This has been another banner year for American reggae music. Homegrown acts dominated the Billboard Reggae Album chart again, outselling and out-touring their Jamaican counterparts.

Interestingly, no American artiste has ever won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album which has been the domain of the Marley family since the music gained Grammy status in 1985.

The nominations for this year’s Grammys are expected to be announced this evening.

Rebelution, The Green, Fortunate Youth, The Expanders and The Frightnrs are some of the acts who made the Billboard Reggae Album chart’s Top 10 in 2017. They returned solid album sales largely through extensive touring.

Their albums consistently outsold those of Chronixx, Jesse Royal and Protoje.

Roger Steffens, the reggae archivist who was chairman of the Reggae Grammy Committee from 1984 to 2011, has watched the rise of American bands, particularly those from Southern California, for many years.

Their impact, he said, continues to grow.

“There’s no question that American audiences are finding US reggae bands’ work more approachable than the dancehall-inflected productions coming out of ‘Yard’ these days. For example, the Los Angeles-based roots revival band The Expanders’ recent number one hit on Billboard’s chart, knocked Damian Marley (Stony Hill) into the number two spot. None other than Dermot Hussey, now ensconced on Sirius/XM, has declared the group’s new collection of many extremely obscure rocksteady shots to be ‘the real thing’,” Steffens told the Jamaica Observer.

Damian Marley has one Best Reggae Album Grammy to his name. That came for 2005’s Welcome to Jamrock; his brothers Ziggy and Stephen have won the category multiple times as solo acts and with Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers.

Steffens is among a chorus who have criticised the National Academy of Recordings, Arts and Sciences (NARAS) over their handling of the Best Reggae Album category. NARAS are organisers of the Grammy Awards.

According to Steffens, once a Marley is nominated, they are likely to win. This sentiment was echoed by singer Freddie McGregor last year.

Strong albums by SOJA (Amid The Noise And The Haste) and Rebelution (Falling Into Place) were nominated for Best Reggae Album in 2015 and this year, but lost to Ziggy Marley.

Steffens noted that it is not only American bands that are losing out. American reggae radio is saturated by music from acts like Groundation, Pablo Moses, Ashanti Roy of The Congos and Winston Jarrett, formerly of The Flames. Yet, they get little love from NARAS.

“It is the international artistes that are doing the most to keep the genre alive. Maybe it’s time for the Grammys to recognise that,” he said.

 

 

 

 

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