In order to address the globalisation of Caribbean popular music, one must first specify which styles are in play: in this case, the global proliferation of reggae and dub. In the 1960s, Jamaican popular music style evolved from ska to rock steady to reggae. Circa 1968, reggae became the prevalent Jamaican popular music style and with this began its slow assent to international impact. Early reggae style mixed the horns of ska, the slowed-down beat of rock steady, the shuffle beat of New Orleans rhythm and blues, African burru drumming rhythms filled with syncopations, and frequent Rastafarian imagery. Reggae style also included characteristic beat patterns: the guitar played on the second and fourth beats of a four-beat measure/bar and the bass emphasised beats one and three. With the rhythmic complexity of the guitar and bass, the role of the actual drummer diminished save for the very specific character of the one drop reggae rhythm which made the third beat of the measure the most heavily accented. Begun by seminal artists such as Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer, Reggae music spread from Jamaica to England (Jamaica was an English colony until 1962) to the world.

Related to reggae music is the other piece of this study, dub music and its proliferation. Dub music resulted from the original Jamaican practice of creating instrumental versions of popular singles to put on the B-sides of 45 rpm recordings. The first vestige of dub music was created by taking a completed song and stripping out the vocals, which created a ‘drum and bass’ version often called a dub plate. Jamaican record producers began this practice in the mid-1960s when it was realised that Jamaican dance party audiences were often being exposed to music they had never heard before delivered by the local sound systems. Playing the dub version of the song allowed the selector (DJ) to hype up the crowd and also gave the toaster (MC) a chance to freestyle over the drum and bass groove and toast (rap) to get the audience excited to hear the song with its lyrics. Toasting over a dub plate became increasingly popular in the late 1960s. This led to the rise of a group of artists who became specialists in this practice.

Each Jamaican record studio had its own sound system, which were essentially massive mobile stereos that were often on the flatbed of a pickup truck. The MCs that were associated with each of these mobile sound systems quickly became proficient at toasting over dub plates and, thus, artists such as U-Roy, Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee, and Big Youth became famous. As dub music evolved, the role of the producer increased progressively and studio/label owners such as Osbourne ‘King Tubby’ Ruddock and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry truly shaped the style. As was the case with reggae, once dub music became popular in Jamaica it quickly spread to England and then the globe.

Reggae Outernational

The earliest reggae single emerged in 1968. Recorded by Leslie Kong and issued on his Beverley’s label, Toots and the Maytals’ song ‘Do the Reggay’ is widely regarded as the first of its kind. In addition to using the name of the new style in its title, the song helped mark a purposeful move in a new musical direction.Footnote ¹ With this release, certain Jamaican record producers and artists made a shift from the smoothness of the rock steady sound approximating Chicago and Detroit soul to a more extroverted and harder edged sound more akin to James Brown (Reference Barrow and DaltonBarrow & Dalton 2001, 93). The new style of this song, and several others like it including ‘Nanny Goat’ by Larry and Alvin and the Beltones’ ‘No More Heartaches’, had a new approach to the rhythm and a greater prominence of the guitar part.

There followed a stream of reggae style singles (45 rpm), some of which were faster than standard rock steady while others were slower. All of this was tied together with a new ‘rough quality to the tunes, and the assigning of an even more pivotal role [given] to the electric bass’ (Reference Barrow and DaltonBarrow & Dalton 2001, 93). Unique to the new reggae sound was a conscious decision by producers, such as Duke Reid and Clement Dodd, to create truly experimental music that had a harder edge and absorbed all the best qualities of the Jamaican popular music that had come before. In addition to the work of these noteworthy producers, the session bands that inhabited their studios cannot be overlooked. Much like the Funk Brothers at Motown Records or Booker T and the MGs at Stax Records, session instrumentalists such as Lee Perry’s Upsetters, Claney Eccles’ Dynamites, and Derrick Harriott’s Crystalites innovated a new jerky and fast musical background for the oft Rastafarian-infused lyrics in the period around 1970. Not surprisingly, it is also at this time that dub music emerged from the Jamaican popular music scene.

An important aspect of reggae music in the early 1970s was that it became an increasingly global phenomenon quite quickly. Reggae’s growing diaspora desired a significant quantity and quality of music not just in Jamaica, but also in Western Europe. Several new producers emerged in the first few years of the 1970s and helped establish reggae as a revolutionary rebel music style. This anti-establishment mentality was fuelled by the continued infusion of Rastafarian-based lyrics in mainstream reggae. An excellent example of this was Bob Marley and the Wailers’ first album Catch A Fire. Recorded in 1972, the album was released in 1973 on Chris Blackwell’s Island Records label.

