Dub is a musical style that grew out of reggae in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
It is commonly considered a subgenre of reggae, though it has developed to extend
beyond that style.[1] Generally, dub consists of remixes of existing recordings[2]
created by significantly manipulating the original, usually through the removal of
vocal parts, emphasis of the rhythm section (the stripped-down drum-and-bass track
is sometimes referred to as a riddim), the application of studio effects such as
echo and reverb, and the occasional dubbing of vocal or instrumental snippets from
the original version or other works.[3]
Dub was pioneered by recording engineers and producers such as Osbourne "King
Tubby" Ruddock, Hopeton "Scientist" Brown, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Errol Thompson and
others[1] beginning in the late 1960s. Augustus Pablo, who collaborated with many
of these producers, is credited with bringing the distinct-sounding melodica to
dub, and is also among the pioneers and creators of the genre. Similar experiments
with recordings at the mixing desk outside the dancehall scene were also done by
producers Clive Chin and Herman Chin Loy.[4] These producers, especially Ruddock
and Perry, looked upon the mixing console as an instrument, manipulating tracks to
come up with something new and different. The Roland Space Echo was widely used by
dub producers in the 1970s to produce echo and delay effects.[5]
Dub has influenced many genres of music, including rock, most significantly the
subgenre of post-punk and other kinds of punk,[6] pop,[7] hip hop,[6] post-disco,
and later house,[8] techno,[8] ambient,[8] electronic dance music,[9] and trip hop.
[8] Dub was a basis for the genres of jungle and drum and bass, as well as a major
influence on dubstep, with its orientation around bass and utilization of audio
effects.[10][11][12] Traditional dub has survived, and some of the originators such
as Mad Professor continue to produce new material.
Name
The use of the word dub in a recording context originated in the late 1920s with
the advent of "talking pictures" and referred to adding a soundtrack to a film; it
is an informal abbreviation of the word double. Over the next 40 years or so the
term found its way into audio recording in general, often in the context of making
a copy of a recording on another tape or disc.
It was in this sense that the term was first used in the Jamaican recording
industry: new recordings were often initially copied onto one-off acetate discs,
known colloquially as soft wax[13] or dub and later as dubplates, for exclusive use
by sound system operators; playing a song as an exclusive recording on a sound
system was a good way for a producer to test the potential popularity of a
recording before committing to the pressing of hundreds or thousands of copies of
singles for retail sale. Initially, these acetates would simply be the standard
recording of a song that was yet to be released on a single; around 1968–69,
however, they started to be exclusive mixes with some or all of the vocal mixed
out. Producer Bunny Lee notes:
"Yeah...it was really VERSION those days – it wasn't dub yet beca' it was jus' the
riddim. One day an incident: Ruddy's (sound system operator Ruddy Redwood) was
cutting dub, an when it start, Smithy (recording engineer Byron Smith) look like
'im start bring on the voice and Ruddy's say: no, mek it run and 'im take the whole
backing track off it. 'Im say, alright, run it again, and put in the voice. 'Im
didn't do no more like that yet."
