Hopeton Brown 20 Best Reggae Music of the 70s

Not to open a can of worms here, but 1975 might be the greatest year ever for Jamaican music. Oh, sure, go ahead and quibble — 1969 was no slouch either (Max Romeo’s “Wet Dreams” and the epochal “Return of Django” from The Upsetters turned the island music industry on its head), and dancehall enthusiasts might suggest 1985 as equally knockout (the year King Jammy’s digital “Under Mi Sleng Teng” rhythm changed everything). But 1975 represents the year in which reggae found itself at the peak of its mature powers: distant from the mento, ska and rock steady rhythms that had helped birth it, and a decade away from the general abandonment of live instrumentation marking Jamaican music’s next phase.

Not that reggae was experiencing any kind of stasis in 1975. Indeed, innovators were one-upping each other in club appearances and stretching the limits of available technology.