Facts about Reggae
- 08
Sean Paul's 2002 album Dutty Rock sold over 3 million copies worldwide, making him the best-selling reggae artist of the 21st century and introducing dancehall reggae to mainstream global audiences.
- 07
Rastafarian spirituality became deeply intertwined with reggae music during the 1960s, with artists using the genre to promote Marcus Garvey's Pan-African philosophy and Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie's divinity to millions of listeners worldwide.
- 06
By 1973, Island Records had signed Bob Marley and the Wailers, establishing the first major label backing for reggae music and launching the genre into international commercial prominence.
- 05
Reggae's offbeat guitar and keyboard rhythm pattern, called the skank, was refined by studio musicians in Kingston's Harry J Studio during the early 1970s and became the genre's defining sonic characteristic.
- 04
Jamaican musician Jimmy Cliff's 1972 film The Harder They Come featured 7 reggae tracks and became the genre's first major cinematic breakthrough, grossing over $100 million worldwide.
- 03
The word reggae derives from the Jamaican slang term streggae, meaning a ragged or ruffled appearance, which musician Frederick Hibbert popularized through his 1968 song Reggay.
- 02
Peter Tosh, reggae pioneer and Wailers co-founder, was murdered in his Kingston home on September 3, 1987, during an armed robbery.
- 01
In 1978, Bob Marley's album Exodus spent 56 consecutive weeks on the British charts, becoming reggae's most commercially successful record internationally.