To design this book, I drew inspiration from my partner's, Michael Thompson aka Freestylee, poster artwork (www.freestylee.net). I took the core of each and complemented it with typography, giving readers the opportunity to visualize the textual content of each chapter. Here below I have shared some chapters of the book and Freestylee posters that I used. The cover designed by Michael Thompson and it is his poster "Dubwise International Hi-Fi".
Enjoy!
Few Words about the Global Reggae Book:
These plenary lectures from the “Global Reggae” conference convened at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica in 2008 eloquently exemplify the breadth and depth of current scholarship on Jamaican popular music. Radiating from the Jamaican centre, these illuminating essays highlight the “glocalization” of reggae – its global dispersal and adaptation in diverse local contexts of consumption and transformation.
The languages of Jamaican popular music, both literal and metaphorical, are first imitated in pursuit of an undeniable “originality”. Over time, as the music is indigenized, the Jamaican model loses its authority to varying degrees. The revolutionary ethos of reggae music is translated into local languages that articulate the particular politics of new cultural contexts. Echoes of the Jamaican source gradually fade. But new hybrid sounds return to their Jamaican origins, engendering polyvocal, cross-cultural dialogue.
From the inter/disciplinary perspectives of historical sociology, musicology, history, media studies, literature, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, the creative/cultural industries and, above all, the metaphorical “life sciences”, the contributors to this definitive volume lucidly articulate a cultural politics that acknowledges the far-reaching creativity of small-islanders with ancestral memories of continents of origin.
The globalization of reggae music and its “wild child” dancehall is, indeed, an affirmation of the unquantifiable potential of the Jamaican people to reclaim identities and establish ties of affiliation that are not circumscribed by the Caribbean Sea: To the world!
The languages of Jamaican popular music, both literal and metaphorical, are first imitated in pursuit of an undeniable “originality”. Over time, as the music is indigenized, the Jamaican model loses its authority to varying degrees. The revolutionary ethos of reggae music is translated into local languages that articulate the particular politics of new cultural contexts. Echoes of the Jamaican source gradually fade. But new hybrid sounds return to their Jamaican origins, engendering polyvocal, cross-cultural dialogue.
From the inter/disciplinary perspectives of historical sociology, musicology, history, media studies, literature, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, the creative/cultural industries and, above all, the metaphorical “life sciences”, the contributors to this definitive volume lucidly articulate a cultural politics that acknowledges the far-reaching creativity of small-islanders with ancestral memories of continents of origin.
The globalization of reggae music and its “wild child” dancehall is, indeed, an affirmation of the unquantifiable potential of the Jamaican people to reclaim identities and establish ties of affiliation that are not circumscribed by the Caribbean Sea: To the world!
The final published book
You can see also some more of the Freestylee posters that inspired me to design the book.
You can see also some more of the Freestylee posters that inspired me to design the book.
“Through insightful and sophisticated scholarship, passionate analysis, and elegantly constructed essays, Global Reggae brings together irrefutable evidence of the remarkable worldwide reach of reggae music over the last half century. Carolyn Cooper has skilfully edited a book of startling visual design and intellectual depth that manages to demonstrate, through complex and varied voices, reggae’s astounding impact on the globe. The term ‘essential’ is used a lot these days, but sometimes it is a fit and righteous word to employ. Global Reggae is essential reading for anyone who is seeking to appreciate this great cultural phenomenon.”
—Kwame Dawes, author of Natural Mysticism and Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius
“How do we account for reggae’s ubiquity; its indigenization and hybridization outside Jamaica; its influence on technologically driven music forms and its impact on global popular culture? Global Reggae goes a long way in providing answers to these questions and more. . . . It is an important contribution to inter disciplinary study of popular culture [and] the first ever reggae reader.”
—Linton Kwesi Johnson, reggae poet and recording artist
Contributors: Kam-Au Amen, Peter Ashbourne, Erna Brodber, Louis Chude-Sokei, Brent Clough, Carolyn Cooper, Cheikh Ahmadou Dieng, Samuel Furé Davis, Teddy Isimat-Mirin, Ellen Koehlings, Pete Lilly, Amon Saba Saakana, Roger Steffens, Marvin D. Sterling, Michael Veal, Leonardo Vidigal, Klive Walker
Carolyn Cooper is Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, and 1992, she initiated the establishment of the university’s International Reggae Studies Centre. Her publications include Sound Clash: Jamaican Dancehall Culture at Large and Noises in the Blood: Orality, Gender and the “Vulgar” Body of Jamaican Popular Culture.
COVER Design by Freestylee, artist without borders (www.freestylee.net)
BOOK Design by Maria Papaefstathiou : http://www.behance.net/mariapap
BOOK Design by Maria Papaefstathiou : http://www.behance.net/mariapap
