Here is the first ever anthology on Jamaican music forms that have changed the shape of Western popular music. Beginning with Bob Marley, music reviewer Chris Potash explores the roots of Jamaican pop from mento, ska, calypso, and rock steady. The book also profiles such roots pioneers as Toots and the Maytals, the Skatalites, Jimmy Cliff, and more.

"Visitors to Jamaica are often unaware that reggae was a revolutionary music rooted in the suffering of Jamaica's poor. Rastafarians were once a target of police harassment and public condemnation. Now the music is a marketing tool, and the Rastafarians are no longer a "violent counterculture" but an important symbol of Jamaica's new cultural heritage.".

Decades after its birth and subsequent tour du monde, Rastafari has more recently also appeared in revolutionary Cuba. How the movement has been globalized and subsequentially localized in a socialist and Spanish-speaking context are the main foci of this book. In particular it examines how Cubans have adopted and adapted the movement to their own socio-political and cultural context. Particular attention is paid to Rastafari's development in the context of Cuba's current economic crisis and re-appearance of more overt racism. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Cuba, the study shows how Rastafari's growth and presence on the island have influenced and contributed to the formation and expression of new cultural identities and discourses with regard to what it means to be young, black, and Cuban. Katrin Hansing is a social anthropologist who has worked on numerous Cuba-related issues. Her main areas of interests and expertise include: migration, race/ethnicity, and identity. She is currently the director of a German Research Council funded research project on Cuba's social collaboration ties in Africa.

An inspiring collection of poems, meditations, and lyrics by one of the world’s most revered musical legends Bob Marley’s music defined a movement and forever changed a nation. Known worldwide for their message of peace and unity, Marley’s songs—from “One Love” to “Redemption Song” to “Three Little Birds”—have touched millions of lives. This collection is the best of Bob Marley presented in three parts: “The Man,” giving an in-depth look into the life of Bob Marley; “The Music,” comprising his most memorable lyrics as well as links to many of his songs in iTunes; and “The Revolution,” containing his meditations on social equality and the Rastafari movement. Enriched with iconic photographs, Listen to Bob Marley provides insight into a reggae legend, the inspirational man behind the music. This ebook features an introduction by daughter Cedella Marley and an illustrated biography of Cedella including rare photographs from her personal collection.

Who changed Bob Marley’s famous peace-and-love anthem into “Come to Jamaica and feel all right?” When did the Rastafarian fighting white colonial power become the smiling Rastaman spreading beach towels for American tourists? Drawing on research in social movement theory and protest music, Reggae, Rastafari, and the Rhetoric of Social Control traces the history and rise of reggae and the story of how an island nation commandeered the music to fashion an image and entice tourists. Visitors to Jamaica are often unaware that reggae was a revolutionary music rooted in the suffering of Jamaica’s poor. Rastafarians were once a target of police harassment and public condemnation. Now the music is a marketing tool, and the Rastafarians are no longer a “violent counterculture” but an important symbol of Jamaica’s new cultural heritage. This book attempts to explain how the Jamaican establishment’s strategies of social control influenced the evolutionary direction of both the music and the Rastafarian movement. From 1959 to 1971, Jamaica’s popular music became identified with the Rastafarians, a social movement that gave voice to the country’s poor black communities. In response to this challenge, the Jamaican government banned politically controversial reggae songs from the airwaves and jailed or deported Rastafarian leaders. Yet when reggae became internationally popular in the 1970s, divisions among Rastafarians grew wider, spawning a number of pseudo-Rastafarians who embraced only the external symbolism of this worldwide religion. Exploiting this opportunity, Jamaica’s new Prime Minister, Michael Manley, brought Rastafarian political imagery and themes into the mainstream. Eventually, reggae and Rastafari evolved into Jamaica’s chief cultural commodities and tourist attractions.

. . . a cult, a deviant subculture, a revolutionary movement . . . these descriptions have been commonly used in the past to identify the Rastafari, a group perhaps best known to North American readers for their gift of reggae music to the world. With both compassion and a sharp sense of reality, anthropologist William Lewis suggests alternative perspectives and reviews existing social theories as he reports on the diverse world of the ganja-smoking Rastafari culture. He carefully examines this culture in its confrontations with the law, its growing ambivalence about itself as well as the continued conflict between many Rasta and contemporary middle-class values. Characterized by rich ethnographic detail, an engaging writing style, and thoughtful commentary, Soul Rebels uncovers the complex inner workings of the Rasta movement and offers a critical analysis of the meaning of Rastafari commitment and struggles. Soul Rebels offers a solid historical overview of the movement, an excellent picture of diversity within the faith, fair and accurate discussions of sexism among the Rasta, engaging life history material, and rich descriptions of what actually goes on in a reasoning session. Lewiss treatment of Rastafari populations in a Jamaican fishing village, an Ethiopian market town, and an urban neighborhood in the northeastern United States sets his ethnography in the cross-cultural and comparative framework central to anthropological analysis.