"efek negatif dR ganja"

Efek negatif secara umum adalah bila sudah menghisap maka pengguna akan menjadi malas dan otak akan lamban dalam berpikir. Namun, hal ini masih menjadi kontroversi, karena tidak sepenuhnya disepakati oleh beberapa kelompok tertentu yang mendukung medical marijuana dan marijuana pada umumnya. Selain diklaim sebagai pereda rasa sakit, dan pengobatan untuk penyakit tertentu (termasuk kanker), banyak juga pihak yang menyatakan adanya lonjakan kreatifitas dalam berfikir serta dalam berkarya (terutama pada para seniman dan musisi.

Berdasarkan penelitian terakhir, hal ini (lonjakan kreatifitas), juga di pengaruhi oleh jenis ganja yang digunakan. Salah satu jenis ganja yang dianggap membantu kreatifitas adalah hasil silangan modern “Cannabis indica” yang berasal dari India dengan “Cannabis sativa” dari Barat, dimana jenis Marijuana silangan inilah yang merupakan tipe yang tumbuh di Indonesia.

Efek yang dihasilkan juga beragam terhadap setiap individu, dimana dalam golongan tertentu ada yang merasakan efek yang membuat mereka menjadi malas, sementara ada kelompok yang menjadi aktif, terutama dalam berfikir kreatif (bukan aktif secara fisik seperti efek yang dihasilkan Methamphetamin). Marijuana, hingga detik ini, tidak pernah terbukti sebagai penyebab kematian maupun kecanduan. Bahkan, di masa lalu dianggap sebagai tanaman luar biasa, dimana hampir semua unsur yang ada padanya dapat dimanfaatkan untuk berbagai keperluan. Hal ini sangat bertolak belakang dan berbeda dengan efek yang dihasilkan oleh obat-obatan terlarang dan alkohol, yang menyebabkan penggunanya menjadi kecanduan hingga tersiksa secara fisik, dan bahkan berbuat kekerasan maupun penipuan (aksi kriminal) untuk mendapatkan obat-obatan kimia buatan manusia itu. (dari berbagai sumber).

Jamaican music in the 1980s

Vocal trio black uhuru , supported by the rhythm section of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, wrapped reggae and Rastafarianism into a slick production of drum-machines and synthesizers, especially on Red (1981).Innovators of the next generation included toaster and turntablist Yellowman (Winston Foster), a pioneer of "dancehall" (reggae music with rock drums) who established his reputation with Mister Yellowman (1982), crossover artists such as eddy Grant , with the electronic Afro-rock-reggae-funk fusion of Walking on Sunshine (1979),eek-a mouse (Ripton Joseph Hylton), who invented a unique vocal technique that harked back to the early days of toasting, as displayed on Wa Do Dem (1982), and (Michael Campbell), who crafted African Anthem/ At The Control Dubwise (1979), with help from Scientist, King Tubby, Augustus Pablo and Sly & Robbie, and World War III (1981), with help from Scientist, after collaborating with the punk-rock band Clash.
Popular reggae musicians of the 1980s included Judy Mowatt, who, as a backup vocalist for Marley, was one of reggae's first female performers, and, as a soloist, crossed over into pop-soul balladry, Ivory Coast's sociopolitical bard Alpha Blondy (Kone Seydou), and David "Ziggy" Marley, son of the prophet, who sold out his father's myth to the international disco-pop crowds. Dancehall toaster Shabba Ranks (Rexton Gordon) and Shinehead (Carl Aiken) were the stars of ragga hip-hop.

Jamaican revival in Britain

Reggae and ska enjoyed a major revival in Britain during the punk age. Starting in the mid-1970s, ensembles such as Aswad, Steel Pulse, Matumbi and UB40 offered a westernized version of Jamaican music that was rather uninspired, but were lucky enough that the audience found affinities with the implicit protest themes of the political punks. At the same time, British sensations of the ska revival included Specials and Madness. British dub music was a more serious affair, and took longer to emerge.But, over the long term, it was dub music, and not ska or reggae music, that stuck around, thanks to the quality productions of Adrian Sherwood (the brain behind African Headcharge , Dub Syndicate and New Age Steppers ), Jah Shaka and prolific Guyana-born Neil Fraser, better known as Mad Professor, who penned Beyond the Realms Of Dub (1982), and even Aswad's own New Chapter of Dub (1982). Artistic peaks were reached by dub pioneer and experimentalist Keith Hudson, with Pick A Dub (1976), and instrumental soundpainter Dennis Bovell (a former member of Matumbi, an engineer who coined the soul-reggae fusion called "Lovers Rock"), with Strictly Dubwise (1978), I Wah Dub (1980), probably his most intense release, and Brain Damage (1981), a cosmopolitan work that also mixed calypso, rock and funk. Linton Kwesi Johnson, a Jamaican poet living in England, transposed reggae's mood into dub-based sermons, arranged by Dennis Bovell, on the contemporary issues of the lumperproletariat. Ditto for the other poet of dub, Mutabaruka.

