Dub Sundays

At our house, we have something called "Dub Sundays." I'm not sure when it started (my guess is within the last three years), but it means that we start off the first couple of hours on Sunday mornings with dub music. If you don't know what dub music is, I'll let our friend the free encyclopedia wikipedia define it for you (click on the word "wikipedia" to see the whole dub page): Dub is a form of Jamaican music, which developed in the early 1970s. Dub is characterized as a "version" of an existing song, typically emphasizing the drums and bass for a sound popular in local Sound Systems (in the 1950s, in the ghettos of Kingston, a new type of public entertainment came about. DJs would load up a truck with a generator, turntables, and huge speakers and set up street parties). The instrumental tracks are typically drenched in sound processing effects, with most of the lead instruments and vocals dropping in and out of the mix. The music sometimes features processed sound effects and other noises, such as animal sounds, babies crying, and producers shouting instructions at the musicians.

Dub music is great waking-up music because it's pretty chilled out, pretty cheery, and pretty similar from song to song so you don't get jarred jumping from one genre to another, or from a slow song to a fast song. There aren't a lot of CDs that can boast that type of consistency.

As recently as a year ago, I really hated dub. I loved reggae (the original songs that dub strips down, reggae usually has a more typical song structure and many more lyrics. See Bob Marley.), but felt that dub songs all sounded exactly the same, especially since there weren't really lyrics to set the songs apart ("Oh, this song is about the evils of Babylon, this song is about slavery, and this song is about smoking ganja!"), and I felt like dub was basically just music created for stoners. Les has always really liked dub, but never had an excuse to play it at the house because I would always demand "that stupid dub music be turned off immediately," pointing out that you only had to add an "m" to make dub dumb (yes, I can be difficult at times!). So I think he started Dub Sundays as a way to listen to one of his favorite kinds of music for a few hours, at the same time reassuring me that I would only have to suffer through it for a short time.

I don't know what changed, but I like dub music now. I don't know if Les just wore me down over time and my resistance lessened, if it's familiar now and so I like it, if I understand the Rasta culture more and the methods behind making this music and don't just think they're a bunch of stoners, or if something changed in my lifestyle (you know, I have been wanting to slow down and chill out more...) that allows me to vibe more with the music. Whatever it is, it allows me to embrace Dub Sunday even when Les isn't home to put on the CDs. I'm alone at home and listening to dub right now!

You may still be thinking that you've never heard dub music before. I assure you that you have. But just to make sure, if you come 'round to the house, we would be happy to play some for you. Even if it's not Sunday.