I love when Jamaican retell a story. “So dare is a man name sunny, who go a broad and meet a guy name front-foot, who was the second cousin to big Wayne who is half cousin to black Mike. That is Sheryl second room mate in college…..” six hours later “and that is who I got the name Juky!”
Amazing, after over 36 years, that riddim still sting. What helped blow it up was the famous Rodigan/Barry G clash in Spanish Town which then aired live on Capital Radio.
As a DB fan I can say with certainty that DB would have been delighted and bemused that his song influenced reggae in this way. DB was always an advocate for the black community and our music, he was fearless when he took on MTV regarding their lack of black artists and challenged them head on, he supported his Godson who is mixed race and his Godson's mother, a black woman and kept them from hardship after Marc Bolan died suddenly. I have a lot of love and respect for David Bowie as both a man and an artist.
DB would certainly have appreciated it if at least the black community stopped talking about RACES. Again for (at least) the 100 thousandth time: Within humanity there are no RACES. If there were to be different races, people of different color of skin could not procreate amongst themselves. It's simple 1+2=3 science.
What an informative and well produced explainer video! Stumbled onto this video from another about the Casio that started it all. Looking forward to checking out more of your content.
What unlikely confluence of cultures and influences! I come here from 300 gec whose latest "most wanted person in the United States" uses this riff to amazing effect.
Wow. I had that keyboard when I was a teen, and used to spend hours playing around with that rock preset. I didn’t have the creativity to turn it into an actual song. This story is amazing.
Awesome video, awesome research. When reggae turned digital is when it captured my attention, with the stripped down sound, it sounded like nothing before it. Incredible.
Very interesting, my favorites were buddy bye and pumpkin belly. I first heard riddim on a mixed cassette from Jamaica and I was hooked first time listening.
Heard 'Under Me Sleng Teng' a couple of nights ago at a Dancehall event after a many years...the crowed went absolutely nuts!! This riddim is still one of the best and definitely not forgotten! So glad to have stumbled on this video....thank you soo much!...its give us inspiration to create something similar...watch out!!
Top video production, a great ability to explain the history and a magnificent script. I dont have words for explain my feelins now. Thanks, thanks, thanks!
Long before stumbling across this video, I already came to the conclusion that "Sleng Teng" was the GREATEST most "Ridden" Riddim of all time. (just didn't know it was at that magnitude 450+)
Bowie did do a couple of reggae-esque songs. The most notable was Yassassin which has been described as "Turkish Reggae", combining the rhythms of the Caribbean with the melodies of the middle east. He did have a hit the following year with a song that started out in a reggae style...Ashes To Ashes, however the song evolved in the studio to the version that was released, but Bowie's initial intention was for it to be a reggae song.
Between this and 303s, 808s and 909s existing, we owe much of modern music to some Japanese corporate employees as much as the greatest artists we can name. At least the lady who made the sound was recognized after all these years.
Absolutely! I'm actually researching Roland Corporation Yamaha, AKAI and Casio for a video about exactly that! Just Roland is responsible for inspiring at least 3 distinct genres by way of creating ground breaking equipment... Im a sound engineer myself and much of the gear in my studio is Japanese.
@@Traxploitation The way I see it, some Japanese people put work into some gear and afterwards some people take some pills (or sth), play around with the thing and BOOM, 30 years of music is born.
thought King Tubby sent the Mad Professor to New York to investigate electronic instruments and Under Mi fat Ting was the track that started Digital Reggae . Don't know where I got this from it might have been in the blurb on the reissue album Firehouse King Tubby in a Digital Era . Thank you very much for the time and effort put in to making this excellent documentary .
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. I really appreciate it. 🙏 Doesnt "Under Mi Fat Ting" have a live band, Black Roots, playing all the instruments? It's not a digital riddim AFAIK 🤷♂️ and it came out after under mi sleng Teng...
