Welcome to the first in our new series of Genre Deep Dives, where we explore the origins of Reggae sub-genres and the impact they've had on the evolution of music.

Arguably one of the most influential music styles to have come out of the 20th century, and certainly one of the most notable technological innovations to come out of Jamaica, has to be the Reggae subgenre of Dub. 

The impact that Dub music has had on popular music, particularly Dance and Electronic genres, cannot be understated: Jungle, Drum & Bass, House, Garage, Hip-Hop, Trip Hop and of course, Dubstep are just a few of the musical styles that can be considered the descendants of Dub on a music family tree.

Indeed any style of music that uses the term “remix” or favours heavy drums and bass and makes creative use of plug-ins like reverb and delay, can credit Dub pioneers like King Tubby, Scientist and Lee Scratch Perry as the forefathers to their style.

The term Dub refers to an alternate mix (or double) of a song, which gives greater focus to the bass and drums and uses little to none of the vocal track. A Dub mix allows the music within the song the space to breathe and different elements to be brought in and out of focus, often with a heavy use of delay and reverb. 

Dub History

The birth of Dub music signalled a tipping point in the evolution of music, so for some context, a brief history lesson…

Music has always been an important part of Jamaican culture, in the early 20th century, it was a melting pot of styles, where traditional Caribbean folk music like Mento, Soca and Calypso met with the Big Band Jazz that was popular in the USA.

After the Second World War, both the proliferation of electronic (particularly sound) equipment and increased migration between Jamaica and the UK, created a fertile ground for the Jamaican people’s innovation to flourish, giving birth to Sound System Culture, the genre of Ska and firmly declaring the Jamaican music industry as a force to be reckoned with in the global economy. 

The social and political turmoil of the 1960s added ferocity to the already fiercely competitive Jamaican music scene, leading to further experimentation and sonic evolution. Ska became Rock Steady and Rock Steady became Reggae; a genre that would truly change the world. But while the musicians and singers were coming up with new styles to play and different ways to entertain their audiences, behind the scenes in the recording studios, that famous Jamaican innovation was again hard at work. 

Dub-Plate

After the bands and singers had left the studio, the producers and sound engineers began experimenting with their recordings in increasingly elaborate ways. Eventually, they were playing the equipment like a musical instrument, and each live mix would create a unique “version” of a song (or re-mix) that was then cut onto an acetate disc (a type of vinyl record), known as a dubplate. 

Dubplates are one of a kind, to be played by the sound system operators in the Sound Clash, a competition where two sounds competed to see who had the best songs. The selector with the hottest dubplates would be crowned the “champion sound” after they triumphantly “kill” the competition. So creating innovative dubplates became an art in itself. 

This symbiotic relationship between recording studios and sound systems meant that the Jamaican music industry could adapt quickly to what was popular. If a song did well in the dancehall, the crowd would demand the “selecta, pull up di riddim!” to play the song again and again. 

The Birth of Dub

While the "true" origin of Dub is lost in a haze of folklore and mythology, one of the stand-out stories of events during the early 70s is that when a soundman by the name of Rudy Redwood accidentally left the vocal off the track when he cut his dubplate, but ended up playing it anyway, the crowd loved it and had him playing it all night.

Around the same time, a young man named Hugh (U-Roy) Roy who ran with King Tubby's Hometown Hi-Fi sound system, began "toasting" lyrics over instrumental sections of songs. The crowd really loved it and this inspired Tubby to experiment with instrumental versions of studio recordings to allow U-Roy more space to chat his lyrics, giving birth to the DJ style that would later evolve into MCing and Rapping.

Whilst Dub evolved out of the development of Jamaican music as a whole, the most defining year in the birth of Dub music has to be 1973. As this was the year Lee Scratch Perry & King Tubby released ‘Blackboard Jungle Dub’, a landmark release in music history as it is considered by many to be the first Dub album. It was also the year that Scratch founded the legendary Black Ark Studio where, throughout the rest of that decade, he would push the techniques that defined the genre of Dub to the very limits and beyond. 

Numerous Dub albums were released throughout the 1970s following the release of Blackboard Jungle Dub, as producers and engineers continued to experiment and develop the musical styles and techniques now associated with the genre. Some of the most notable releases from this era are:

• Keith Hudson - 'Pick A Dub'
• King Tubby - 'Roots Of Dub'
• Lee Scratch Perry - 'Super Ape'
• Augustus Pablo - 'Original Rockers'
• Joe Gibbs & The Professionals - 'African Dub All-Mighty Chapter 3'
• Prince Jammy - 'Kamikazi Dub'

For a more technical breakdown on the production techniques used by early dub producers, check out this excellent article.

Part 2: Dub Evolution, coming soon…

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