British punk bands creating dub music. Capdown
released their Civil Disobedients album, featuring the track Dub #1, while Sonic Boom Six
and The King Blues
take heavy influences from dub, mixing the genre with original punk ethics and attitudes.
from Sweden, New York City artists including Ticklah
, also known as Victor Axelrod
and Victor Rice
, Easy Star All-Stars
, Dub Trio (who have recorded and performed live with Mike Patton, and are currently touring as the backing band for Matisyahu), Subatomic Sound System
(who have remixed material by Lee Scratch Perry and Ari Up), Dub is a Weapon, King Django
, and Dr. Israel, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad
from Rochester, NY, Heavyweight Dub Champion
from San Francisco and Colorado, Future Pigeon from Los Angeles, German artists like Disrupt and Rootah from the Jahtari label, and Twilight Dub Circus from the Netherlands. More eclectic use of dub techniques are apparent in the work of BudNubac, which mixes Cuban bigband with dub techniques. Modern dub producer Ryan "Party" Moore has received critical acclaim for his Twilight Circus project.
Heavyweight Dub Champion
, has been headlining festival
s in the United States and gaining recognition in Europe
. Denver's Westword
Magazine awarded their debut album, Survival Guide For The End Of Time, "Best Local Recording" for Colorado
in 2003 and describes their style as "a shamanistic wall of hip hop dubtronica". The band is a concept band and has pushed the envelope of the genre, although, according to the LA Weekly
, "Their genius is the great virtue of 70s dub: never overdoing it."
and jungle
. The name "dubstep" originated from the common use of dub elements in the genre, and because both traditional dub and dubstep are often played at a similar tempo. Jungle
, a related genre, originated in the late 1980s when DJs started playing dub records at twice their playing speeds. This resulted in an early 1990s "jungle" sound which record producers went on to recreate in the studio. In early 2000s, DJs and producers paid homage to the forerunners in the 1980s and began playing their highly produced breakbeat, jungle and drum & bass records at around 70 bpm, which resulted in the creation of dubstep. The more experimental releases of UK garage
producers contributed to early dubstep, and sought to incorporate elements of dub reggae into the South London
-based 2-step subgenre. Dubstep rhythms are usually syncopated, and often incorporate triplets and the One drop rhythm
common to traditional Reggae
, a reference to the genre's Dub music influences.
Music genre
A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music...
which grew out of reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae. Music in this genre consists predominantly of instrumental remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
es of existing recordings and is achieved by significantly manipulating and reshaping the recordings, usually by removing the vocals from an existing music piece, emphasizing the drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
and bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
parts (this stripped down track is sometimes referred to as a 'riddim
Riddim
Riddim is the Jamaican Patois pronunciation of the English word "rhythm," but in dancehall/reggae parlance it refers to the instrumental accompaniment to a song. Thus, a dancehall song consists of the riddim plus the "voicing" sung by the deejay. The resulting song structure may be taken for...
'). Other techniques include dynamically adding extensive echo
Delay (audio effect)
Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.-Early delay...
, reverb
Reverberation
Reverberation is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed. A reverberation, or reverb, is created when a sound is produced in an enclosed space causing a large number of echoes to build up and then slowly decay as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air...
, panoramic delay, and occasional dubbing
Dubbing (music)
In sound recording, dubbing is the transfer or copying of previously recorded audio material from one medium to another of the same or a different type. It may be done with a machine designed for this purpose, or by connecting two different machines: one to play back and one to record the signal...
of vocal or instrumental snippets from the original version or other works. Dub also sometimes features electronically generated sound effects, or the use of distinctive instruments such as the melodica
Melodica
The melodica, also known as the "blow-organ" or "key-flute", is a free-reed instrument similar to the melodeon and harmonica. It has a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. Pressing a key opens a hole,...
by artists such as Augustus Pablo
Augustus Pablo
Horace Swaby , known as Augustus Pablo, was a Jamaican roots reggae and dub record producer, melodica player and keyboardist, active from the 1970s onwards. He popularized the use of the melodica in reggae music...
.
Dub was pioneered by Osbourne "King Tubby" Ruddock
King Tubby
King Tubby was a Jamaican electronics and sound engineer, known primarily for his influence on the development of dub in the 1960s and 1970s...
, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Errol Thompson and others in the late 1960s. Similar experiments with recordings at the mixing desk outside of the dancehall environment were also done by producers Clive Chin
Clive Chin
Clive Chin is a Chinese Jamaican record producer whose work includes recordings by The Wailers, Dennis Brown, Lee Perry and Black Uhuru, among others...
and Herman Chin Loy
Herman Chin Loy
Herman Chin Loy is a Jamaican record producer, best known for his productions from the late 1960s and early 1970s of artists such as Augustus Pablo, Dennis Brown, Alton Ellis and Bruce Ruffin, and for the Aquarius and Scorpio labels that he ran. He is a Chinese Jamaican.-Biography:When Lloyd A...
. These producers, especially Ruddock and Perry, looked upon the mixing desk as an instrument, manipulating tracks to come up with something new and different.