After describing how Redwood then had his deejay first play the vocal version and
then the instrumental version at a dance, and how popular this novelty was, Lee
continued:
"The next day now, 'im start it and just bring in the riddim. Or...down in the
tune, bring a little voice and drop it out again...yes. Ruddy use to handle that
part himself, drop in the voice and drop it out. All Smithy do was cut the
dub..."[13]
Jamaican soundsystems had always sought exclusive recordings from their origins in
the late 1940s. However, when they played American rhythm & blues records through
the 1950s, these were simply records that rival sound system operators didn't have
and couldn't identify. This progressed from the late 1950s onwards via having local
musicians record a song exclusively for play on a particular sound system to having
exclusive mixes of a song on acetate, which became possible with the arrival of
multi-track recording in Jamaica. From the concept of a version with some or all of
the vocal mixed out dubbed to acetate, the novelty-hungry sound system scene
rapidly drove the evolution of increasingly creative mixes in the first few years
of the 1970s. Within a few years the term dub became attached to these regardless
of whether they were on an exclusive acetate or "dubplate". As the use of the term
widened and evolved, Bob Marley and The Wailers used the order "dub this one!" in
live concerts to mean, "put an emphasis on bass and drums". Drummer Sly Dunbar
similarly points to a usage of the related term dubwise to mean using only drums
and bass.[14]
It is possible that the existing use of the word dub for other meanings in Jamaica
around the time of the music's origin may have helped to cement its use in the
musical context. The most frequent meanings referred to either a form of erotic
dance or sexual intercourse;[15] such usage is frequently present in names of
reggae songs, for instance, of The Silvertones' "Dub the Pum Pum" (where pum pum is
Jamaican slang for female genitalia), Big Joe and Fay's "Dub a Dawta" (dawta is
Jamaican patois for daughter). I-Roy's "Sister Maggie Breast" features several
references on sex:
I man a-dub it on the side
Say little sister you can run but you can't hide
Slip you got to slide you got to open your crotches wide
Peace and love abide
However, all three of these songs were recorded after the use of dub for a style of
remixing was already prevalent.
Characteristics
See also: Music of Jamaica
Dub music is characterized by a "version" or "double"[16] of an existing song,
often instrumental, initially almost always pressed on the B-sides of 45 RPM
records and typically emphasizing the drums and bass for a sound popular in local
sound systems. A "version" is an alternative cut of a song made for the DJ to
"toast" over (a form of Jamaican rapping), usually with some or all of the original
vocal removed. These "versions" were used as the basis of new songs by rerecording
them with new elements.[17] The instrumental tracks are typically treated with
sound effects such as echo, reverb, with instruments and vocals dropping in and out
of the mix. The partial or total removal of vocals and other instruments tends to
emphasise the bass guitar. The music sometimes features other noises, such as birds
singing, thunder and lightning, water flowing, and producers shouting instructions
at the musicians. It can be further augmented by live DJs. The many-layered sounds
with varying echoes and volumes are often said to create soundscapes, or sound
sculptures, drawing attention to the shape and depth of the space between sounds as
well as to the sounds themselves. There is usually a distinctly organic feel to the
music, even though the effects are electronically created.[16][18]
Often these tracks are used for "toasters" rapping heavily rhymed and alliterative
lyrics. These are called "DJ Versions". In forms of sound system–based reggae, the
performer using a microphone is referred to as the "DJ" or "deejay" (where in other
genres, this performer might be termed the "MC", meaning "Master of Ceremonies", or
alternately, the later developed slang terms: "Microphone Commander" or "Mic
Control"), and the person choosing the music and operating the turntables is called
the "selector" (sometimes referred to as the DJ in other genres).
A major reason for producing multiple versions was economic; a record producer
could use a recording he owned to produce numerous versions from a single studio
session. A version was also an opportunity for a producer or remix engineer to
experiment and express their more creative side. The version was typically the B-
side of a single, and used for experimenting and providing something for DJs to
talk over, while the A-side was more often dedicated to the original vocal-oriented
track. In the 1970s, LPs of dub tracks began to be produced; these could be,
variously: a collection of new dub mixes of riddims previously used on various
singles, usually by a single producer; the dub version of an existing vocal LP with
dub mixes of all the tracks; or, least commonly, a selection of previously unissued
original riddims mixed in a dub style.[citation needed]
History
Lee "Scratch" Perry was an early pioneer of the genre
Dub music and toasting introduced a new era of creativity in reggae music. From
their beginning, toasting and dub music developed together and influenced each
