Reggae and Riddims. Why does this genre have an sharealike policy concerning production?

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Reggae and dancehall (let's not talk about reggaeton) have an attitude about how music is developed, unique to the rest of modern music.

Why is it that musicians share the same riddim?
How did this policy develop and why is it still commonplace?

― Paul Irish (Paul Irish), Friday, 15 July 2005 13:13 (twenty years ago)

there is a section in the Lloyd Bradley/BBC Reggae book that explains this exact thing .. read a paragraph last night prior to hitting the sleepzone.

so unfortunately i cant recall the reasons as to why, i realise that this makes this a seriously crap post (for change), but if you have book to hand etc ..

― mark e (mark e), Friday, 15 July 2005 13:24 (twenty years ago)

shanteytown shout down babylon

― Beta (abeta), Friday, 15 July 2005 13:26 (twenty years ago)

i think of it more in terms that the DJs are "guns for hire" available to all producers rather than the producers are "sharing" their compositions - amounts to same thing though, I guess

― zebedee (zebedee), Friday, 15 July 2005 14:14 (twenty years ago)

It's a question of Jamaica copywrite law (which is apparently very weak) and economics (when it was more expensive to produce backing, it was consider sound market politics to release riddims which were based on already "proven" dancehall favorites to minimize risk--the digital age has reduced this versioning somewhat as it now significantly cheaper to produce music.)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 15 July 2005 14:19 (twenty years ago)

There is pirate blood running through the Carribean, you know.

― Tigerstyle Shamanic Vision Quester (sexyDancer), Friday, 15 July 2005 14:36 (twenty years ago)

copyright law didn't exist at all in Jamaica when the practice started. i guess it started in a small way with rocksteady, and different artists voicing different rhythms in exactly the same way as there are multiple songs on the same backing tracks in 60s US soul.

then when the toasting of deejays over records moved to being recorded, not just live, the practice started to take off, helped by instrumental and dub versions, and boosted again by the rise of dancehall in the late 70s

― michael2 (michael2), Friday, 15 July 2005 15:28 (twenty years ago)

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