Dub has influenced many genres of music, including rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
(most significantly the sub-genre of post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
and other kinds of punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
), pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, disco, and later house
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
, techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
, ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
, and trip hop
Trip hop
Trip hop is a music genre consisting of downtempo electronic music which originated in the early 1990s in England, especially Bristol. Deriving from "post"-acid house, the term was first used by the British music media and press as a way to describe the more experimental variant of breakbeat which...
. Dub has become a basis for the genres of jungle
Oldschool jungle
Jungle is a genre of electronic music that incorporates influences from genres including breakbeat hardcore, and reggae/dub/dancehall. There is debate as to whether jungle is a separate genre from drum and bass as many use the terms interchangeably...
/drum'n'bass and dubstep
Dubstep
Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in south London, England. Its overall sound has been described as "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals"....
.
The term
The verb dub is defined as making a copy of one recording to another. The process of using previously recorded material, modifying the material, and subsequently recording it to a new master mix, in effect transferring or "dubbing" the material, was utilized by Jamaican producers when making dubs .The term dub had multiple meanings in Jamaica around the time of the music's origin. The most frequent meanings referred to either a form of erotic dance or sexual intercourse; such usage is frequently present in names of reggae songs, for instance, of The Silvertones
The Silvertones
The Silvertones were a Jamaican reggae harmony group formed in 1964, best known for their recordings for Lee "Scratch" Perry in the early 1970s.-History:...
' "Dub the Pum Pum" (where pum pum is Jamaican slang for female genitalia), Big Joe and Fay's "Dub a Dawta" (dawta is Jamaican slang for girlfriend). I-Roy
I-Roy
Roy Samuel Reid better known as I-Roy was a Jamaican DJ who had a very prolific career during the 1970s.-Biography:...
's "Sister Maggie Breast" features several references on sex
Sex
In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...
:
Say little sister you can run but you can't hide
Slip you got to slide you got to open your crotches wide
Peace and love abide
Some musicians, for instance Bob Marley and The Wailers, had alternative meanings for the term dub. In concert, the order "dub this one!" meant "put an emphasis on bass and drums". Drummer Sly Dunbar
Sly Dunbar
Lowell "Sly" Fillmore Dunbar is a drummer.-Biography:Dunbar, whose nickname was reportedly given for his passion for Sly & the Family Stone, launched his musical career while still in his adolescence, playing with a local group, The Yardbrooms, at the age of fifteen...
points to a similar interpretation, relating the term dubwise to using only drums and bass. Another possible source was the term dub plate, as suggested by Augustus Pablo
Augustus Pablo
Horace Swaby , known as Augustus Pablo, was a Jamaican roots reggae and dub record producer, melodica player and keyboardist, active from the 1970s onwards. He popularized the use of the melodica in reggae music...
. John Corbett has suggested that dub could derive from duppie, a Jamaican patois word for ghost, as illustrated by Burning Spear
Burning Spear
Winston Rodney, OD , also known as Burning Spear, is a Jamaican roots reggae singer and musician. Burning Spear is known for his Rastafari movement messages.-History:...
having named the dub version of his Marcus Garvey
Marcus Garvey (album)
Marcus Garvey is the third album by the reggae singer Burning Spear, released in 1975 on Island Records, ILPS 9377. The album is named after the Jamaican National Hero Marcus Garvey...
album Garvey's Ghost
Garvey's Ghost
Garvey's Ghost is the fourth album by the reggae singer Burning Spear, released in 1976 on Island Records, ILPS 9382. Each track is a dub version of its correspondent song on the group's third album, Marcus Garvey.-Content:...
, and by Lee Perry stating that dub is "the ghost in me coming out".
Characteristics
Dub music is characterized by a "version" or "double" of an existing song, often instrumental, using B-sidesA-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
of 45 RPM
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
records and typically emphasizing the drums and bass for a sound popular in local sound systems. The instrumental tracks are typically drenched in sound effects such as echo
Delay (audio effect)
Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.-Early delay...
, reverberation
Reverberation
Reverberation is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed. A reverberation, or reverb, is created when a sound is produced in an enclosed space causing a large number of echoes to build up and then slowly decay as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air...
, with instruments and vocals dropping in and out of the mix. Another hallmark of the dub sound is the prominent use of bass guitar. The music sometimes features other noises, such as birds singing, thunder and lightning, water flowing, and producers shouting instructions at the musicians. It can be further augmented by live DJs. The many-layered sounds with varying echoes and volumes are often said to create soundscapes, or sound sculptures, drawing attention to the shape and depth of the space between sounds as well as to the sounds themselves. There is usually a distinctly organic feel to the music, even though the effects are electronically created.
Often these tracks are used for "toasters" rapping heavily rhymed and alliterative lyrics. These are called "DJ Versions". In forms of sound system based reggae, the performer using a microphone is referred to as the "DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
" or "deejay
Deejay
A deejay is a reggae or dancehall musician who sings and toasts to an instrumental riddim .Deejays are not to be confused with disc jockeys from other music genres like hip-hop, where they select and play music. Dancehall/reggae DJs who select riddims to play are called selectors...