other. The development of sound system culture influenced the development of studio
techniques in Jamaica,[19] and the earliest DJs, including Duke Reid and Prince
Buster among others, were toasting over instrumental versions of reggae and
developing instrumental reggae music.[20]
"Versions" and experiments with studio mixing (Late 1960s)
In 1968, Kingston, Jamaica sound system operator Rudolph "Ruddy" Redwood went to
Duke Reid's Treasure Isle studio to cut a one-off dub plate of The Paragons hit "On
The Beach". Engineer Byron Smith left the vocal track out by accident, but Redwood
kept the result and played it at his next dance with his deejay Wassy toasting over
the rhythm.[21] The instrumental record excited the people at the sound system and
they started singing lyrics of the vocal track over the instrumental. The invention
was a success, and Ruddy needed to play the instrumental continuously for half an
hour to an hour that day.[22] The next day Bunny Lee who was a witness to this,
told King Tubby that they needed to make some more instrumental tracks, as "them
people love" them, and they dubbed out vocals from "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" by Slim
Smith. Because of King Tubby's innovative approach, the resulting instrumental
track was more than just a track without a voice – King Tubby interchanged the
vocals and the instrumental, playing the vocals first, then playing the riddim,
then mixing them together. From this point on, they started to call such tracks
"versions".[22] Another source puts 1967 and not 1968 as the initial year of the
practice of putting instrumental versions of reggae tracks to the B-side of
records.[23]
At Studio One the initial motivation to experiment with instrumental tracks and
studio mixing was correcting the riddim until it had a "feel," so a singer, for
instance, could comfortably sing over it.[22]
Another reason to experiment with mixing was rivalry among sound systems. Sound
systems' sound men wanted the tracks they played at dances to be slightly different
each time, so they would order numerous copies of the same record from a studio,
each with a different mix.[24]
Evolution of dub as a subgenre (1970s)
By 1973, through the efforts of several independent and competitive innovators,
engineers, and producers, instrumental reggae "versions" from various studios had
evolved into "dub" as a subgenre of reggae.
The innovative album The Undertaker by Derrick Harriott and the Crystallites,
engineered by Errol Thompson and with "Sound Effects" credited to Derrick Harriott,
was one of the first strictly instrumental reggae albums on its release in 1970.
In 1973, at least three producers, Lee "Scratch" Perry and the Aquarius studio
engineer/producer team of Herman Chin Loy and Errol Thompson simultaneously
recognized that there was an active market for this new "dub" sound and
consequently they started to release the first albums strictly consisting of dub.
In the spring of 1973, Lee "Scratch" Perry released Upsetters 14 Dub Blackboard
Jungle, mixed in collaboration with King Tubby and more commonly known as
"Blackboard Jungle Dub". It is considered a landmark recording of this genre.[25]
In 1974, Keith Hudson released his classic Pick a Dub, widely considered to have
been the first deliberately thematic dub album, with tracks specifically mixed in
the dub style for the purpose of appearing together on an LP, and King Tubby
released his two debut albums At the Grass Roots of Dub and Surrounded by the
Dreads at the National Arena.
Dub history (since the early 1980s)
Dub has continued to evolve, its popularity waxing and waning with changes in
musical fashion. Almost all reggae singles still carry an instrumental version on
the B-side and these are still used by the sound systems as a blank canvas for live
singers and DJs.
In 1986, the Japanese band Mute Beat would create dub music using live instruments
such as trumpets rather than studio equipment, and became a precursor to club
music.[26]
In the 1980s, the United Kingdom became a new centre for dub production with Mikey
Dread, Mad Professor and Jah Shaka being the most famous. It was also the time when
dub made its influence known in the work of harder edged, experimental producers
such as Mikey Dread with UB40 and The Clash, Adrian Sherwood and the roster of
artists on his On-U Sound label. Many bands characterized as post-punk were heavily
influenced by dub. Better-known bands such as The Police, The Clash and UB40 helped
popularize Dub, with UB40's Present Arms In Dub album being the first dub album to
hit the UK top 40.
Side by side with reggae at this time (early 1980s) running B side dub mixes, a
rising number of American (mostly New York state and New Jersey–based) post-disco
record producers in collaboration with prominent DJs decided to supply 12 inch
singles with alternate dub mixes, predating the era of "remixes". Reflected in the
production of records such as The Peech Boys' "Don't Make Me Wait", Toney Lee's
"Reach Up", and artists mostly on New York City labels Prelude or West End. In the
aforementioned mixes the beat of the record was accentuated, "unnecessary" vocal
parts dropped, and other DJ-friendly features making it easy to work with, like
picking out key sections to play over other records, heightening the dancefloor
effect.
