Though it is common practice for writers and music lovers to codify

some   Jamaican music and artistes as

‘dancehall’, the reality is, dancehall hasn’t stopped by the musical genre BBQ

in over a decade. The sound that has been generated and produced beyond

Kingston studios in the past 10 years musically defies what dancehall is and

has instead transcended to a new genre called ‘one beat’, which has steadily

popularised.

While the term, ‘one beat’, may be foreign to some, the sound is familiar

to all. Coined by ethnomusicologist Dr Dennis Howard, ‘one beat’ is an umbrella

term for the genre-defiant sound that has represented Jamaican music since

2009, blending afrobeat, reggae fusion and Anglo-American styles with dancehall

elements.

Although labelled as reggae, Koffee’s Toast is a one beat track.

Pause for a cause, think Koffee’s Toast. The 2018 song is labelled

‘reggae’ by Itunes, but defies theone-drop beat that has made reggae identifiable since the late 1960s. Toastdoes not fit into dancehall either, as foundation instruments like the Casio MT-40and Yamaha DX100 are replaced by the dense clap and bass signature of theRoland TR-808. The afrobeat and pop influence also pervade, making Toasta one beat song.

Without getting too technical, here are some ways in which one beat music

dominated the local music scene this decade.

Popcaan isn’t just the ‘unruly boss’, he is also the ‘one beat boss’,

according to Howard. Since doing his initial recordings 12 years ago, Popcaan

has built a genre-bending catalogue, primarily working with producers Notnice

and Dre Skull. Everything Nice (2014) is a perfect example of this, as

the ‘chill’ track sees Poppy finessing a sing-rap style over a beat which is as

emo as it is genreless. He escapes the dancehall label again on other tracks

like Addicted, Silence, Way Up, I’m in Control

(with AlunaGeorge) …even his new EP, Vanquish, rides the one beat

wave. Then there are artistes like Alkaline, Konshens, Shenseea, Jada Kingdom,

Vybz Kartel and Kranium who contribute to the space, some of whom continue to

top streaming lists each year with one beat records.

New sounds are made possible by new technology and sometimes new producers. The decade saw the rise of many producers who incorporated more of that 808 sound in their productions. Rvssian saw success locally making one beat songs like Straight Jeans & Fitted and Hi recorded by Kartel, to this year’s Blessed recorded by Shenseea and Tyga. DASECA and Chimney Records experimented with big, orchestral-inspired starts as heard on Dexta Daps’ Shabba Mada Pot and Jah Vinci’s Guide Me. There is also Shabdon Records and Hemton Music, who have prided themselves on being the Mecca of trap dancehall for the past five years. So Unique Records, TJ and even Romeich Entertainment have also helped to generate the one beat sound.

When the term ‘reggae revival’ emerged in 2013, it created international interest as news media from across the world wanted to zero in on this new genre coming from Kingston’s music scene. Its frontmen included Protoje, Chronixx and Kabaka Pyramid, and this ‘revival’ was explorative beyond the one-drop aesthetic of reggae music which can be heard in Gyptian’s Serious Times (2005) and Dennis Brown’s To the Foundation (1981).

Reggae revival, or reggae fusion, raised debates on the relevance of reggae, equally the case with the rise of trap dancehall in recent years. Described by its performers as a marrying of dancehall and trap music, trap dancehall also falls under the one beat umbrella and is heavily rooted in the 808 sonic. The genre has stirred debate in the past five years, with some producers like Danny Browne labelling it knock-off hip hop, and artistes like Bounty Killer blasting its frontmen for the audacity of associating the sound with dancehall.

Now, it must be said that when dancehall was dubbed a genre in the 1980s,

some folks blasted the name as dancehall was a space. Others also criticised

the genre for promoting slack, uneducated and talentless artistes. Despite the

noise, dancehall has birthed some of our favourite performers and songs which

are still being sampled by the megastars of the world. It’s fair to say that

history is repeating itself with the uproar one beat music has caused this past

decade, and one can only imagine where the genre will reach in another 10

years.