" (where in other genres, this performer might be termed the "MC", meaning "Master of Ceremonies", or alternately, the later developed slang terms: "Microphone Commander" or "Mic Control"), and the person choosing the music and operating the turntables is called the "selector
Selector (disc jockey)
Selector is the term originally used for a reggae/dancehall disc jockey ....
" (sometimes referred to as the DJ in other genres).
A major reason for producing multiple versions was economic; a record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
could use a recording he owned to produce numerous versions from a single studio session. A version was also an opportunity for a producer or remix engineer to experiment and express their more creative side. The version was typically the B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
of a single, and used for experimenting and providing something for DJs to talk over, while the A-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
was more often the dedicated to the original vocal-oriented track. In the 1970s, LP album
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
s of dub tracks were produced, often simply the dub version of an existing vocal LP, but sometimes a selection of original instrumental tracks produced in dub style for which no vocals existed.
History
Dub music and toasting introduced a new era of creativity in reggae music. From their beginning, toasting and dub music developed together and influenced each other. The development of sound system culture influenced the development of studio techniques in Jamaica, and the earliest DJs, including Duke ReidDuke Reid
Treasure Isle re-directs here. For the game, see Treasure Isle .Arthur "Duke" Reid, CD was a Jamaican record producer, DJ and label owner....
and Prince Buster
Prince Buster
Cecil Bustamente Campbell, O.D. , better known as Prince Buster, and also known by his Muslim name Muhammed Yusef Ali, is a musician from Kingston, Jamaica. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of ska and rocksteady music...
among others, were toasting over instrumental versions of reggae and developing instrumental reggae music.
"Versions" and experiments with studio mixing (Late 1960s)
In 1968, Kingston, Jamaica sound system operator Ruddy Redwood went to Duke ReidDuke Reid
Treasure Isle re-directs here. For the game, see Treasure Isle .Arthur "Duke" Reid, CD was a Jamaican record producer, DJ and label owner....
's Treasure Isle studio to cut a one-off dub plate. Engineer Byron Smith left the vocal track out by accident, but Redwood kept the result and played it at his next dance with his deejay Wassy toasting over the rhythm. The instrumental
Instrumental
An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....
record excited the people at the sound system and they started singing lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
of the vocal track over the instrumental. The invention was a success, and Ruddy needed to play the instrumental continuously for half an hour to an hour that day. The next day Byron Lee
Byron Lee
Byron Lee OD, OJ was a musician, record producer, and entrepreneur, best known for his work as leader of Byron Lee and the Dragonaires.-Biography:Lee was born in Christiana in Manchester Parish to an Afro-Jamaican mother and a Chinese father Byron Lee OD, OJ (born Byron Aloysius St. Elmo Lee, 27...
who was a witness to this, told King Tubby
King Tubby
King Tubby was a Jamaican electronics and sound engineer, known primarily for his influence on the development of dub in the 1960s and 1970s...
that they needed to make some more instrumental tracks, as "them people love" them, and they dubbed out vocals from "Ain't Too Proud To Beg
Ain't Too Proud to Beg
"Ain't Too Proud to Beg" is a 1966 song and hit single by The Temptations for Motown Records' Gordy label, produced by Norman Whitfield and written by Whitfield and Edward Holland, Jr. The song peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Pop Chart, and was a number-one hit on the Billboard R&B charts for...
" by Slim Smith
Slim Smith
Slim Smith was a ska, rocksteady and reggae singer. In their book Reggae: The Rough Guide , Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton described Smith as "the greatest vocalist to emerge in the rocksteady era".-Biography:Smith first came to prominence as a member of the Victors Youth Band, who were highly...
. Because of King Tubby's innovative approach, the resulting instrumental track was more than just a track without a voice – King Tubby interchanged the vocals and the instrumental, playing the vocals first, then playing the riddim, then mixing
Mixture (music)
A mixture is an organ stop, usually of principal tone quality, that contains multiple ranks of pipes. It is designed to be drawn with a combination of stops that forms a complete chorus . The mixture sounds the upper harmonics of each note of the keyboard...
them together. From this point on, they started to call such tracks "versions". Another source puts 1967 and not 1968 as the initial year of the practice of putting instrumental versions of reggae tracks to the B-side of records.
At Studio One the initial motivation to experiment with instrumental tracks and studio mixing was correcting the riddim until it had a "feel", so a singer, for instance, could comfortably sing over it.
Another reason to experiment with mixing was rivalry among sound systems. Sound systems' sound men wanted the tracks they played at dances to be slightly different each time, so they would order numerous copies of the same record from a studio, each with a different mix.
Evolution of dub as a sub-genre (1970s)
By 1973, through the efforts of several independent and competitive innovators, engineers, and producers, instrumental reggae "versions" from various studios had evolved into "dub" as a sub-genre of reggae.Errol Thompson engineered the first strictly instrumental reggae album, entitled The Undertaker by Derrick Harriott
Derrick Harriott
Derrick Harriott is a singer and record producer. He has produced recordings by Big Youth, Chariot Riders, The Chosen Few, Dennis Brown, The Ethiopians, Keith & Tex, The Kingstonians, Rudy Mills, Scotty, Sly & Revolutionaries, and Winston McAnuff.-Biography:As a student at Excelsior High School,...
and the Crystallites. This album was released in 1970. This innovative album credits "Sound Effects" to Derrick Harriott.
