The Dekkers Music

The origins of Reggae music are in the Caribbean. In the 1950’s, the youth of Jamaica started to turn away from the radio that they were able to listen to, and started listening to the music from New Orleans. They could pick it up on good weather days, and could sometimes here the powerful Miami radio station WINZ. They were playing records by Amos Milburn and Rosco Gordon, and they could sometimes here some of the famous New Orleans artists like Fats Domino and Champion Jack Dupree. It is said that since these radio stations were so far away, the music was slowed down, playing an important role in reggae music. There are many myths as to the word reggae, some say it was from the 1968 Pyramid single by Toots and the Maytals called “Do the Reggay”. Other myths are it came from the word “streggae”, Kingstone Street slang for prostitute, Bob Marley said it was the Spanish word for “the king music”, and others say it represents the beat of the music. By the 70’s, reaggae was starting to pick up in the US, with songs like “Israelites” by Desmond Dekker and the Aces, “Wonderful World, Beautiful People” by Jimmy Cliff, and “Mother and Children Reunion” by Paul Simon.

For our cover song, we chose "Driven to Tears" written by Sting of the Police. This song reflects the use of political standpoint in Reggae music, as well as the Police's reggae influences. The song has uptempo reggae beats mixed with all of the Police's influences, paired with lyrics doubting the world's attitude towards the third world.

Our original song is called "Good Morning" written by Ethan Stern/Alex Arvidson/Michael Arenson.