Marley and the Wailers recorded the nine tracks on Catch A Fire in the reggae style. The album was the band’s first release on a major label with international distribution. ‘The original tracks for the album were recorded at a variety of Kingston-based studies including Dynamic Sound Studio, Harry J. Studio, and Randy’s Studio’ (Reference MoskowitzMoskowitz 2007, 29). To give the album a more international appeal, Blackwell had several overdubs added to the original tracks. Famous Muscle Shoals Studio guitarist Wayne Perkins was added along with John ‘Rabbit’ Bundrick on electric piano, Clavinet, and Moog synthesizer to enhance the album’s crossover appeal. With this, Blackwell made Marley and Wailers’ first major release a product that would generate international attention. With this, reggae music was officially introduced to the global music community and by the summer of 1973, reggae music was on its way to becoming an international music style.

Although the reggae musical style certainly transferred to a variety of populations around the world, the lyrics associated with the Jamaican style found footing with a worldwide population. Led by Marley’s lyric writing throughout the 1970s, topics of self-emancipation, rejection of colonialism, rising out of a disenfranchised lower class, barrier breaking, and the embrace of political dissent resonated around the globe. Marley wrote lyrics on these topics as the two-fold theme of much of his music; on one hand he was encouraging underclass Jamaicans to rise up and take control of their own destinies and on the other he espoused a concrete ideology of Pan-Africanism and frequently referenced repatriation.

The tangible influence that the reggae style had on the global market appeared quickly. In 1974, famous guitar god Eric Clapton adapted one of Marley’s songs to the rock medium. ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ was released as a single and on the band’s second full-length album Burnin’ in 1973. Clapton’s version of the song appeared in 1974 on his album 461 Ocean Boulevard. Clapton’s album shot up the charts hitting #1 in the United States and Canada and topping out at #9 in the United Kingdom. While the international success of the album cannot solely be attributed to the Marley-penned track, it is worth noting that Clapton’s version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003, and the song’s initial success alluded to the coming tide of global reggae.

Throughout the 1970s, reggae continued to make an ever-increasing impact on the global music market. During this decade, Bob Marley and the Wailers released a series of successful albums and toured internationally. In the process, Marley became the first third-world music superstar and made reggae a global musical entity. Evidence of this global impact emerged throughout the music world. Aside from abject covers of songs written by Jamaican-born artists, musicians around the world quickly began imitating the reggae sound. An example that pre-dated even the Clapton cover of the Wailers was Paul Simon’s 1972 classic ‘Mother and Child Reunion’ which was among the first reggae-style songs written by an American-born singer/songwriter. Released in 1972, the song appeared as the lead single from Simon’s second solo album after the split with Art Garfunkel.

While Simon’s sojourn into Jamaican popular music was fleeting, the British rock band the Rolling Stones had a long association with Bob Marley and the Wailers throughout the latter half of the 1970s. This multifaceted association, which ultimately led to Peter Tosh of the Wailers signing to the Rolling Stones Records label as a solo artist in 1978, had an impact on the sound of the Rolling Stones in the mid-decade. In 1976, the Rolling Stones released the album Black and Blue, which contained the reggae influenced ‘Hey Negrita’. Built on a reggae riff supplied by Ron Wood, the song was little more than a long jam with Jagger-authored lyrics. Regardless, the reggae feel was inescapable, as described by Reference JanovitzBill Janovitz (2017): ‘this song … straddles Latin, reggae, and funk musical styles’. The album went on to chart in multiple countries making it to #1 in the United States and #2 in the United Kingdom.

Reggae music was not the only rebel music emerging in the mid-1970s. At this same time, American musicians in New York were evolving the punk music style, which quickly transferred to the United Kingdom. Notable bands in this style included the Ramones, Patti Smith, and the Sex Pistols. Additionally, in the latter part of the decade, punk gradually transformed into new wave. Touring during this timeframe, Marley and the Wailers interacted with many musicians in these new styles. Members of reggae, punk, and new wave bands had a spiritual kinship that focused on equality and justice.