Contemporary instances are also called "dubtronica", "dub-techno", "steppers" or
electronic music influenced by dub music.[27]
Musical impact
Influence of dub
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Yale professor Michael Veal described dub as "the sound of a society tearing itself
apart at the seams". His book, "Starship Africa", says that the African diaspora is
reflected in dub by the "extensive use of reverberation/delay devices and the
fragmentation of the song surface" – he considers dub's use of reverb a "sonic
metaphor for the condition of diaspora." Veal wrote that dub creators used echo and
reverb to elicit memories of African culture in their listeners.[28] King Tubby,
Lee Perry, Erroll Thompson, Mad Professor, Jah Shaka, Denis Bovell and Linton Kwesi
Johnson influenced rock musicians. From the 1980s forward, dub has been influenced
by, and has in turn influenced, techno, dubtronica/dub techno, jungle, drum and
bass, dubstep, house music, punk and post-punk, trip hop, ambient music, and hip
hop, with electronic dub sound. Musicians and bands such as Culture Club,[29] Bill
Laswell, Jah Wobble, New Age Steppers,[30] Public Image Ltd, The Pop Group, The
Police, Massive Attack, The Clash, Adrian Sherwood, Killing Joke,[31] Bauhaus and
others demonstrate clear dub influences in their respective genres, and their
innovations have in turn influenced the mainstream of the dub genre.
In 1987, US grunge rock band Soundgarden released a dub version of the Ohio
Players' song "Fopp" alongside a more traditional rock cover of the song.[32] DJs
appeared towards the end of the 1990s who specialised in playing music by these
musicians, such as the UK's Unity Dub. In the UK, Europe, and America, independent
record producers continue to produce dub. Before forming The Mars Volta, Cedric
Bixler, Omar Rodriguez and other members, recorded a series of dub albums under the
name De Facto since 1999.
Influence of dub on punk and rock music
Since the inception of dub in the late 1960s, its history has been intertwined with
that of the punk rock scene in the UK. The Clash worked on collaborations involving
Jamaican dub reggae creators like Lee "Scratch" Perry (whose "Police & Thieves",
co-written with Junior Murvin, was covered by the Clash on their first album) and
Mikey Dread (on the Sandinista! album). As well, the English group Ruts DC, a post-
Malcolm Owen incarnation of the legendary reggae influenced punk group The Ruts,
released Rhythm Collision Dub Volume 1 (Roir session), with the expertise of the
Mad Professor. Many punk rock bands In the U.S. were exposed to dub via the rasta
punk band Bad Brains from Washington, D.C., which was established and released
their most influential material during the 1980s. Blind Idiot God placed dub music
alongside their faster and more intense noise rock tracks. Dub was adopted by some
punk rock groups of the 90s, with bands such as Rancid and NOFX writing original
songs in a dub style.[33] Often, bands considered to be ska punk play dub
influenced songs; one of the first such bands to become popular was Sublime, whose
albums featured both dub originals and remixes. They went on to influence more
recent American bands such as Rx Bandits and The Long Beach Dub Allstars. In
addition, dub influenced some types of pop, including bands such as No Doubt. No
Doubt's fifth album, Rock Steady, features an assortment of popular dub sounds like
reverb and echoing. As noted by the band themselves, No Doubt is heavily influenced
by Jamaican musical aesthetics and production techniques, even recording their Rock
Steady album in Kingston, Jamaica, and producing B-sides featuring dub influences
on their Everything in Time B-sides album. Some controversy still exists on whether
pop-ska bands like No Doubt can regard themselves as a part of dub lineage. Other
bands followed in the footsteps of No Doubt, fusing pop-ska and dub influences,
such as Save Ferris and Vincent.
There are also some British punk bands creating dub music. Capdown released their
Civil Disobedients album, featuring the track "Dub No. 1", while Sonic Boom Six and
The King Blues take heavy influences from dub, mixing the genre with original punk
ethics and attitudes. The post-punk band Public Image Ltd, fronted by John Lydon,
formerly of Sex Pistols, often use dub and reggae influenced bass lines in their
music, especially in their earlier music through various bassists who were members
of the group, such as Jah Wobble and Jonas Hellborg. Their track "Rise", which
reached No. 11 in the UK Chart in 1986 uses a dub/reggae influenced bass line.
