Reggae in the 80s

Reggae has been on the scene since the introduction of it to the UK shores in the 1960s with the help Trojan Records.

The 1980s saw a explosion of reggae to hit the charts. Following the death of Bob Marley prematurely in 1981 Reggae enjoyed success with a number of artistes climbing the charts and making Reggae more mainstream.

Two of the biggest exponents were Bob Marley and Birmingham's UB40 (read about these two on the following links Bob Marley and UB40 One of the early successes in the 1980s was Sugar Minott who scored a top 5 hit 'good thing going' which was a cover of a Michael Jackson song, sadly he didn't gain any further success but he did introduce Musical Youth to the UK market. Musical Youth were a bunch of young lads from Birmingham like UB40 who enjoyed some great success.


In 1982 they sped to number one in the UK charts with Pass the Dutchie and top 10 in America selling over 4 million copies and the accompanying video was one of the first black artistes to be played on MTV. This was followed up by Youth of today No.13 and Never gonna give you up peaking at number 6. Sadly, after all that the band split due to number of reasons with finance and personal issues clouding the band.


Another who enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame was Smiley Culture who introduced the public to Fast chat. He enjoyed two big songs Police officer which was a top 20 hit and another classic Cockney Translation which reached number 70 but has since enjoyed success as an innovative song that has inspired future generations into rap. Unfortunately his biggest hit about the Police bought his death when he died during a Police raid on his house in 2011.

Another British success was Tippa Irie who enjoyed a couple of commercial successes with Hello Darling (top 30) and Heartbeat (top 60) he also worked with soul crooner Alexander O'Neal and more recently with the black eyed peas.

A couple of old school Jamaicans dented the charts with Gregory Isaacs championing the flag for Reggae despite his drug issues and a spell in prison he still managed to carve out some excellent material with rough neck and rumours, he was quite prolific in the 1980s releasing countless albums solo and linking up with some of the biggest names in Reggae.

Another old school regular were Sly and Robbie who were big influencers in Jamaica in the 1970s and 1980s. There introduction in the 80s of Rub a dub style was the staple for Island records sounds and they went on to produce for Grace Jones and Joe Cocker.

They fused Reggae with Funk and electric sounds and released the Rhythm Killers which spawned a top 20 hit 'Boop's here we go' which was later sampled on a Robbie Williams track.

Two of the biggest reggae acts in the 1980s were Aswad and Maxi Priest. Aswad a band from London started in the 1970s and still continue to this day. During the 1980s They released 11 albums with distant thunder reaching the top 10. They were quiet on the singles front releasing only 7 but enjoyed a huge number one in 1988 with 'Don't turn around' which was originally done for Tina Turner as a B-side but Aswad put there own touch to it and produced a huge international hit. The follow up 'give a little love' peaked at number 11.



Maxi Priest another Londoner who branched into the sound of Reggae fused with Rock. He released 3 albums in the 1980s with varying success with his self titled album reaching number 11 in the UK album charts. He also released 7 singles during the 1980s with 'Wild world' a top 10 smash in the UK, in 1990 'Close to you' was also a top 10 in the UK but a number one in the USA charts. He also worked with Reggae legends UB40 on a world tour in 2008/09.



Reggae has been around since the influx of Jamaicans to the UK shores in the 1950s and 1960s and
the next generation continued the trait to great success.