In 1973, at least three producers, Lee "Scratch" Perry and the Aquarius studio engineer/producer team of Herman Chin Loy
Herman Chin Loy
Herman Chin Loy is a Jamaican record producer, best known for his productions from the late 1960s and early 1970s of artists such as Augustus Pablo, Dennis Brown, Alton Ellis and Bruce Ruffin, and for the Aquarius and Scorpio labels that he ran. He is a Chinese Jamaican.-Biography:When Lloyd A...
and Errol Thompson simultaneously recognized that there was an active market for this new "dub" sound and consequently they started to release the first albums strictly consisting of dub. Lee Perry released Blackboard Jungle Dub in the spring of 1973. It is considered a landmark recording of this genre.
In 1974, Keith Hudson
Keith Hudson
Keith Hudson aka the "Dark Prince of Reggae" , was a Jamaican reggae artist and record producer.He is known for his influence on the Dub movement.- Biography :...
released his classic Pick a Dub
Pick a Dub
Pick a Dub is a 1974 album by Jamaican producer and musician Keith Hudson. Critically well received, it is widely regarded as an important work in the dub music genre which evolved out of reggae. Featuring remixes of earlier material, it focuses on heavy drums and bass guitar, with echoing vocals...
, widely considered to have been the first deliberately thematic dub album, with tracks specifically mixed in the dub style for the purpose of appearing together on an LP, and King Tubby
King Tubby
King Tubby was a Jamaican electronics and sound engineer, known primarily for his influence on the development of dub in the 1960s and 1970s...
released his two debut albums At the Grass Roots of Dub and Surrounded by the Dreads at the National Arena.
Recent history (1980–present)
Dub has continued to evolve, its popularity waxing and waning with changes in musical fashion. Almost all reggae singles still carry an instrumental version on the B-side and these are still used by the sound systems as a blank canvas for live singers and DJs.In the 1980s, Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
became a new centre for dub production with Mikey Dread
Mikey Dread
Michael George Campbell , better known as Mikey Dread, was a Jamaican singer, producer, and broadcaster. He was one of the most influential performers and innovators in reggae music...
, Mad Professor
Mad Professor
Mad Professor is a dub music producer and engineer known for his original productions and remix work. He is considered one of the leading producers of dub music’s second generation and was instrumental in transitioning dub into the digital age. He is a prolific producer, contributing to or...
and Jah Shaka
Jah Shaka
Jah Shaka has been operating a South East London-based, roots reggae Jamaican sound system since the early 1970s. His name is an amalgamation of the Rastafarian term for God and that of a Zulu warrior, Shaka Zulu.-Career:...
being the most famous. It was also the time when dub made its influence known in the work of harder edged, experimental producers such as Mikey Dread
Mikey Dread
Michael George Campbell , better known as Mikey Dread, was a Jamaican singer, producer, and broadcaster. He was one of the most influential performers and innovators in reggae music...
with UB40 and The Clash, Adrian Sherwood
Adrian Sherwood
Adrian Sherwood is an English record producer best known for his work with dub music as well as for remixing a number of popular acts such as Coldcut, Depeche Mode, The Woodentops, Primal Scream, Pop Will Eat Itself, Sinéad O'Connor, and Skinny Puppy...
and the roster of artists on his On-U Sound
On-U Sound Records
On-U Sound Records is an English record label best known for releasing its own unique flavour of dub music since the 1980s. The label is owned by producer Adrian Sherwood and home to acts such as Tackhead, Dub Syndicate, African Head Charge, The London Underground, Little Annie, Creation Rebel,...
label. Many bands characterized as post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
were heavily influenced by dub. Better-known bands such as The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
, The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
and UB40
UB40
UB40 are a British reggae/pop band formed in 1978 in Birmingham. The band has placed more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and has also achieved considerable international success. One of the world's best-selling music artists, UB40 have sold over 70 million records.Their hit singles...
helped popularize Dub, with UB40s Present Arms In Dub
Present Arms in Dub
Present Arms In Dub is a remix album by UB40 released in October 1981. The album contains eight remixed instrumental versions of original tracks from Present Arms and its bonus 12" single; only the double-A side single tracks "Don't Let It Pass You By"/"Don't Slow Down" are not included. The album...
album being the first dub album to hit the UK top 40.
Side by side with Reggae at this time (early 1980s) running B side dub mixes. American post-disco/R&B 12 inch singles started to arrive with alternative dub mixes (records such as The Peech Boys' "Don't Make Me Wait," Toney Lee
Toney Lee
Toney Lee is an American singer, songwriter and music producer, best known for his club hit "Reach Up". It reached up for the position #10 on the US Billboard Dance chart.- History :...
