How King Tubby influenced popular music

[Downfall]

Hi guys, I'm doing a uni project on the ways that King Tubby and Dub music in general helped influence popular music. For example being one of the first genres to 'remix' music using a song's elements to change the overall feel of the original piece. I was wondering if any of you guys have an opinion on this and would like to share your views/knowledge? cheers

[Genevieve]

The main thing about dub is that it utilized the studio as an instrument way more in a popular music setting than any other music before it (kinda paving the way for hip-hop). Some rock musicians did it before (Phil Spector, the Beatles, etc), but dub took it to another level. I think that's the key thing. The 'remix' aspect is kind of incidental to that, cuz it's the product of that mindset. A guitarist played guitar, Tubby and others played the mixer.

Not that relevant to what you're writing about, but the 'use the studio (or laboratory) as an instrument' thing had been done before in the classical music realm. Especially in musique concrète. In most of the 20th century, pop music kind of followed the innovations of "serious music" by a few decades, often independently. Probably as a result of technology becoming cheaper with time and thus available on the consumer market much later (because all these tools were owned by universities and could only be used by classically trained composers). One of the first electronic instruments, the teleharmonium weighed 200 tonnes and was basically priceless (late 19th century), by the early '80s, synths had become accessible to most consumers.

Oh and the way they used effects in dub music became popular in the late '70s as well. Especially those distorted tape delay feedback loops and the echoey, metallic, hollow reverb sound was also used in a lot of New Wave productions.

[Downfall]

Thanks mate very helpful reply, any others care to share their opinions?

[alphacat]

Yes - you MUST read "People Funny Boy," the bio of Scratch Perry. There's a lot in there about Tubby's sound and how even Scratch would defer to his creative insights, as well as particulars about what equipment he used and his studio setup. Also good for details is the book "Dub" by Michael Veal. For instance, Tubby's studio was inside his house and so tiny that you couldn't get a full band or even a couple musicians in there to play live; instead, people brought their tapes of live sessions from various other studios and singers to overdub... sounds a lot like how most of us work today, no? Basically sets of samples to be reworked via mixing & fx...

And yes, without Tubby the modern concepts of producer-as-creator, remixing, spaciousness in dance music mixes, and bassweight would all be very different and probably lacking.

[Downfall]

thanks man, ill definitely check it out !

[PinUp]

Have you got the King Tubby meets Rockers Uptown boxset that was recently re issued on get on down? That's got a really good booklet in it that's got an interview with Scientsist talking about how Tubby was the first to varnish the coils on his amps, reinforce his speaker cones and really explore capturing the full sound spectrum in his recordings. I might be able to scan it for you if you haven't got it. Drop me a PM if you want it.

Watch the Dub Echoes documentary as well that's got some really good clips in it.

[test_recordings]

Iration Steppas put out a good DVD a few years ago with some modern (dub/reggae) sound system crews talking about what they do and why... I went to the premier screening in Leeds, it was pretty fucking sweet!

[PinUp]

^any idea what that was called? Wouldn't mind watching it!

[Downfall]

cheers pin up ill definitely check it out !