This weekend I suddenly realized that none of the five updates in the first week of Likeable Music featured any Jamaican music. It's a bit unlike me, because while I know and like a lot of different music, my desert isle disc would probably be something Jamaican. The classic
ska and
rocksteady of the sixties, the
reggae and
dub of the seventies and the
dancehall and reggae of the eighties onwards, Jamaica has always pushed the envelope and given the world new exciting music.
I'll leave for another post or ten to delve into the rich history and present of Jamaican music. For this post, a dozen likeable songs will have to do. They all have something in common. Well, actually the only thing they haven't got in common is the vocals. What remains (more or less) the same on all these tracks is the backing track, known in this context as the riddim.