's "Reach Up," and many more artists on labels such as Prelude
Prelude Records
Prelude Records is a classical music specialist CD shop, located in Norwich, England.Staffed by musicians, the shop has been in business since 1985....
, RFC, and West End
West End Records
West End Records is a record label, which is known as one of the most prominent labels in dance music’s history along with Prelude Records, Salsoul Records and Casablanca Records.-History:...
. Often these dub versions raised the beat of the record and made them easier to mix together one after the other, or to pick out key sections to play over other records, heightening the dancefloor effect.
Influence of dub
From the 1990s forward, dub has been influenced by, and has in turn influenced, techno, Dubtronica / Dub technoDubtronica
Dubtronica is a neologism that has been used to describe electronic dance music that evidences the influence of dub. The origin is thought to be either the experimental English dub of On-U Sound Records and Mad Professor in the 1980s, Note that the term is not universally accepted by both artists...
, jungle
Oldschool jungle
Jungle is a genre of electronic music that incorporates influences from genres including breakbeat hardcore, and reggae/dub/dancehall. There is debate as to whether jungle is a separate genre from drum and bass as many use the terms interchangeably...
, drum and bass
Drum and bass
Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...
, dubstep
Dubstep
Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in south London, England. Its overall sound has been described as "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals"....
, house music
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
, punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
and post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
, trip hop
Trip hop
Trip hop is a music genre consisting of downtempo electronic music which originated in the early 1990s in England, especially Bristol. Deriving from "post"-acid house, the term was first used by the British music media and press as a way to describe the more experimental variant of breakbeat which...
, ambient music
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
, and hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, with many electronic dub or dubtronica
Dubtronica
Dubtronica is a neologism that has been used to describe electronic dance music that evidences the influence of dub. The origin is thought to be either the experimental English dub of On-U Sound Records and Mad Professor in the 1980s, Note that the term is not universally accepted by both artists...
tracks, as well as Ambient dub, produced by nontraditional rastafarian musicians from these other genres. Musicians such as Culture Club
Culture Club
Culture Club are a British rock band who were part of the 1980s New Romantic movement. The original band consisted of Boy George , Mikey Craig , Roy Hay and Jon Moss...
, Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell is an American bassist, producer and record label owner....
, Jah Wobble
Jah Wobble
Jah Wobble is an English bass guitarist, singer, poet and composer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but left the band after two albums...
, Leftfield
Leftfield
Leftfield are a British duo of electronica artists and record producers, namely Paul Daley and Neil Barnes, who formed in 1990 in London, England...
, Massive Attack
Massive Attack
Massive Attack are an English DJ and trip hop duo from Bristol, England consisting of Robert "3D" Del Naja and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. Working with co-producers, as well as various session musicians and guest vocalists, they make records and tour live. The duo are considered to be of the trip...
, Almamegretta
Almamegretta
Almamegretta are a SKA /rap/dub/world/reggae group from Naples, Italy. Their lyrics are in Napoletano. Their music became quite successful, leading to remix work for Massive Attack. Adrian Sherwood also remixed their album "Sanacore".-History:...
, The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
, Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
and others demonstrate clear dub influences in their respective genres, and their innovations have in turn influenced the mainstream of the dub genre. In the UK, Europe, Japan, Australia and America, independent record producers continue to produce dub.
Before forming The Mars Volta, Cedric Bixler
Cedric Bixler-Zavala
Cedric Bixler-Zavala is a Grammy Award-winning Mexican-American musician known for his work as frontman and lyricist of the progressive rock band The Mars Volta, and previously as frontman and occasional guitarist of the post-hardcore punk group At the Drive-In...
and Omar Rodriguez
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
Omar Alfredo Rodríguez-López is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, writer, actor and film director who was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico...
(members of the post hardcore group At The Drive In), along with friends Ikey Owens
Isaiah Ikey Owens
Isaiah Randolph "Ikey" Owens is an American keyboardist known for his work with The Mars Volta and an array of other bands from the Long Beach music scene.-Biography:...
and Jeremy Ward
Jeremy Ward
For the former member of De Facto and The Mars Volta see Jeremy Michael WardJeremy Ward is a British classical bassoonist specializing in performances on period instruments. He was a student of Charles Cracknell and a member of the National Youth Orchestra. He went on to study music at King's...
, recorded a series of dub albums under the name De Facto
De Facto (band)
De Facto was a dub reggae band which included Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Omar Rodríguez-López, Isaiah "Ikey" Owens and Jeremy Michael Ward.- Biography :...
