see also: Etymology of Dub

C' is in 1967 on the island of the Jamaica that the Disc jockey Rudy Redwood of very famous the sound-system " Supreme Ruler Off Sound" will diffuse by accident the first piece of reggae in instrumental version in a dancehall. This involuntary error is in fact due to a bad pressing of the vinyl. The surprise is immense and the public is then very receptive. Dj immediately will speak to the producer about it about " Treasure Isle" Duke Reid, which is at the time most important of Jamaica and which consequently will publish the 45 turns with opposite B the instrumental versions the local groups.

They are only a few months later that the sound engineer Osbourne Ruddock alias King Tubby very impressed by the services of the sound-system will launch out in experiments on these instrumental versions: it with the idea to engrave its " dubplates" so as to amplify the sound space of the couple low/battery, by attenuating the voices under effects of reverberation. If it is difficult to know which really created this new Musical genre, Tubby is nevertheless the producer by whom the movement developed, by inventing or popularizing the majority of the effects (low saturated, réverb, echo, Phaser) which define the style. We are in 1968 and the dub then has just been born.

Quickly developed by artists such as Lee “Scratch” Perry, Bunny Lee or Jah Shaka until at the time takers of sound of groups of reggae, the style will be characterized by a rhythmic stressing heavy and stripped, on a skeletal melody and a low line of development with all the effects which then will make it possible to the disc jockey to very make to a sound spectacle hooker. Other artists will completely sign compositions dub which will complete to popularize the movement such Linton Kwesi Johnson spearhead of the " Dub poetry " or Augustus Pablo which, in an album produced by King Tubby, made known the Mélodica with the whole world. Errol Thompson finally, records the first completely instrumental disc of reggae in 1970.

Around the Eighties of many musicians and groups of reggae started to develop novel methods of production which largely made advance the dub thereafter. It is necessary to quote the group The Revolutionaries or the artists Prince Jammy and Scientist, which multiplies the effects (in particular the equalizer) on their pieces. The famous rhythmic couple Sly & Robbie was also at the origin of the rates/rhythms " rockers " who will give the " steppers " dub of the years 90.

Le dub will remain this alternative of the reggae during twenty years, before making new great strides with the the United Kingdom where many English labels signed groups of Ska jamaïcains in the Sixties. Thus of many artists expatrient themselves in England where they tie bonds with the local groups of Punk. Sex Pistols, The Stranglers, Killing Joke or The Clash sign then some titles dub and of important gatherings develop in " Punk Reggae Left ".

Mad Professor and Adrian Sherwood is also the symbols living of this time. The first starts to produce dub since 1980 on its Ariwa label. It develops the style " Dub stepper " by applying very modern techniques of production to Riddim S originals. Its remixes confers an international notoriety to him which enabled him to collaborate with many artists of different styles (Massive Attack, Baba Zula, Horace Andy, Mafia & Fluxy…). Sherwood, fan of reggae, punk and musics underground Co-founds the label " Carib Gems" (Black Uhuru) in 1975 then in 78 " Hitrun Records" (Prince Far I and Roots Radics) and finally the label " UNO Sound" in 1980. Hitherto, the dub was this remixée music, played by the sound-systems jamaïcains. With UNO Sound Records, it becomes a music with whole share, nourished experimentation, which is listened as much as her is danced. It is necessary to retain the many experiments then carried out by the singers Mark Stewart and Prince Far I or by the groups The Slits and Depeche Mode. UNO Sound reveals also the formation Dub Syndicate which will record the first album where the techniques of production popularized by King Tubby will be used as bases musical creation and not of remixage.

Après the assassination of King Tubby the February 6th 1989, the dub knows fresh impulse by the marriage with sonoritées of the Electronic music. A series of British groups then develop a more radical sound and violent one that the original dub by using tables of mixing, boxes at rates/rhythms and Synthétiseur S. It is necessary for example to quote Iration Steppas, The Disciples, Zion Train or Alpha & Omega which are then the pioneers of a style neo dub multiplying the innovations thanks to the new techniques.

Then, the Nineties see creating a great number of Home studio with innovative dub projects and the style develops slowly with more and more artists not belonging to the traditional scene reggae. The group The Orb produces the first " Dub ambient ", instigators of a style very snuffed at present. The German scene appears with Dj Burnt Friedman or the groups Pole and Rhythm & Sound for a sound " Dub minimalist " truffle of grésillements and other unwanted noise. The Batteur Mick Harris of the Napalm Death invents a dub " industriel" with its group Scorn. Project of " hybrid Dub " are born: the Austrian group Sofa Surfers develops a planing dub orchestrated like a Film music, the musicians of Bad Brains decorate their discs of pieces reggae/dub (before devoting a whole album to the kind) and the bass player Bill Laswell becomes a producer of most prolific with innumerable collaborations.