The most popular Reggae Bands

There is Byron Lee and the Dragonnaires, (who can be seen on the re-runs of the James Bond Film Dr. No), Fabulous 5, The Skatalites, Cedrick Brooks and The Light of Saba, Inner Circle who split up and reformed under the name Third World...and so many more. There are even more reggae singers.

People like the late Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, the late Dennis Brown, Ken Boothe, John Holt, Alton Ellis, Marcia Griffiths, Cynthia Schloss, Judy Mowatt, Rita Marley,Toots Hibbert (and the Maytals), Owen Grey, Beres Hammond, Sugar Minott and there are lots more.Many are still doing what they love best today. In those days there was only one way to get a break.

You had to go get an audition with one of the reggae producers. There was Bunny Lee, Lee Scratch Perry, Coxone,and Joe Gibbs. It was hard for a singer to get a break. This was accurately depicted in the film 'The Harder They Come', starring Jimmy Cliff. Poverty was and still is a reality and way of life for many and crime is a by-product of poverty.Add politics to the mix and we start to get an idea of the way of life in Jamaica. For many, music became an outlet and Reggae was to make a mark Internationally.

With Labels like Treasure Isle and Dynamics releasing a high number o fproduct, sales were healthy and soon the the UK caught on. 'My Boy Lollie-Pop'sung by Millie Small, and 'The Isrealites' by Desmond Dekker were the ground-breakers for Reggae in Europe and the UK and they climbed charts like Top Of the Pops.

Hits like 'I Can See Clearly Now' sung by Johhny Nash, 'Money In my Pocket' by Dennis Brown and 'Many Rivers To Cross' by Jimmy Cliff, followed suite. Trojan Records signed John Holt and Ken Boothe, and Island Records brokethrough with reggae artiste Bob Marley and many others.

Mainstream artistes like Stevie Wonder, Sting (The Police) and Blondie have all recorded music with a reggae twist...and with great success. It is also fair to say many reggae singers have recorded Pop, Rock, Soul and R&B covers.

The Development of Reggae

Jamaican music flowed in the dances, the evening gatherings in clubs or outside where recorded music, usually American R&B, was played. When rock emerged as the dominant music in the U.S., the supply of R&B slowly dried up, and by the late 1950s Jamaicans were making their own music.
In 1960, musicians turned the beat around, placing the emphasis on the second and fourth beats of each bar, rather than the usual first and third.
The new style became known as ska, and proved incredibly popular with Jamaicans, making stars of Toots and the Maytals and Delroy Wilson, among many others, as well as the Skatalites, the house band at Studio One, the main hit making label of the era.
In the hot, violent summer of 1966, rock steady emerged, a slower style to calm things down, with Treasure Isle as the leading label. Most people agree that the first reggae record was "Do The Reggay," by Toots and the Maytals in 1968. Reggae mixed the beat of ska with the more mobile bass lines of rock steady, a little faster than the latter, but not as sprightly as ska

Reggae Is King

Every artist had to adapt to the incredibly popular new style. Many of the old favourites remained strong crowd pleasers, and new stars emerged. Lee Perry became famous not only as a producer but also as an artist with hits like "People Funny Boy," although Studio One and Treasure Isle remained dominant labels.

The pop side of reggae proved popular in England, not only with West Indian immigrants, but also British teen, with songs like Bob & Marcia's "Young, Gifted And Black" becoming huge hits.

Yet it was a rock label, Island, that made reggae a global phenomenon with the Wailers, the trio of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer. They'd been Jamaican stars since the mid '60s, first with ska, then reggae. They'd developed their sound and song writing with Lee Perry, but the series of albums they made for Island, including songs like "I Shot The Sheriff," made them into superstars. Tosh and Wailer quit the group, and Marley ended up as reggae's superstar until his young death from cancer in 1981.

He was far from the only big name, of course. John Holt, Gregory Isaacs, the Congos and many others also made their mark, although mostly just in Jamaica.

Reggae After Marley

With the loss of its biggest name, reggae seemed to strike a slow period, when the music had no direction. That changed in the mid 1980s with the advent of dancehall. This was faster than reggae, the rebellious music of youth that also drew influences from American hip-hop.

Over the course of the next few years it took on its own colours and made its own stars, people like Buju Banton and Shaggy. One charge levelled at dancehall over the years has been its "slackness," or sexual content, and there has been plenty, as well as a lot of homophobia.

But dancehall has taken Jamaican music to a new level and found audiences around the world, with a big following in the U.S., where it competes with hip-hop, and artists like Sizzla are huge.

The old-style roots reggae has also become global, with reggae bands springing up all over, many of whom had achieved great critical success, like the African reggae of Lucky Dube or Alpha Blondy.

There have also been numerous ska revivals over the years, notably the Two Tone movement in England in the late 1970s, and the "third wave" of American ska bands in the 1990s, which included future stars No Doubt