The most important thing to understand when examining the accomplishments and legacy of Bob Marley as a regg' musician is that with regg' it is never simply about the music. This is in some measure true of all musicians and all musical forms: No matter how skilled any particular musician might be and no matter how loyal his or her following might be, the music that any individual creates and performs is always the expression of a particular historical era, of a certain particular moment in time, of all the complex influences of an entire culture. The genius and talents of a particular musician and those with whom he or she works - these factors are of course important. But any musician (and any form of music) that succeeds does so because it connects with important issues, beliefs, and inclinations in the culture at large. And any music that endures does so because it is capable of speaking to those who inhabit cultural and historical worlds beyond those in which it was born.
Marley's popularity during his own time as well as since his death as well as the ongoing popularity of regg' as a musical form suggest that the musician and his music speak to a wide range of audiences. This paper explores Marley's work as a regg' artist, looking in particular at his songs "No Woman, No Cry", "I Shot the Sheriff" and "Exodus".
Regg''s roots lie in the middle decades of the last century, with regg' emerging as a distinct and clearly identifiable form of music in late 1960s and receiving notice outside of its birthplace of Jamaica in the 1970s. From the beginning, both within Jamaica and abroad and from the perspective of both musicians and audiences, regg' music was considered to be the voice of the oppressed, and Marley was preeminent in epitomizing the idea of the regg' artist as someone who spoke for those who were in the main disenfranchised (Bradley 14). Regg' is fundamentally identified as the voice of Jamaica, and in the 1960 especial...