Il seems that it is the group of industrial Metal Parisian Treponem Pal which was the first to develop a sound dub in France. The album " Higher " appeared in 1997 proposes an innovative fusion which will be at the origin of the movement " Novo dub ". Many formations are born at the end of the Nineties producing a sound " live" , in opposition to the dub conceived with machines. The musicians, often passed by underground rock groups, confront the style with a multiplicity of musical genres. It is advisable to quote the groups High Tone, Improvisators Dub, Zenzile, Dub Wiser, Brain Damage or Kaly Live Dub which is at the origin of a true revival of the dub by combining the live energy of the instruments with experiments on the sound, of the samples, the scratchs and much of effects. Formations such Ez3kiel or Lab° work on a fusion between the dub and the instrumental Rock, the group Löbe Radiant Dub System will be also the first with méler traditional instruments with current electronic sonorities.

If the French scene pains to be made an international reputation, it is not less at the origin of the most recent innovations related to the techniques of production to the dub. The approach of the kind becomes even more radical with loans increasingly marked with the electronic music and the metal, but also with sonoritées the Breakbeat, Hip-hop and Drum' Low.

The kind is not thus at present any more a ramification of the reggae but well a musical style with whole share which thus developed with the four corners of planet with musicians with the musical influences and the social or cultural beginnings completion different. If the common base remains the reggae, its product becomes increasingly rich and varied. We can count a multitude of environments, Jazz or Rock, close to the musics of Transe or sonorities tribal, sometimes cordial or sometimes very dark and with today an electronic contribution important.

L' name “ Dub ” now coupled with this musical genre, does not have a clearly definite origin and a great " number; of Inventive s" can always allot the paternity of the name. However, it is very plausible that the word “ Dub ” was born from the contraction of one of the following terms:

• Dubbing : process consisting in transferring a format (audio or Video) from a support on another, generally with an aim of restoration and safeguard.

• Dubplate : disc acetate produces before final pressing in vinyl. They were useful in order to refine the adjustments studio and were used as " test" near the public, under the impulse of the sound-systems.
• Double: because of the big number of different versions, being able to be published starting from same a riddim.
  

Le dub is a music which with the characteristic to be able to be played with machines, by a group into live, or only by a dj which mixes its vinyls. The music can thus be sober and purified like rich person out of instruments. We can differentiate several styles from dub:

• the Roots dub : remix " dub plates" of riddims original. It is the first dub, the first experiments originellements produced on the faces B of the vinyls.

• the Dub poetry or spoken voice : who gathers the dub and the Poésie. It is a little the return of the vocal partitions in the dub, a style often drawn aside by the purists because he recalls in fact the reggae.
• the instrumental Dub : reggae exclusively without words, with or without echo (of which the precursors were The Crystalites, backing band of Derrick Harriott).
• the Dub stepper : the " pied" or happy is clearly emphasized. On a four-four time the large case marks each time in a cyclic way. This sound is rather described as British after the appearance of artists like Mad Professor in the United Kingdom.
• the Dub ambient or abstract-dub : often produced by an artist alone with the machines, this style profits from a large contribution of electronics where sound environment is planing. Sometimes named " Dark Dub" the sound is characterized by poignant melodies and melancholic persons (of which the precursors were The Orb).
• the Dub minimalist : product generally by artists resulting from the scene Techno underground, the style is recognized thanks to an extremely purified musical structure. The melodies are reduced, this limiting to some agreements on a very simple rhythm section. " The école" allemande remains most representative of this sound.
• the Novo dub : played by instruments into live (in opposition to the remix) with much of effects like the delay or the cut-off. The parts of battery are often decorated the happy ones with tendencies Hip hop or Drum' low and many scratch or samples packs the pieces. This sound is in full rise with a very developed French scene.
• the hybrid Dub : the dub is not any more that one pretext, a sound base (held by the base line) to amalgamate with all the other musical genres. We thus see appearing many groups amalgamating for example with metal, the Smooth jazz or the traditional music orientale.
  

Il is necessary to note the big number of featuring (invitations) in the medium of the dub. The musicians dub often make " mélanges" between them or invite external instrumentalists in order to obtain new sonorities. The example the most outstanding remainder undoubtedly the English The Disciples or, in France, the group High Tone, which already entirely carried out several albums in co-operation. In the same way majority of the artists " solo" invite Mc on their pieces and thus avoid sampler voices. The multiplication of interpretations of same a Riddim called “Versions” shows overall, and in all the artists, this phenomenon of meets . The Remix and the reappropriation of a title or a whole disc remain the gasoline even dub, such as played the first activists of the kind. Artists as various as Serge Gainsbourg, U2, Hallucinogen, Linkin Park, Gorillaz, Massive Attack or Black Eyed Peas “passed all to the moulinette” dub.

In the same way, several collectives are created around a dub project. It is advisable for example to quote the New Yorkean collective Easy Star AlStars which, with its album Dub Side Of The Moon offers a whole remix to us album Dark Side Of The Moon of the group Pink Floyd. The collective of international artists General Dub also, occurred a few years with a futuristic project dark-dub with strong political connotation. Let us note finally that certain groups were born from the meeting between instrumentalists resulting from a different musical medium, generally in parallel project. It is for example the case for Dub Trees or De facto.

This list nonexhaustive is above all informative : a big number of artists or groups presented below cannot claim in an article, because of their too weak notoriety. (see: Wikipédia: Notoriety of the music)