So the Bowie "Hang On to Yourself" not ONLY inspired one of the biggest reggae beats of all time - but helped birthed the sound of punk rock, since the Ramones borrowed the riff for "I Don't Want to Go Down to the Basement" on their first album.
Actually prior to Sleng Teng he created a riddim called Computer Rule which is considered the precursor to Sleng Teng. Both were produced in 1985. Computer Rule was early and Sleng Teng later in the year. So I wouldn’t say David Bowie inspired it. I would say the creation of Computer Rule started the newest trend.
La verdadera creadora es la japonesa Okuda Hiroko trabajadora y desarrolladora en la empresa casio, fue un ritmo que implemento en los teclados casiotone
Since making this video a few people have reached out to me and sent me more info, and just a month ago a Japanese blog posted an interview (in Japanese) with her done recently and she provided lots of pictures that weren't available when I was making the video. So I'm going to make a profile of just her... I feel she deserves a bit more attention than I was able to give her in this video. I'll go back through my notes and try to find the 90's interview I cited here...and post a link. Thanks for watching and commenting.
@@Traxploitation awesome thanks. I think there's a chance you came across my story about this as some of the info in the video lines up. This is a topic of great interest to me so always excited to see people with new takes/info.
I dont think so, but it's possible. I do most of my research in text rather than video...I spend a bit of time at the British Library and then look for photos and videos to illustrate afterward... i just did a search for your name and "sleng teng" and found your Engadget article, is that what you mean? it doesn't look familiar, and there's some details in yours that i wasn't aware of until recently. Like the preset being in the SA76, which I have since bought. I'm glad they line up though...it means we both did our research well :)
@@Traxploitation ah ok. Mostly it's the line about "It's a 70s British rock star and if you heard the song..." which is almost exactly what she told me and (AFAIK) I was the first to interview her in English online media since... well I haven't found any prior interviews. (Would love to know if there are some though!). Though that story is also a key source in the Wikipedia page too. If she said that bit somewhere else though would love to read it as, again, I really do want to crack this mystery haha.
Wow in that case yes, i'm quoting your interview, but i think i'm quoting an article that quotes you (and maybe they incorrectly said it was a 90s interview? i'll check my notes) ! Would you be keen to collaborate on a profile of her? As you've interviewed her personally we can share the story somehow...we can work out a way to make it work for both of us?
@traxploitation What version of 'This is Reggae Music ' is featured at the end of this video? I really like it, but it sounds different from Zap Pow's original. Great video, incidentally.
It's a version I made. You can hear the whole thing here. ua-cam.com/video/jFtNmYG11CM/v-deo.html Also available on all streaming platforms, even got some vinyl of it too 🙃😎
Bowie had little to do with it, also the lady who did the presets had it under Rock, it was the creativity of Wayne Smith and his friend and King Jammy created the new genre.
It was pretty common then, and still now, to have presets in keyboards. That's not what's interesting. What is, is that simple little "rock" melody preset was part of a revolution in reggae music.
It does have some similarities 🤔 but she did say it was "British Rock"...that being said she may just think Eddie Cochran was British 🤷♂️ he did die here. 🤔 the Bowie song mentioned sounds like another Cochran song...so he's definitely a link in the chain.
Just the other day I was reading a report on "sensi addict" by Horace Ferguson being the very first digital tune, of course not that it became influential as sleng teng but a good piece of information indeed. Check release dates.
It's a while since I made this, but pretty sure I'm not really talking about it being first. I'm careful never to say anything is the actual first, instead I'll say "one of the first" or "thought by many to be the first". There's little question over the fact the Sleng Teng is the one the caused and electronic riddim explosion. I don't really think first is always that important. The "first" dj to scratch records was Grand Wizard Theodore....well I did some gigs in Europe on the same bill and he is an absolutely awful scratch DJ. 🤷♂️ just terrible. So yeah, sleng Teng may not be first but its certainly the most influential of the early digital riddims 😁
Yes, that's right, sort of, she didn't create the entire keyboard, just the presets, the keyboard itself was already in development when she started at Casio....and that's exactly what the video says....but it doesn't stop at that very basic fact, It also goes deeper and talks about what may have influenced her, using her own words as clues, and also the evolution of the Sleng Teng riddim track itself.
