Bob Marley

A year after Jamaica got its independence a single called “Simmer Down” was released by The Wailers. The Wailers was a group featuring Bob Marley, the icon of Reggae music. Robert Nesta Marley was a Jamaican singer who was born in nineteen forty-five and passed away at the age thirty-seven. Son of a white marine’s captain and a younger native. Reggae genre was universally known because his songs represent his beliefs. Bob Marley had a brilliant career, and even had profound effects in countries where English is not the native language. Reggae music originates from the development of ska and rocksteady music.

The main characteristics of Reggae are a symmetrical rhythm -and as a result of it are usually played in four/four time-, the tempo of the songs are usually slow –somewhere around andante- and the guitar plays offbeat of the rhythm, between the marks one, two, three, and four. The themes of Bob Marley’s lyrics were about social criticism, war, peace, and love. Bob Marley lived in a time where African Americans did not have the same rights as everyone else, and in certain songs he criticizes the different treatment between races.

The album “Legend” was released three years after Bob Marley’s death and it is a compilation of the best songs during his career. It is Reggae’s best-selling album in the world, reaching approximately twenty-five million copies sold. The album has fourteen songs including songs about love (“One Love”), about war (“Buffalo Soldier”), and criticizing politics and society (“Get Up, Stand Up”).

The song “Buffalo Soldier” relates to the African-Americans who were brought from Africa to fight in America against the Native Americans. They were called Buffalo Soldiers because of their skin color and their appearance on the battlefield. Even though Africans were fighting for our country they still were not treated as equals. In this excerpt “If you know your history, then you would know where you are coming from, then you would not ask