. The Polish punk/psychedelic and new wave bands Brygada Kryzys
Brygada Kryzys
Brygada Kryzys or BK is one of the most important and influential Polish punk/rock reggae bands. The band was founded in 1981 by two well-known guitarist/vocalists from Warsaw, Robert Brylewski and Tomasz Lipiński .-1981:* July - Robert Brylewski asks Tomasz Lipiński if he would be willing to...
and Republika
Republika (band)
Republika was a Polish rock band which began in 1978 in Torun, Poland. Originally, the band was founded and fronted by under the name Res Publica. . The name took its origin from "Rzecz Pospolita" , but under the communist regime at the time the name was censored and not allowed...
recorded dub tracks. Yugoslav New Wave
Yugoslav New Wave
New Wave in Yugoslavia was the New Wave music scene of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...
outfit Električni Orgazam
Električni Orgazam
Električni Orgazam is a Serbian rock band from Belgrade. Originally starting as a combination of New Wave, punk rock and post-punk, the band later slowly changed their style, becoming a mainstream rock act.- New Wave years :...
also experimented with dub music on their album Lišće Prekriva Lisabon
Lišće prekriva Lisabon
Lišće prekriva Lisabon is the second studio album by Serbian/Yugoslavian New wave band Električni orgazam. It was released in 1982 by Jugoton.-"A" side:#"Pođimo"#"Alabama" #"Žuto"# "Sam"# "Glave"...
from year 1982, then bends like Azra
Azra
Azra was a rock band from Zagreb that was popular across Yugoslavia in the 1980s. Azra was formed in 1977 by its frontman Branimir "Johnny" Štulić. The other two members of the original line-up were Mišo Hrnjak and Boris Leiner . The band is named after a verse from "Der Asra" by Heinrich Heine...
, in album Filigranski pločnici which was created also in 1982 and Šarlo Akrobata
Šarlo Akrobata
Šarlo Akrobata were a seminal Yugoslav rock band often categorized as late punk or New Wave, particularly art-oriented. Short-lived but extremely influential, in addition to being one of the most important acts of the Yugoslav New Wave scene, the three piece left an indelible mark on the entire...
. Other dub performers include Serbian dub band Black Ark Crew, Basque
Basque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
dub band Basque Dub Foundation
Basque Dub Foundation
The Basque Dub Foundation is a British reggae band, started in the early 1990s as studio project by Iñaki Yarritu, a London based reggae musician originally from the Basque Country . Iñaki moved into music production in the late 1980s, having being previously involved in reggae since the late 1970s...
, and Australian live dub outfit The Sunshine Brothers. In 1987, rock band Soundgarden
Soundgarden
Soundgarden is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1984 by singer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto...
released a dub version of the Ohio Players
Ohio Players
The Ohio Players were an American funk and R&B band, most popular in the 1970s. They are best known for their double #1 hit songs "Fire" and "Love Rollercoaster".- Biography :...
' song "Fopp" alongside a more traditional rock cover of the song. DJs appeared towards the end of the 1990s who specialised in playing music by these musicians, such as the UK's Unity Dub.
Influence of dub on punk and rock music
Since the inception of dub in the late 1960s, its history has been intertwined with that of the punk rock scene in the UK. The ClashThe Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
worked on collaborations involving Jamaican dub reggae creators like Lee Scratch Perry (whose "Police & Thieves", co-written with Junior Murvin, was covered by the Clash on their first album) and Mikey Dread
Mikey Dread
Michael George Campbell , better known as Mikey Dread, was a Jamaican singer, producer, and broadcaster. He was one of the most influential performers and innovators in reggae music...
(on the Sandinista album). As well, the English group Ruts DC, a post Malcolm Owen incarnation of the legendary reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
influenced punk group The Ruts
The Ruts
The Ruts were a reggae-influenced British punk rock band, notable for the 1979 Top 10 hit "Babylon's Burning", and an earlier single "In a Rut", which was not a hit but was much played and highly regarded by the UK BBC Radio 1 disc jockey, John Peel.-Career:...
, released Rhythm Collision Dub Volume 1 (Roir session), with the expertise of the Mad Professor
Mad Professor
Mad Professor is a dub music producer and engineer known for his original productions and remix work. He is considered one of the leading producers of dub music’s second generation and was instrumental in transitioning dub into the digital age. He is a prolific producer, contributing to or...
. Many punk rock bands In the U.S. were exposed to dub via the rasta punk band Bad Brains
Bad Brains
Bad Brains is an American hardcore punk band formed in Washington, D.C., in 1977. They are widely regarded as among the pioneers of hardcore punk, though the band's members objected to this term to describe their music. They are also an adept reggae band, while later recordings featured elements of...
from D.C., which was established and released their most influential material during the 80s. Dub was adopted by the punk rock camp of the 90s, with bands such as Rancid
Rancid (band)
Rancid is an American punk rock band formed in Berkeley, California in 1991. Founded by Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman, both of whom previously played in the ska punk band Operation Ivy, Rancid is credited—along with Green Day and The Offspring—for reviving mainstream interest in punk rock in the...
and NOFX
NOFX
NOFX is an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California .The band was formed in 1983 by vocalist/bassist Fat Mike and guitarist Eric Melvin. Drummer Erik Sandin joined NOFX shortly after. In 1991 El Hefe joined to play lead guitar and trumpet, rounding out the current line-up...
writing original songs in a Dub style. Often bands considered to be Ska-Punk play dub influenced songs; one of the first such bands to become popular was Sublime
Sublime (band)
Sublime was an American ska punk band from Long Beach, California, formed in 1988. The band's line-up, unchanged until their breakup, consisted of Bradley Nowell , Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh . Michael "Miguel" Happoldt also contributed on a few Sublime songs, such as "New Thrash." Lou Dog, Nowell's...
