Black People : Bob Marley and African Americans

lol @Coolio...
 
Maybe posthumously but during his lifetime he wasn't. He said so himself, based I guess on the audience of his concerts, and his airplay on urban radio stations.

Chris Blackwell, his white Jamaican label producer decided to promote Bob Marley to white student/rocker in the USA, he even got white rock musicians to add backing to Marley's music. Bob (like many other artists) popularity increased tremendously after his death. Many both black and white love his music, but during his life he was deliberately marketed to whites.

Bob Marley was before my time but those old enough to remember here (I live in London) say a lot of black people loved his early stuff but disliked his later material (after Blackwell encouraged him to appeal to a white audience, and his music of late 70's onwards has a softer pop like sound) and his last few concerts in London many blacks didn't bother to go, preferring the likes of Burning Spear, Culture, Dennis Brown and former wailers Peter Tosh and Bunny. Even after his death, the Bob Marley tunes you hear in predominantly black gatherings here tends to be his earlier work.

Slightly off topic you might want to read this review of the new movie about him, even if you havent seen it yet its a really informative interesting piece in regards to the history of Jamaica and why the writer feels the white director of the movie misrepresents Bob Marley in it:

Marley Film Review by: Ankhobia Carvalho By now you may have heard of, watched or are looking forward to viewing the latest in a string of documentaries attempting to unravel the music and life of reggae superstar Bob Marley. So what can the new documentary ‘Marley’ reveal to us that others have not covered? As a hardcore Bob Marley fan for over 30 years I sat in great anticipation hoping to finally get an honest and truthful account of the life of one of my musical icons. So why was I disappointed after two and a half hours of watching what was supposed to be the definitive film on the life of Bob Marley? Perhaps having seen most documentaries on Bob read the majority of biographical accounts, listened over and over again to all of his albums including demos, concerts and interviews - from the outset I expected certain facts to be mentioned in the film and they were not. So I decided to research what the goal of the film was about. What did the director Kevin McDonald hope to achieve?


Read the whole article:

http://sonsofmalcolm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/exclusive-rastafarian-pan-africanist.html
 
Is this really a question.. or is it just another condescending poke from another outsider critic of Africans in America? really.. your whole premise is suspect.. and I won't make a big thing of it.. let me just say this:

Bob Marley was and is Hugely popular and widely and fully accepted by whole generations of Africans in America. The music of Africans in America was a huge influence on Bob's own musical development.. There was a mutual respect and resonance there that emanates from a common source.

And I'll leave it at that.

-peace

First off I lived here long enough not to consider myself an outsider

Second no it wasn't meant as condescending, sorry if you feel that way.
 
This might sound like a poke so I'm going to put on my AA shield for this one. Could it be because AA's are somewhat Arrogant when it comes to music?

Before you go on one hear me out; In a way African-Americans kind of held the flame and could be called the torch bearers when it comes to African/Diasporan music.

Even Jamaican music which is original in its own right has taken heavy influence from African-American music.

In-fact Jamaican and AA music have always been alongside one another kind of complementing each-other in a way from then all the way down to hip hop.

I'm of Jamaican Descent and I know when it comes to music AA and Jamaican is most popular throughout the world so Continental Africans And other Caribbeans step you game up - lol!

I think Bob Marley was loved around the world though. I can't really comment to what extent with AA's because I don't really know - only African Americans that remember those days can comment on that I guess. Lauryn Hill?

The music of Jamaica includes Jamaican folk music and many popular genres, such asmento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub music, dancehall, reggae fusion and related styles. Jamaica's music culture is a fusion of elements from the United States (rhythm and blues and soul), Africa, and neighboring Caribbean islands such as Trinidad and Tobago (calypsoand soca). Reggae is especially popular through the international fame of Bob Marley. Jamaican music's influence on music styles in other countries includes the practice of toasting, which was brought to New York fo City and evolved into rapping. British genres asLovers rock and jungle music are also influenced by Jamaican music.

Good points. The most influential countries for music to the African Diaspora, in addition to America & Jamaica were, Cuba, Brazil & the French Caribbean.
 

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