Reggae hits?
 

Hey everyone, I was just at a club tonight and I realized that I have NO reggae on my ipod. I want to get some good stuff going, so I was wondering if people could suggest some songs that I'd hear in a dance club. I'm not looking for the hardcore stuff yet, ease me in gently, but basically I'm looking for some good stuff besides Sean Paul who I'm getting very sick of lol.

Thanks!

Wow, nothing eh? Tough crowd lol

bob marley? check out his greatest hits album. you should find a ton there.

Bob Marley has a collection called Legend which includes all of his best known singles.

Also check out Black Uhuru, Peter Tosh and Sly and Robbie.

Only came here to say "Bob Marley - Legend" so I guess that makes me third...

Okay, besides Bob Marley lol

church: did you ever try pandora? http://pandora.com/
you can search for an artist or a song and it will give you songs that are similar.
give it a shot ,you'll probably find some awesome hits that way. (it streams but it's linked with amazon so if you like it, you can buy the album)

Steel Pulse has some nice stuff.

Eek a mouse and Third World are wroth trying as well.

there is SO much great reggae.
i would start with an older compilation called respect to studio one.
finding that is like finding a window onto a motown that you didnt know about.

to wit:

http://www.amazon.com/Respect-Studio.../dp/B00000045A

a primer on this earlier history of the music:

http://niceup.com/history/ja_music_59-73.html

o yeah: see "the harder they come" too---you dont want to drift away into the american stoner take on reggae--it is linked to social conditions in ja very tightly and it's better not to forget this.

or maybe you'd like dub:

http://www.dub.com/

a nice introduction with tons of stuff to stream.

there is a ton more, but you have to start somewhere and these are good somewheres, i think.

The Harder They Come....that reminds me of Jimmy Cliff.

I love reggae, but I also have an affinity for ska...Desmond Dekker, the Skatalites, the Heptones. Makes me want to dance.

Check out Burning Spear, Toots and the Maytals, or Damien Marley.

If you speak french, check out Tryo. They put on amazing shows. You should be able to find some of their songs on the net.

Same tongue.. Bob Marley :)

Some of my favorite songs:

Under Me Sleng Teng - Wayne Smith
Chase The Devil - Max Romeo
Police and Thieves - Junior Murvin
In These Times - Lee "Scratch" Perry
Ring the Alarm - Tenor Saw

If there is any name you should remember when it comes to reggae its Lee "Scratch" Perry. The guy is a reggae god. He has produced some of the best reggae songs ever. You should check out his 3 disc set called the 'Arkology'. It will give you a good idea of what is out there. the guy was so insane that one night he wrote on every square inch of his studio walls. And later burned it down when he was drunk on wine (so he doesn't drink wine anymore). I believe he produced very early Bob Marley before Bob went to Coxsone Dodd, the founder and main producer at Studio One (like roachboy said, the motown of reggae).

If you go to www.allmusic.com you can loads of info of similar artists and what not.

There is not a day that goes by without some reggae riddims being played in my house, car, or at work.

Some good comps you may want to check out are the Studio One comps. You can build so much off of those.

But please keep in mind there is more too reggae than bob. Sure he is good and a 'Legend', but I have about 60 or 70 reggae albums, and only 2 or 3 Bob Marley ones (which he happened to be working with Scratch on).

Oooo...also check out Horace Andy. Soooooo good.

i'm going countercurrent and saying if you're doing marley, don't do legend. at the least get 'talking blues' and then rip the songs out of the interviews. if you can download selections from the marley box set, they have some decent studio versions.

i'll also back the toots and the maytals, burning spear stuff jimmy cliff. although they did end up using burning spear's junk for cops, which i still sort of get a giggle out of. for newer stuff, beanie man is sort of a reggae / hip hop type of mix.

and pandora is always good.

Agreed. You absolutely need to go outside of Legend to truly hear Bob Marley. Understand that this album was a best of Bob Marley aimed at American audiences. This means that a majority of his love songs made it on here. Something like less than 10% of Marley's tunes were love songs. Remember: he was a rebel.

If you want to see his true Reggae form, what he did with jazz, ska, blues, etc. to help create this genre of music, you need to start at his roots, not Legend.

Bom Marley was grat musician... Try aslo polish Indios Bravos - they're great :)

Linton Kwesi Johnson is a must.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/images/30/12/linton.jpg
I don't know if you can dance to it but I love this man's work with my guts.

If we're getting into dub, I would like to recommend Canadian dub poet Lillian Allen. Dub poetry is a good thing to explore because Reggae owes much to it. The same goes for ska and some forms of jazz. You really begin to respect reggae when you get into all of these.

Matisyahu is friggin' great.

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Also check out Sublime.