In 1978, The Clash released ‘(White Man in) Hammersmith Palais’, which Denise Sullivan credited as the first song to truly merge punk and reggae (Reference SullivanSullivan 2017). The Clash’s approximation of elements of the reggae style was the product of lead singer Joe Strummer having attended a concert including reggae acts Dillinger and Leroy Smart. The band then ‘moved away from riff-heavy, raw punk and built on the punky reggae hybrid of their cover of Junior Murvin’s “Police and Thieves”, while lyrically developing Strummer’s morality politics’ (Reference Harrington and DimeryHarrington 2010, 421). A significant difference between the Clash and other White artists who adopted the reggae style was that the Clash did not just write a song or two in the style. Instead, the Clash purposely repositioned their musical style to include aspects of reggae with continued examples such as the potent roots reggae of ‘Guns of Brixton’ and their cover of ‘Police and Thieves’.

Additionally, the style melding of the Clash helped create the English 2 Tone (Two Tone) style spearheaded by bands such as the Specials, which mixed Jamaican ska and reggae with English punk and new wave. Of note, punk and new wave musicians’ fascination with reggae was not a one-way street. In 1977, Bob Marley and the Wailers released the Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry-produced ‘Punky Reggae Party’. The song was Marley’s response to the Clash covering Junior Murvin’s ‘Police and Thieves’ and was an up-tempo song describing a party including various punk/new wave and reggae bands including the Wailers, the Jam, the Clash, the Damned, the Maytals and included the words ‘new wave’ as a backing chant.

The spread of the reggae style continued in the 1980s, although many consider the demise of ‘roots’ reggae to coincide directly with Bob Marley’s death in 1981. Regardless, diasporic reggae continued to flourish, primarily in the United Kingdom and the United States. Although born in Ohio, Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer and guitarist for the Pretenders, grew up in the London punk scene, where she was immersed in 1970s transplant reggae. On her band’s debut album, the song ‘Private Life’ expertly imitated the jagged reggae guitar lines and hollow drum sounds prominent in the style. Again, appearing as evidence of cross-pollination, Jamaican-born singer Grace Jones covered the song with the legendary reggae rhythm section Sly and Robbie as part of the backing band.

While the trend in the 1970s was to create reggae versions of existing songs or to write one-off forays into the reggae style, the 1980s truly experienced diasporic reggae being created around the world. One high-profile example came in the form of Alborosie. Born Alberto D’Ascola, in Marsala, Sicily, he expressed early interest in a life as a reggae musician. In addition, Alborosie became a Rastafarian as he immersed himself in Jamaican music and culture. After a stint with the Italian reggae band Reggae National Tickets, he went solo and began releasing material in 2009. Based on the strength of songs such as ‘Call Up Jah’, ‘Rastafari Anthem’, and ‘One Sound’ Alborosie established himself as a new force in the reggae diaspora by the end of the 1990s. He has now established a long and storied international career and worked with famous Jamaican producers such as King Jammy and reggae luminaries such as Gramps Morgan, Gentleman, and Bob Marley’s son Ky-Mani. Alborosie’s international impact continues with the recent release of an acoustic reimagining of his hit album Soul Pirate. Originally released in 2008, this late 2017 reimagining of his classic roots material again finds Alborosie continuing to have an impact on the international reggae diaspora.

Contemporary examples of international reggae abound with numerous groups continuing to emerge from around the world. Modern reggae bands are often multi-racial combinations of instrumentalists and vocalists. Current examples of the reggae diaspora hail from a host of international locations. California is a particular hotbed with numerous reggae artists/bands and festivals. From Hermosa Beach is Fortunate Son, a roots and rock outfit started in 2009. Tribal Seed, from San Diego, also mixes roots reggae with a degree of rock and have been active for twelve years. Northern California band Stick Figure creates a hybrid of roots reggae and dub while Santa Barbara-based Iration blends roots reggae, dub, and rock. Another American state yielding reggae artists is Hawaii. The Green surfaced in 2009 with a unique blend of roots reggae and Hawaiian music. This band’s music is issued on long-standing New York City-based reggae and dub label Easy Star Records. Easy Star’s more than twenty-year run and active roster of twenty-two artists alludes to the continued potency of reggae music in the new millennium. Another Hawaii-based reggae band is Hirie. Fronted and named by its female Philippines-born singer, the band is now based in San Diego and its seven members play a mix of reggae and pop music.