The British post-punk band Bauhaus were highly influenced by dub music, so far that
Bauhaus' bass player, David J mentioned that their signature song, "Bela Lugosi's
Dead", "was our interpretation of dub".[34][35][36]
Shoegaze bands such as Ride with their song "King Bullshit" and the intro to "Time
Machine" have explored and experimented with dub. Slowdive also penned "Souvlaki
Space Station" and their instrumental "Moussaka Chaos" as a testimony of dub
influence, while the Kitchens of Distinction released "Anvil Dub".
Steve Hogarth, singer with British rock band Marillion, acknowledged the influence
of dub on their 2001 album Anoraknophobia.[37]
Al Cisneros, founder and bassist of Doom Metal outfit OM has gone on record
regarding the influence of Reggae and Dub on his bass playing style.[38]
21st-century dub
Traditional dub has survived, and some of the originators of dub such as Lee
"Scratch" Perry and Mad Professor have produced music in the 21st century. New
artists continue to preserve the traditional dub sound, some with slight
modifications but with a primary focus on reproducing the original characteristics
of the sound in a live environment. Some of these artists include Dubblestandart
from Vienna, Austria (who recorded the album Return from Planet Dub in
collaboration with, and performing live with, Lee "Scratch" Perry); Liquid Stranger
from Sweden; New York City artists, including Ticklah (also known as Victor
Axelrod, Earl Maxton, Calbert Walker, and Douglass & Degraw), Victor Rice, Easy
Star All-Stars, and Dub Trio—who have recorded and performed live with Mike Patton
and are currently touring as the backing band for Matisyahu); Subatomic Sound
System (who have remixed material by Lee "Scratch" Perry and Ari Up); Dub Is a
Weapon; King Django; Dr. Israel; Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad from Rochester, New
York; the Heavyweight Dub Champion from San Francisco and Colorado, Gaudi; Ott from
the UK, who has released several influential albums through Twisted Records, Boom
One Sound System, and Dubsmith from the Boom One Records label; Future Pigeon from
Los Angeles; German artists like Disrupt and Rootah from the Jahtari label;
Twilight Circus from the Netherlands; Moonlight Dub Experiment from Costa Rica; and
Stand High Patrol from France. More eclectic use of dub techniques are apparent in
the work of BudNubac, which mixes Cuban big band with dub techniques. Modern dub
producer Ryan Moore has received critical acclaim for his Twilight Circus project.
In 2022 was released Sly & Robbie vs. Roots Radics "The Dub Battle" produced by the
Argentine artist and dub engineer Hernan "Don Camel" Sforzini, this work is the
first to reunite all the legends of dub in one album dubbing the entire "The Final
Battle" album, Grammy nominated in 2019. This album includes the last dubs produced
by Lee "Scratch" Perry and Bunny "Striker" Lee, also dub versions produced by King
Jammy, Mad Professor, Dennis Bovell, Don Camel and two unreleased dub versions of
King Tubby.[39]
Afrofuturism and Diaspora
Dub music is in conversation with the cultural aesthetic of Afrofuturism. Having
emerged from Jamaica, this genre is regarded as the product of diaspora peoples,
whose culture reflects the experience of dislocation, alienation and remembrance.
Through the creation of space-filling soundscapes, faded echoes, and repetition
within musical tracks, Dub artists are able to tap into such Afrofuturist concepts
as the nonlinearity of time and the projection of past sounds into an unknown
future space. In a 1982 essay,[40] Luke Ehrlich describes Dub through this
particular scope:
With dub, Jamaican music spaced out completely. If reggae is Africa in the New
World, then dub must be Africa on the moon; it's the psychedelic music I expected
to hear in the '60s and didn't. The bass and drums conjure up a dark, vast space, a
musical portrait of outer space, with sounds suspended like glowing planets or the
fragments of instruments careening by, leaving trails like comets and meteors. Dub
is a kaleidoscopic musical montage which takes sounds originally intended as
interlocking parts of another arrangement and using them as raw material, converts
them into new and different sounds; then, in its own rhythm and format, it
continually reshuffles these new sounds into unusual juxtapositions.
