Jamaican music can be roughly divided into four eras, each with a distinctive beat - ska, rocksteady, reggae and dancehall. Ska dates from about 1960 to mid-1966, rocksteady from 1966 to 1968, while from 1969 to 1983 reggae was the popular beat. The reggae era had two phases, 'early reggae' up to 1974 and 'roots reggae' up to 1983. Since 1983 dancehall has been the prevalent sound. The authors describe each stage in the development of the music, identifying the most popular songs and artists, highlighting the significant social, political and economic issues as they affected the musical scene. While they write from a Jamaican perspective, the intended audience is 'any person, local or foreign, interested in an intelligent discussion of reggae music and Jamaica.'.

When Jackie Mittoo and Leroy Sibbles migrated from Jamaica to Toronto in the early 1970s, the musicians brought reggae with them, sparking the flames of one Canada’s most vibrant music scenes. In King Alpha’s Song in a Strange Land, professional reggae musician and scholar Jason Wilson tells the story of how the organic, transnational nature of reggae brought black and white youth together, opening up a cultural dialogue between Jamaican migrants and Canadians along Toronto’s ethnic frontlines. This underground subculture rebelled against the status quo, eased the acculturation process, and made bands such as Messenjah and the Sattalites household names for a brief but important time. By looking at Canada’s golden age of reggae from the perspective of both Jamaican migrants and white Torontonians, Wilson reveals the power of music to break through the bonds of race and ease the hardships associated with transnational migration.

“Of all the various acts of inequity throughout time, none was more severe than the submission forced upon the indigenous peoples of the earth by their earthly demi-god counterparts. Robbing these peoples of their God given cultural and traditional knowledge of survival, void of cultural references and alienated from their traditional survival techniques and skills, the indigenous peoples had no other choice than to accept the ways of the earthly demi-gods, which was modernity and that came with many social disadvantages, worst of all, they would become second and third class citizens in a racially divided and dystopic world. The standard procedure was the implementation of acts that were intended to impart the greatest degree of fear, the fear of death and the fear of dying; whatever methods the noble savages thought would break the barbarian savages into submission. All manner of unthinkable acts of atrocity were employed against the indigenous peoples, because the objectives of the earthly demi-gods had to be met, which was to expropriate the lands and natural resources from these savages, these ‘uncivilized’ people.” The work of Niggers Sing Redemption Songs: Reggae, The heart-beat of a people takes aim at reaffirming the psyche and glory of the Black self as of utter importance in our efforts to make our world a better place. The unconscionable disregard for the glory of the Black self and by refusing to use it, has successfully stripped away Black humanity from the Black indigenous peoples’ collective consciousness; overall leading to a ‘niggerization’ process done for the benefits of the barbaric and ignobly self-acclaimed earthly demi-gods. The Black peoples of the world must bring back the ‘Black’ love of self and all things Black, that is your redemption and then, real life will be given to you. Additionally, what was most evidently conspicuous and surprising was a revelation that had emerged from the research of this study. The study has discovered evidences, which would indicate that because of social biases, for example, racial prejudices, and out-right arrogance, coupled with miss-education and deprecated mindsets, the attitudes of many Jamaican historians, the down trodden sectors of the Jamaican society were undermined and were not given meaningful historical documentations. The academics did not document, accurately, the accounts of Afro-Jamaican culture, for instance, the Rastafarians input into the cultural history of Jamaica. Although many academics of the time were themselves Afro- Jamaican, non-sympathizers to the Rasta movement, and, in most cases, just a generation or two removed from slavery, they were non-commiserated towards their people’s history and struggles. So much so, that they did not consider the documentation of their Afro-Jamaican culture as a priority, and as such, a deficit in proper documentation of historical material exists today. This becomes quite evident in the footnotes, where due to the lack of material, there is a redundancy in reference materials Therefore, in order to add further depth to the stock of the genre of Black Liberation Literature, this work advances a redemptive process which is aimed, primarily, at every individual that has been niggerized by White supremacy and their racist systems. Therein, that each nigger would cultivate an awareness that would be congruent with his/her Black redemption, as is outlined in this literary work. Thus, that he/her would be empowered sufficiently, to rise above the White supremacist world that had ungratefully grafted him/ her and had restrained him/her to oppressive states of meaningless existences. Black people must rise above their common bound, the social degradation of niggerization, a social construct of the White racist demi-gods and to accept the fundamental merits and opportunities that a Black redemption would have provided, which is, the reconstructed Black self, with all its social advantages, because White America will not change and they will not change for the sake of niggers or will they accept niggers as Whites. Sorry, but no skin bleaching formula will change Blacks into White. The Black experience is not the undoing of the White racist demi-gods; instead, it is the doings of the reconstructed niggers towards the redemption, freedom, of Black individuals.

Reggae's influence can be heard in the popular music of nations in a variety of continents. In Dubwise, Klive Walker takes a fresh look at Bob Marley's global impact, specifically his legacy in the Caribbean diaspora. While considering Marley's status as an international reggae icon, Walker also discusses the vital contributions to reggae culture authored by other important Jamaican innovators such as poet Louise Bennett, hand drummer Oswald ''Count Ossie'' Williams, jazz saxophonist Joe Harriott, ska trombonist Don Drummond and singer Dennis Brown.

Dub is the avant-garde verso of reggae, created by manipulating and reshaping recordings using studio strategies and techniques. While dub was one of the first forms of popular music to turn the idea of song inside out, it is far from being fully explored. Tracing the evolution of dub, Remixology travels from Kingston, Jamaica, across the globe, following dub’s influence on the development of the MC, the birth of sound system culture, and the postwar Jamaican diaspora. Starting in 1970s Kingston, Paul Sullivan examines the origins of dub as a genre, approach, and attitude. He stops off in London, Berlin, Toronto, Bristol, and New York, exploring those places where dub had the most impact and investigates its effect on postpunk, dub-techno, jungle, and the dubstep. Along the way, Sullivan speaks with a host of international musicians, DJs, and luminaries of the dub world, from DJ Spooky, Adrian Sherwood, Channel, and Roy to Shut Up and Dance and Roots Manuva. Wide-ranging and lucid, Remixology sheds new light on the dub-born notions of remix and reinterpretation that set the stage for the music of the twenty-first century.

The team of writer Chris Salewicz and photographer Adrian Boot have brought together 50,000 words of text and over 400 images from the ReggaeXplosion Archive to create a history that contains a potent cocktail of drama, turbulence, pride and protest. From the earliest emergence in the 1950s of the fiercely competitive sound systems, fighting sonic battles in downtown Kingston, the story of Jamaican music is traced through ska, the birth of reggae, dub, roots reggae and the impact of Bob Marley to the new, harder-edged developments that have emerged in the last twenty years, including dancehall, ragga and jungle. Unpublished transcripts of interviews with key figures like Lee 'Scratch' Perry and Prince Buster introduce the authentic voices of reggae history to the book - which blends researched facts, graphics and rare images to create not only a sense of the pulse of the music, but also the contrasts of poverty, humour, desperation and joie de vivre that typify both the island of Jamaica and its music.