As further indication of the continued and international appeal of reggae music is that it is no longer in the purview of the English-language-speaking portion of the world. Reggae in German, Italian, and Spanish is now internationally ubiquitous with dozens of bands recording roots reggae and reggae-based styles as they tour internationally. Although these styles are diverse and wide ranging, they all share a foundational basis in the original Jamaican-based roots reggae of the 1970s.

Reggae in the German language has enjoyed a period of over thirty years of popularity. The style was an easy transplant from the United Kingdom and quickly took hold with the German underclass in the same way that English punk music did. German reggae artist Tilmann Otto goes by the stage name Gentleman and has been making roots reggae in Germany since 1998. His international acclaim is attested to through collaborative music with reggae luminaires such as Toots and the Maytals. Another major German-language reggae artist is Patrice. Born Patrice Babatunde Bart-Williams, Patrice’s music spans a host of styles including reggae, punk, dancehall, and hip-hop. The band Seeed is a German reggae fusion band from Berlin. Active since 1998, the band creates a hybrid of reggae, dancehall, and hip-hop delivered in a mix of German, English, and Jamaican patois. While the band has had multiple hits in Germany with songs such as ‘Dickes B’, an ode to Berlin, Seeed has also found international success in France and the United States.

Italian-language reggae is another popular contemporary illustration of the diaspora. Internationally acclaimed band Africa Unite was named after the famous Bob Marley and the Wailers song. Founded in 1981 in Turin, this reggae and dub music outfit has enjoyed international success over the release of ten albums. Venice reggae band Pitura Freska have sold in excess of half a million records. The band disbanded in 2002, but during their run they released a string of successful reggae-style hits in Italian and their native Venetian dialect. The Neapolitan reggae/dub and world music group Almamegretta have been active since the late 1980s. Over the course of fourteen albums, the band has created an intriguing hybrid of style delivered in a mixture of Italian and English.

Reggae en Español is an international music phenomenon that began in the late 1970s. Over the past forty years, Spanish-language reggae has proliferated throughout Latin and South America and traveled around the world. Spanish-language reggae has even gotten so specialised that it has transcended simple songs in the reggae style delivered in the reggae style. Instead, Spanish-language reggae/Reggae en Español has grown to include multiple sub-styles. Artists that exhibit these styles are Chico Mann, Aldo Ranks, Morod, Gondwana, and Los Cafres.

While Spanish-language roots-style reggae remains popular, perhaps the most popular reggae derivative in the Spanish-speaking world is the reggaeton style. Reggaeton is essentially a hybrid of Jamaican dancehall (the style that emerged in Jamaica after reggae), American hip-hop, Caribbean culture focused on Puerto Rico (celebrated as the country of origin), and use of the Spanish language. At the end of the second decade of the 2000s, prominent reggaeton artists are having a huge impact on the American music scene. Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny, born Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is one such artist, having featured during the 2020 NFL Super Bowl Halftime Show, where he duetted with Shakira on two songs, ‘I Like It’ and ‘Callaita’. Bad Bunny’s career continues to thrive (even during the COVID-19 pandemic) as he appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in June 2020. Certainly, the global impact of reggaeton continues to increase.

Diasporic Dub

Although dub music evolved in Jamaica at the same time as reggae, the style took a slightly different path to international success. Considered a subgenre of reggae, dub was pioneered by sound engineers at Jamaican recording studios, such as Osbourne ‘King Tubby’ Ruddock (1941–89), Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry (born 1935), and Errol ‘Errol T’. Thompson (1941–89), among others (Reference VealVeal 2007, 2). These record label owners were looking for an inexpensive way to add a B-side to new Jamaican singles being issued on 45-rpm records. Almost immediately, these dub plates split into different derivatives: the early rhythm versions and, after 1972, the drum and bass versions (a term coined by Osbourne ‘King Tubby’ Ruddock). By using the rhythm tracks from the A-side, the record producers created a way for the selector to hype the new song over its rhythm track. The Jamaican sound system (mobile dancehall) selector or DJ spun the dub version of the new single and talked or toasted improvised lyrics.Footnote ²

