Dub music

Dub is a form of Jamaican music (see music of Jamaica) which developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in many ways as a precursor to hip hop in the United States (see music of the United States). It is characterized by being a "version" of an existing song, typically having an extended percussive beat, and being drenched in spring reverb, echo and delay, with the emphasis on removing or altering layers of the original track as well as the bassline.

These versions are mostly instrumental, sometimes including snippets of the original vocal version. Often these tracks are used for "Toasters" rapping heavily-rhymed and alliterative lyrics. These are called "DeeJay Versions". As opposed to Hip Hop terminology, in Reggae Music the man with the microphone is called the "DJ", while the person operating the turntables is the "Selector".

The music features slow and heavily reverberated metallic or industrial sound effects and other noises, such as animal sounds and babies crying.

A major reason for producing multiple versions was economic, a record producer could use a recording he owned to produce numerous versions from a single studio session.

See in particular the works of Lee Perry, King Tubby (Osbourne Ruddock) and Augustus Pablo for the very best in dub music in the 1970s. In the 80's Britain became a new center for dub production with Mad Professor and Jah Shaka being the most famous, while Scientist became the heavyweight champion of Jamaican dub. In the 1990s and beyond dub has been influenced by and in turn influenced techno, dance music and hip hop, with many dub tracks produced by non traditional musicians from these other genres. Musicians such as The Orb, Pole, Underworld and others demonstrate clear dub influences in their respective genres, and their innovations have in turn influenced the mainstream of the dub genre. Traditional dub has, however, survived (see Aba Shanti-I, for example) and some of the originators like Lee Perry and Mad Professor continue to produce new material.