kalcidis wrote:
The evolution of the UK stepper sound systems I would like to think is when the UK style first started having a style of their own that could be defined as a specific UK vibe. This was a change that started in the 70's and would really reach its stylistic pinnacle in the mid to late 80's and onward with a lot of locally produced music playing a larger part of the selections (but also JA releases that fitted the vibe). It would be mainly minor chord productions while in JA a lot of sounds were playing minor, major and everything inbetween.
Some of the heaviest UK sounds that in retrospect probably are regarded as roots sounds also played a nice and big portion of lovers rock. I'm thinking of Coxsone Outernational, Soferno B and a lot of the others who also released a lot of lovers rock on their own imprints. Several other sounds could probably be regarded as primarily lovers rock sounds even. Unfortunately there seems to be a lot less info on these compared to the roots/dancehall sounds of the same periods -- the 70's to mid 80's. I'm do not know how the lovers rock scene evolved after and what role it continued to play in the sound system scene from the mid 80's and forward. Would very much enjoy info on this if anyone here knows.
Re the "uk stepper sound systems" starting in the 70's, the only sound who really specialised in that style was Jah Shaka, and at that point in time the majority of the music he played came from JA. There were certainly lots of other sounds who played that style as part of their set ie Sir Coxsone, Fatman, Quaker City, Jah Tubbys etc but they also went into a broader range of styles which Shaka didn't. I'd say it wasn't really till the late 1980's that you started to see more sounds setting up in England who specialised in the UK roots style, and even then there wasn't really enough music being made in England to specialise in it so really it was from the 90's onwards when it took off in a big way as by that time the uk digital scene was expanding in a big way and more sounds were starting up like Iration Steppas and Aba Shanti I
For a newcomer like Blindman's education I think it'd be fair to say that most of the current crop of UK roots/dub/steppers sounds took their influence from Jah Shaka and the scene gradually evolved from featuring a lot of JA music to having more and more UK music. The people who went on to create their own brands of UK dub were heavily influenced by Shaka more than any other sound system cos he always played the heaviest most militant style of reggae which gradually began to appeal to a wider audience. Ultimately this UK influence then spread to Europe and around the world with a lot of new producers in different countries taking their influence from the UK scene.
As for lovers rock, although it still gets made in a little way nowadays, its days as a musical force seem to be long over now, with its heyday being in the 1980's. It was big and popular amongst a part of the UK reggae audience at one time, but for whatever reason, those days are more or less gone for good now - maybe because most of the young black UK audience it was aimed at no longer regard reggae as their music of choice nowadays. ...