NEW BOOK: Narratives from Beyond the UK Reggae Bassline

 Happy to announce that, a bit more than two years ago, I was asked to contribute to this book! 

It will finally be coming out in January 2021:

Narratives from Beyond the UK Reggae Bassline -
The System is Sound

- with Palgrave in Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music

I did the chapter on Bristol, of course, Bristol reggae!  

This book explores the history of reggae in modern Britain from the time it emerged as a cultural force in the 1970s. As basslines from Jamaica reverberated across the Atlantic, so they were received and transmitted by the UK’s Afro-Caribbean community. 

• From roots to lovers’ rock, from deejays harnessing the dancehall crowd to dub poets reporting back from the socio-economic front line, British reggae soundtracked the inner-city experience of black youth. 
• In time, reggae’s influence permeated the wider culture, informing the sounds and the language of popular music whilst also retaining a connection to the street-level sound systems, clubs and centres that provided space to create, protest and innovate. 
• This book is therefore a testament to struggle and ingenuity, a collection of essays tracing reggae’s importance to both the culture and the politics of late twentieth and early twenty-first century Britain.

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Details here: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030551605