The influence of Reggae Music

The influence of Reggae in Asia.

After its development in the 1960S, reggae music reached Asia and especially in Japan.

Even though reggae was created in the late 1960s, the Jamaican movie The Harder They Come (1972), boosted reggae music. In fact, The film’s soundtrack was composed of bangers (popular reggae songs) and showed people this new music genre.

In 1975, Japan welcomed for the first time Jamaican reggae artists The Pioneers. In 1979, Bob Marley and The Wailers traveled to Japan. At this time, Marley was the most famous reggae singer, awaited by a lot of people. During this journey, he met a famous Japanese percussionist and ended up in collaboration. Which put forward Jamaican and Japanese artists and led to the explosion of the reggae scene in Japan.

Over time, magazines and reggae festivals began to appear in the country. Jamaica’s first reggae festival, ”Reggae Sunsplash”, began touring including Japan. Shortly afterwards , they create their own festival, the “Reggae Japan Splash” with Japanese artists and Jamaican reggae stars.

By the 1990s, reggae became a part of Japanese culture. Indeed, this music genre began to be followed by even more Japanese people. In Tokyo, Yokohama, but also across the country Japanese reggae bands have been created. Gradually, DJs started playing reggae music in clubs, then a lot of reggae artists started to appear. Many of these artists had no command of the Jamaican patois, an English-based language made up of West African languages. That is why it was easier for them to sing in Japanese, which has given rise to the creation of J-Reggae.

Throughout the year, Japan has become one of the great reggae scenes in the world. Japanese artists gained recognition and plenty of them signed contracts with well known record companies/labels. Also, large festivals, gathering thousands of people are held in the country.

The musical and cultural connections of reggae will still and always occupy an important place in Japan.

In the last few years, a great number of shows took place in Japan, and for these events, we booked big artists such as Anthony B, Etana, and even Cham.