, whose albums featured both dub originals and remixes. They went on to influence more recent American bands such as Rx Bandits
Rx Bandits
RX Bandits is a four-piece band based in Seal Beach, California. The band formed in 1995 in Orange County, California. They have appeared on the Vans Warped Tour, at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and at The Bamboozle.-Early years :Originally known as...
and The Long Beach Dub Allstars
Long Beach Dub Allstars
The Long Beach Dub Allstars were a dub reggae/ska/rock band formed in 1997 and disbanded in 2002.-History:Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh met in childhood and later started their first garage punk band, consisting of drums, bass and vocals. They later formed Sublime with Brad Nowell...
. In addition, dub influenced some types of pop, including bands such as No Doubt. No Doubt's most recent album, Rock Steady http://www.nodoubt.com/music/, features an assortment of popular dub sounds like reverb and echoing. As noted by the band themselves, No Doubt
No Doubt
No Doubt is an American rock band from Anaheim, California that formed in 1986. The ska-pop sound of their first album No Doubt , failed to make an impact...
is heavily influenced by Jamaican musical aesthetics and production techniques, even recording their Rock Steady http://www.nodoubt.com/music/ album in Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...
, and producing B-sides
B-Sides
B-Sides is an iTunes-exclusive album from the Coventry Trio The Enemy, consisting of ten songs that were B-sides to the single releases from their debut album We'll Live and Die in These Towns.-Track list:#Fear Killed the Youth of Our Nation...
featuring dub influences on their "Everything In Time
Everything in Time
Everything in Time is a compilation album comprising B-sides, remixes, and rare songs by the American third wave ska band No Doubt, first released on November 23, 2003 as disc three of No Doubt's box set, Boom Box, which also contained The Singles 1992–2003, The Videos 1992–2003 and Live in the...
B-Sides" album. Some controversy still exists on whether pop-ska bands like No Doubt can regard themselves as a part of dub lineage. Other bands followed in the footsteps of No Doubt, fusing pop-ska and dub influences, such as Save Ferris
Save Ferris
Save Ferris was a ska punk band formed circa 1995 in Orange County, California. Their name is a reference to the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off.-History:...
and Vincent.
There are also some British punk bands creating dub music. Capdown
Capdown
Capdown are a band from Milton Keynes, England. Originally known as Soap, their songs have political themes as alluded to by their name, which is short for Capitalist Downfall...
released their Civil Disobedients album, featuring the track Dub #1, while Sonic Boom Six
Sonic Boom Six
Sonic Boom Six are a five-piece rock band from Manchester, United Kingdom. Their eclectic sound combines different elements of several genres and has been described by Kerrang! as "taking ska, pop, grime, dubstep, punk and metal apart, then rebuilding them as a hyperactive hybrid"...
and The King Blues
The King Blues
The King Blues are a punk band from London, England, credited for fusing ska and folk together with influences from punk rock and hardcore punk. Tariq Ali described the band's sounds as 'rough, radical music that should unsettle the rulers of this country. A new generation of musicians are...
take heavy influences from dub, mixing the genre with original punk ethics and attitudes.
21st century dub in the roots tradition
Traditional dub has survived and some of the originators of dub such as Lee Perry and Mad Professor continue to produce new material. New artists continue to preserve the traditional dub sound, some with slight modifications but with a primary focus on reproducing the original characteristics of the sound in a live environment. Some of those artists include Dubblestandart from Vienna, Austria (who recorded the album "Return from Planet Dub" in collaboration with, and performs live with, Lee Scratch Perry), Liquid StrangerLiquid Stranger
Martin Stääf , aka Liquid Stranger, is a Swedish-born electronic musician, described by Generation Bass as ”the epitome of Transnational Dubstep covering everything from Latin, Asian, Eastern European and Jamaican Dancehall dubs.” Martin Stääf is known for his experimental approach to composition...
from Sweden, New York City artists including Ticklah
Victor Axelrod
Victor Axelrod aka Ticklah is a Brooklyn native and independent music producer and artist, who has been a continual and integral part of the NYC music scene for over a decade. As an artist he is a founding member of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, and the Easy Star...
, also known as Victor Axelrod
Victor Axelrod
Victor Axelrod aka Ticklah is a Brooklyn native and independent music producer and artist, who has been a continual and integral part of the NYC music scene for over a decade. As an artist he is a founding member of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, and the Easy Star...
and Victor Rice
Victor Rice
Victor Rice is a musician and producer from New York City. He is most noted for his work within the third wave ska genre of the 1990s through the early 2000s, as both a bassist and as a producer....
, Easy Star All-Stars
Easy Star All-Stars
Originally formed as a studio band for the label's earliest recordings, Easy Star All-Stars is a reggae collective with a rotating roster of musicians and singers founded by the co-founders of New York City-based Easy Star Records in 1997...
, Dub Trio (who have recorded and performed live with Mike Patton, and are currently touring as the backing band for Matisyahu), Subatomic Sound System
Subatomic Sound System
Founded in 1999, Subatomic Sound System brought together musicians, producers, DJs and visual artists from a variety of backgrounds and traditions primarily based in New York City and Brooklyn to form a record label and collective that built on a combination of new music technology and traditional...
