Dub
Dub is a version of reggae music that evolved in the early 70's. Popular tracks were remixed to display, and create greater emphasis on, the riddim or backing track. The engineers in the forefront of creating this new artform was King Tubby, Lee Perry, Herman Chin and Errol Thompson.
The earliest dub tracks were created as "specials" for Sound System use; the exclusivity of being able to play an unreleased and wildly different version of a popular song made this very popular and would have been considerably less expensive than recording exclusive songs altogether. The first dub tracks to see release to the public were featured on the b-side of 7 inch single releases in the early 1970's. The b-side dubs were often remixed versions of the track featuring on the a-side. These early dub mixes tended to focus on emphasizing the rhythm, with pronounced bass lines, and were usually more subtly mixed than dubs which were to emerge later in the decade.
The first dub albums surfaced in 1973. »Aquarious Dub« by Herman Chin Loy and »Blackboard Jungle Dub« by Lee Perry and King Tubby are two of the first strictly dub albums. By 1975 King Tubby released his first dub album and was soon to praised as the leading dub engineer. This was a position he held until his death. King Tubby also helped form two of the most important mixing engineers in reggae: Scientist and Prince Jammy. The latter came to be the leading force behind the creation of digital dancehall or ragga.
In the late 80's dub seemingly disappeared from the Jamaican music scene and has instead found a strong following outside of Jamaica in such genres as UK Steppers and alike.
List of artists
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