It is important to note that these rhythm tracks were often not left in the same form as they were on the original, texted song. Instead the producers and engineers incorporated audio effects focused on reverb and delay (echo) – thus, essentially prefiguring the ‘remix’. The result of these effects was that the engineers reunified the song’s textless fragments into an original composition, which at times was meant to disorient the listener. Jamaica’s dub pioneers used echo in combination with the sentiments and spirituality of roots reggae to provoke a sense of Jamaica’s ancestral African roots, while at the same time involving the infinity of the cosmos – and the future – by creating cavernous spaces within the music (Reference Harrington and DimeryHarrington 2010, 421). With this, dub music became an entity unto itself made possible through the inventiveness and craft of Jamaicans including Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, first in Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle studio then in his own Black Ark studio, Osbourne ‘King Tubby’ Ruddock, who delivered dub plates, the crucial DJ U-Roy, and Tubby’s protégés King ‘Prince’ Jammy and Hopeton ‘Scientist’ Brown. With this, Jamaica’s dub innovators established this subgenre as a free-standing style with its own variations and commercial market in the period between 1975 and 1983.

As had been the case with the dissemination of the reggae style, dub quickly migrated to London. Although Jamaica’s colonial ties to Britain ended with its independence in 1962, the migration of the musical style from Kingston to London was already well established. By 1985, dub was losing caché in Jamaica; however, it was at this same time that it was taking over in London. During the 1970s, British producers and sound engineers had helped create diasporic reggae. At the same time, the English sound system proliferated with major systems coming from Ken ‘Fatman’ Gordon, County Shelley, and Sir Jessus, among others. These sound systems were significantly aided by Caribbean musicians and sound designers visiting from Jamaica. Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Mikey Dread made periodic and often extended sojourns to England, and in so doing, gave legitimacy to the London sound systems and helped establish a foothold there for the dub style.

As had been the case with reggae, the dub style found enthusiastic fans in the British punk underground. ‘Sonically, it was the rough-hewn quality of dub that held an attraction for punk enthusiasts, who shunned the smoother Black American rhythm and blues and soul styles that were popular in England at the time’ (Reference VealVeal 2007, 225). Further, the makers of English punk music readily allied themselves with oncoming dub musicians. The Clash asked Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry to produce their 1977 song ‘Complete Control’, thus lending additional legitimacy to Jamaican-born musical products. Early English absorption of the dub style came quickly with the creation of the band Public Image Limited (PiL). Formed by ex-Sex Pistols lead singer Johnny ‘Rotten’ Lydon, PiL included bass player John Joseph ‘Jah Wobble’ Wardle who steeped his playing in the sounds of dub. With this, the dub diaspora was firmly established in the United Kingdom not only musically, but also philosophically. Dub was particularly attractive to British punk rockers because ‘dub was a genre connected with an appreciation of music that could be traced back to the late-1960s when many artists and musicians had sought to produce work, which, they believed, if applied to the use of cannabis and hallucinogens, would facilitate the exploration of “inner space” and even induce mystical experiences’ (Reference PartridgePartridge 2010, 156).

In the 1980s, a new host of English dub artists emerged including Adrian Sherwood, Neil ‘Mad Professor’ Frazer, and Jah Shaka. Sherwood’s impact was amplified through his 1981 creation of the On-U Sound record label. Under the banner of On-U, Sherwood helped the UK careers of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Tackhead, Dub Syndicate, African Head Charge, New Age Steppers, Singers and Players, and Bim Sherman. Through the label, Sherwood has successfully kept the dub style on the UK musical landscape from the early 1980s to the present.

In the United States, New York City quickly became another bastion of the dub diaspora. With the groundwork laid by the migration of the reggae style, dub found a foothold in New York in the late 1970s. Born in Kingston, Lloyd ‘Bullwackie’ Barnes studied the Jamaican sound emanating from Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd’s Studio One and Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle studio. Barnes moved to New York in 1967 and opened his own sound system. His next move came in 1972 when he opened his own studio in the Bronx under the name ‘Senrab’ (Barnes spelled backward). ‘A few years later, he moved to 241st Street, changed the label name to “Bullwackie’s”, then “Wackie’s”, and began to hone his roots-inspired, analogue dub sound, memorably described by fellow producer Ras Menelek as “the reggae Motown in the Bronx”’ (Reference SullivanSullivan 2014, 95). Sonically, Barnes took his musical cues from Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s Black Ark studio days. An impressive list of reggae and dub artists passed though the studio including Horace Andy, Sugar Minott, Leroy Sibbles, Roland Alphonso, the Meditations, Jackie Mittoo, Max Romeo, Ken Booth, and many others. Along the way, Barnes formed this notorious studio band called the Bullwackie All Stars who providing backing for visiting singers and released their own material, including albums like Dub Unlimited in 1976 and Creation Dub in 1977.