At the same time, dub music's role in the Black musical canon marks a theme of the
diaspora the music was birthed from. Due to the sonic structure of echoes and
reverberations, dub can create a dream-like world symbolizing the generational
trauma of African diaspora as a result of slavery.[41] This understanding of dub
gives it the power to take on the darker emotions related to the diaspora,
including violence. In King Tubby's dub mixes, one can hear sonic elements of
screeching tires, gun fire, and police sirens.[42] Artist Arthur Jafa said this
about dub music and the diaspora in 1994 during a keynote address at the
Organization of Black Designers Conference:[42]
those group experiences that reconfigure who we [African Americans] are as a
community. One of the critical primal sites would be the Middle Passage. If you
understand the level of horror directed towards a group of people, then you start
getting some sense of the magnitude, impact, and level of trauma that that had on
the African American community, and how it was particularly one of the earliest
group experiences that reshaped an "African psyche" into the beginning of an
African American psyche. . . . Now, for example, you look at Black music and see
certain structural things that really are about reclaiming this whole sense of
absence, loss, not knowing. One of the things I'm thinking about is dub music . . .
it ends up really speaking about common experiences because the structure of the
music is about things dropping out and coming back in, really reclaiming this whole
sense of loss, rupture, and repair that is very common across the experience of
black people in the diaspora.
William Gibson frequently mentions dub in the 1984 science fiction novel
Neuromancer.
As they worked, Case gradually became aware of the music that pulsed constantly
through the cluster. It was called dub, a sensuous mosaic cooked from vast
libraries of digitalized pop; it was worship, Molly said, and a sense of community.
Case heaved at one of the yellow sheets; the thing was light but still awkward.
Zion smelled of cooked vegetables, humanity, and ganja.
"We monitor many frequencies. We listen always. Came a voice, out of the babel of
tongues, speaking to us. It played us a mighty dub."
Jamaican Sound System
The most straightforward explanation of the Jamaican sound system would be an
individual who deals with a mechanical system consisting of musical amplification
and diffusion. This would include turntables, speakers, and a PA system. In this
system the deejay is the person who speaks over the record. This is not to be
confused with the American term DJ, which refers to the one in charge of selecting
the tracks at an event with music. This role is known as the selector in the sound
system dub culture, who also plays a vital role in the system, especially in
Jamaican dancehalls.
The sound system has had a prevalent spot in music production in Jamaica for well
over 60 years. The true importance and relationship between the sound system and
dub music can be found in the dubbed out versions of sounds that became the source
of Dub music. These dubbed out versions of songs consisted of the original track,
without the vocals. Through reggae soundscape and the Jamaican Sound System, dub
artists were able to creatively manipulate these dubbed out versions or remixes of
songs. These dub remixes were heavily influenced with effects, vocal samples, and
were essential to the progression of dub. The remixes, often referred to as
versions were the B-sides of a specific record. The dub musician would add in
dramatic pauses and breakdowns in the version to make the song have a dub influence
and feel. The artists who were using the sound system to create dub tracks would
refer to their creation of remixes of certain records versioning. In the setting of
a sound system, versions allow for more vocal improvisation and expressions from
the deejay. These remixes or versions would not have been possible without the
Jamaican sound system and its progression over the years.
At the heart of reggae and Jamaican culture lies the sound system. In the early
1950s the sound system consisted of a turntable, amplifier, and pair of speakers.
In the 21st century they have become larger scale productions.[citation needed]
At the time Jamaica gained independence from Britain in 1962, the culture was in
flux, and the country was experiencing a form of identity crisis. Throughout the
40's and 50's Jamaican audiences had come to favor American R&B records over
locally produced music. Jamaican sound system culture and dub music helped cement
Jamaican musical forms into Jamaican national cultural identity in this critical
time in the nation's development.[43]