(who have remixed material by Lee Scratch Perry and Ari Up), Dub is a Weapon, King Django
King Django
Jeff Baker, better known as King Django, is a New Brunswick, NJ-based ska musician. He was the leader of Skinnerbox and Stubborn All-Stars....
, and Dr. Israel, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad
Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad
Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad is a jam reggae band based in Rochester, NY. The group started touring nationally in 2006.The bands debut album "Slow Down" was released in 2006 and received regular airplay on Sirius] and XM Radio...
from Rochester, NY, Heavyweight Dub Champion
Heavyweight Dub Champion
Heavyweight Dub Champion is a music and art collective founded in Gold Hill, Colorado in 1997 by Resurrector & Patch. Heavyweight Dub Champion, also known as HDC, is rooted in electronic music, but they create their unique style by using real and acoustic instruments fused with synthetic and...
from San Francisco and Colorado, Future Pigeon from Los Angeles, German artists like Disrupt and Rootah from the Jahtari label, and Twilight Dub Circus from the Netherlands. More eclectic use of dub techniques are apparent in the work of BudNubac, which mixes Cuban bigband with dub techniques. Modern dub producer Ryan "Party" Moore has received critical acclaim for his Twilight Circus project.
Heavyweight Dub Champion
Heavyweight Dub Champion
Heavyweight Dub Champion is a music and art collective founded in Gold Hill, Colorado in 1997 by Resurrector & Patch. Heavyweight Dub Champion, also known as HDC, is rooted in electronic music, but they create their unique style by using real and acoustic instruments fused with synthetic and...
, has been headlining festival
Festival
A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....
s in the United States and gaining recognition in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Denver's Westword
Westword
Westword is a free alternative weekly newspaper based in Denver, Colorado.Westword was established independently in 1977. In 1983 it was bought by New Times Media. In 2005, New Times acquired Village Voice Media, and changed its name to Village Voice Media...
Magazine awarded their debut album, Survival Guide For The End Of Time, "Best Local Recording" for Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
in 2003 and describes their style as "a shamanistic wall of hip hop dubtronica". The band is a concept band and has pushed the envelope of the genre, although, according to the LA Weekly
LA Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
, "Their genius is the great virtue of 70s dub: never overdoing it."
Dub, electronic music and the dubstep movement
Dub went on to play a role in inspiring many genres of electronic music, such as dubstepDubstep
Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in south London, England. Its overall sound has been described as "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals"....
and jungle
Jungle
A Jungle is an area of land in the tropics overgrown with dense vegetation.The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jangala which referred to uncultivated land. Although the Sanskrit word refers to "dry land", it has been suggested that an Anglo-Indian interpretation led to its...
. The name "dubstep" originated from the common use of dub elements in the genre, and because both traditional dub and dubstep are often played at a similar tempo. Jungle
Oldschool jungle
Jungle is a genre of electronic music that incorporates influences from genres including breakbeat hardcore, and reggae/dub/dancehall. There is debate as to whether jungle is a separate genre from drum and bass as many use the terms interchangeably...
, a related genre, originated in the late 1980s when DJs started playing dub records at twice their playing speeds. This resulted in an early 1990s "jungle" sound which record producers went on to recreate in the studio. In early 2000s, DJs and producers paid homage to the forerunners in the 1980s and began playing their highly produced breakbeat, jungle and drum & bass records at around 70 bpm, which resulted in the creation of dubstep. The more experimental releases of UK garage
UK garage
UK garage is a genre of electronic dance music originating from the United Kingdom in the early-1990s. UK garage is a descendant of house music which originated in Chicago and New York, United States. UK garage usually features a distinctive syncopated 4/4 percussive rhythm with 'shuffling'...
producers contributed to early dubstep, and sought to incorporate elements of dub reggae into the South London
South London
South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...
-based 2-step subgenre. Dubstep rhythms are usually syncopated, and often incorporate triplets and the One drop rhythm
One drop rhythm
One drop rhythm is a drumset playing style of reggae, popularized by Carlton Barrett, long-time drummer of Bob Marley and the Wailers, created by Winston Grennan, in which the backbeat is characterized by the dominant snare drum stroke and bass drum both sounding on the third beat of every measure...
common to traditional Reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, a reference to the genre's Dub music influences.
Further reading
- Veal, Michael E. (2007). Dub: Songscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press.
- Cox and Warner, eds. Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music. Continuum: 2004.http://www.amazon.com/dp/0826416152 "Replicant: On Dub" by David Toop; Chapter 51, Pages 355–356.
External links
- Dub Echoes A documentary about the influence of dub in today's dance music and hip hop
- Dub-connection A dub music wiki
- Melting Pot Dub A short history of dub
- A History of Dub Footnoted Article
- Dub.com Links to labels, websites and resources
- Talawa Social network dedicated to Roots & Dub Music
- [ Allmusic article on the history of dub]
- [ A more detailed Allmusic article on the history of dub]