The beauty of the Reggae music lies in its care free, laid back and liberal way of singing and toning, reflecting gay abandon, which intrinsically went with the philosophy of the Hippies of the Sixties.
Reggae is a music genre, associated with Jamaica of the late Sixties.
The origin of this name is controversial. While some attribute this to “rags”, used as a sought-after clothing style by the Hippies of the Sixties, others attribute it to royals!
There are also people who opine that the word ‘reggae’ was derived from the Jamaican patois word, `steggae’ which refers to a ‘loose woman’ or a ‘woman in rags’. Bob Marley, on the other hand, claims that the word is derived from the Spanish term for the ‘music for the royals!
Bunny Lee, who pioneered in this genre, had created the sound with the help of an organ and the rhythm guitar. It all sounded very much like ‘reggae, reggae’ and thus this name seems to have stayed behind in the very same way the cuckoo derived its name!
A Therapeutic Analysis of the Reggae Genre of Music
The beauty of the music lies in its care free, laid back and liberal way of singing and toning, reflecting gay abandon, which intrinsically went with the philosophy of the Hippies of the Sixties.
Reggae: A Psycho-acoustic Study by Nada Centre for Music Therapy
The psychoacoustic part of this music heavily lies on the strongly accented subsidiary beat, which gives an impression of lightness, carelessness, non-commitment and whatnot. Thus this music promises a tremendous sense of relief from worries and whatnot. Drug or no drug, sex or no sex (the mantras of the Hippies) reggae works towards calming the minds.
Reggae for the Self-Created Sufferings:
Ancient Hindus thought the human sufferings are caused by three reasons: (i) the self-caused (due to unregulated, over-thinking of the mind of a person himself/herself ), (ii) the sufferings caused by the fellow-beings (fellow humans, pests, animals, enemies etc), and (iii) the sufferings caused by nature (cyclones, tsunami, earthquake and the like). Of all these three, the sufferings caused by the uncontrolled thinking can be tackled by adopting to this “light” music of reggae, which doesn’t preach anything but love!
Here are some of the healings songs selected and recommended for our younger friends (and also for those who have young hearts!) by Nada Centre for Music Therapy for those who think too much (and suffer too much too!!!):
- Sugar sugar – Doreen Shaffer
- Sugar sugar – Delroy Wilson
- Someone loves honey – J. C. Lodge
- send me the pillow – Cynthia Schloss
- Stealing love – Carlene Davis
- I cried A Tears – Tilo Simon
- Sweet dreams – Dobby Dobson
- Come to me – Tyrone Taylor
- Can’t be with you tonight – Judy Boucher
- Everlasting love – George Baton
- I wanna wake up with you – Boris Gardiner
- My Mistake – Pat Ross
- Why not tonight – Derede Williams
- Anniversary – Lloyd Chambers
- Dreamland – Marcia Griffiths
- Welcome to my world – Donna Marie.
- Police in Helicopter – John Holt
- Revolution – Dennis Brown
- Burn Babylon – Sylford Walker
- Babylon Too Rough – Gregory Isaacs
This article was published in AYURVEDA AND ALL NOVEMBER 2013 – Page 32
Edited by Geeta Shreedar, Nov. 8, 2021