Dub also took a foothold in Canada. Unlike London or New York, major cities in Canada did not have an existing Jamaican popular music conduit. This all changed with Jamaican-centric inroads being made in Toronto. Winston ‘Stranger’ Cole opened a record store and started releasing albums in Toronto. This led to the development of multiple Jamaican-style bands in the 1970s. Ishan People was formed by Jamaican music luminary Johnny Osborne. Reggae/dub producer Willie Williams joined with Jackie Mittoo to make live Canadian dub, leading to single and album recordings. Although Canadian dub music initially gained a wide fanbase, it had largely run its course by the close of 1980s. Its accompanying dub poetry scene, however, survived into the 1990s, which helped bring Canadian hip-hop onto the international scene.

A final example of the dub diaspora is German dub. While late coming to the style, German dub artists absorbed the style in the 1980s and in the 1990s major dub innovators emerged including Stefan ‘Pole’ Betke. Betke got his start in Cologne and moved to Berlin in 1996. ‘His first trilogy, 1, 2, 3, and R, a collection of remixes and new interpretations of his 1998 debut EP Raum, are mostly electronica comprised of dub basslines and itchy, clicky rhythms provided by the eponymous [Pole] filter that were exercises in minimalism’ (Reference SullivanSullivan 2014, 176). While Betke’s work may not have been as popular as mainstream dub, it did open the door for the dub style in German.

Influenced by Betke, the Jahtari label was formed in 2004 by Jan Gleichmar.Footnote ³ Gleichmar (who goes by the stage name ‘Disrupt’) and his partner techno DJ Christoph Rootah issued a mix of dub and reggae through Jahtari. A small label based in Leipzig, its artists’ material is dub style with a unique twist – essentially, all of the music is created on laptops, which they call Digital Laptop Reggae (DLR). The original releases from the label were only through download, but more recently Betke has been releasing new music on vinyl. Along the way, the Jahtari artist roster has soared past twenty, including London-based Mikey Murka, American-based Burning Spear collaborator Ras Amerlack, and Jamaican-born Hopeton Lindo, among others. Although not limited to the time-honoured studio techniques of reverb and echo, Jahtari artists have updated the analog style for the digital age.

Conclusion

Clearly, reggae and dub have become international entities and their own subgenres have become very popular as the diaspora grows larger. From reggae has sprung multitudes of hybrid styles that fuse elements of 1970s era roots reggae with more modern styles such as rock, hip-hop, and world music. A contemporary example of this type of modern artist who fuses seemingly disparate influences with reggae is Matisyahu. Born Matthew Paul Miller, Matisyahu builds his music on the bedrock of the roots reggae style. Yet, influenced by his Jewish faith, he also incorporates the tonal style of a hazzan (cantor), occasionally intermixes English with Hebrew and Yiddish, and commonly relies on Orthodox-specific themes, which he layers with other contemporary popular music elements such as the hip-hop technique beatboxing and guitar-driven alternative rock. Though decidedly eclectic, Matisyahu’s sound maintains its reggae footing with the help of periodic production from reggae stalwarts Sly and Robbie.

As noted by Paul Reference SullivanSullivan (2014, 209), ‘dub’s influence reaches today’s global network of producers, sound systems, MCs, and DJs’. Additionally, it has influenced multiple dub-based spinoff genres including house, techno, ambient, electronic dance music (EDM), jungle, dubstep, digidub (or digital dub, a.k.a. neodub), and contemporary drum and bass. Additionally, original dub standouts are still on the scene including Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Hopeton ‘Scientist’ Brown. Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry remains relevant in the dub diaspora as does Adrian Sherwood. Further, modern technology has had a marked effect on the dub diaspora, with the advent of midi (musical instrument digital interface), music created/mixed on the computer, and the development of the drum machine. Digital dub artists who continue to explore the style include Jah Shaka, The Disciples, and Alpha & Omega. These artists maintain musical continuity through a continued connection to the dancehall and musical structure steeped in traditional Jamaican roots. Regardless of the influx of new styles/genres, progressive musical influences, or the rise of the computer/digital era, reggae and dub music styles remain relevant and the Jamaican popular music diaspora continues to evolve and grow.