I'm assuming you mean the reggae/hip hop track rather than the jazzy hip hop outro (which is the Traxploitation theme music) The track is Lotek ft Daddy Speedo "This Is...(The Rebirth of Rude)" ua-cam.com/video/jFtNmYG11CM/v-deo.html it's an update of "This Is Reggae" by Zap Pow.
Yeah it's identical. They will have copied it from Sleng Teng, no doubt. They frequently cover reggae songs..."caress me down" is based on a song of the same name by reggae artist Clement Irie, who they don't actually credit as a writer...so they're plagiarists. 🤔 tsk tsk. 😒
So to be fair, only the rhythm pattern chord-wise is similar to "Hang on to yourself". Sleng Teng is 1- - -1 - 4 3, whereas Bowie's song is 1 - - - 1 - 5 4. Bowie's chord progression is typical of 3-chord rock'n'roll, meanwhile Sleng Teng riddim is closer to the punk era, compare with the chord progressions in God save the queen and Anarchy in the U.K. by Sex Pistols which are both similar, and God save.. has the same bend-feel when playing the root chord as heard in most early rocknroll songs btw! Additionally, many other rock songs deliver same rhythm pattern, e.g. Ramones' "Loudmouth" in the parts before the verses. Sweet uses the pattern too, and it's really a common effect to accentuate the last two quarter notes in second bar as a round-up heard this way. So I'm not going along with the myth, but it's fun to discuss :-)
oh for sure, it could by anything, it could be nothing. The only person that knows for sure is Hiroko Okuda and she's not saying. She couldn't really, if she ever said that she intentionally copied another song to put in a keyboard that was sold all over the world and was used on thousands of recordings... it would open up a giant can of copyright worms! But yeah, fun to speculate.
The French/German Tv station “arte” had a segment recently about the origins of the sleng teng riddim and in it Hiroko Okuda says that see had listen to the sex pistols a lot during this specific era. So you might just have discovered it ua-cam.com/video/x8RQMtyPB0s/v-deo.html - at 4:08 she mentions anarchy in the uk.
@@fabssta814 Wow thanks for linking to that. That is very interesting. I detected Anarchy in the UK immediately in Sleng Teng, when first hearing Wayne's version, but of course couldn't know if there was an actual source of inspiration on Okuda's part. They don't talk very long about it in the segment. Do you think it's significant?
@@CarinaPrimaBallerina Sex Pistols copied the same Eddie Cochran riff that Bowie/Mick Ronson did. The connection there is clear, they even recorded a cover of Cochran's "Come On Everybody" in 1979.
@@Traxploitation Oh there's no connection really. You're right about the cover versions, and the Sex Pistols covered many old rock'n'roll songs! Eddie Cochran wasn't the inventor of the 1-4-5 chord progression. Literally thousands came before him that Eddie was inspired by. But this doesn't apply to Anarchy in the U.K. which is a 1-4-3 progression not related to the standard blues and rock progression!
He's definitely confused, not sure why he even bothered commenting on the evolution of a genre he, by his own admission, "never got"... But he wasn't the only one, for a short time many people in England referred to ska and early reggae as bluebeat, as that label did license a large amount of reggae songs, they averaged around 1 a week for 7 years. It's kind of like Motown, people will often say they like Motown but then start mentioning Stax artists or major label artists like Aretha Franklin as to them Motown is a sound not just a label. 🤷♂️ Doesn't make it any less wrong tho 🤦♂️😁
Its not actually a "demo" its a preset riff and drum beat. To get it playing you have to select the root note and then start the preset. It's not entirely obvious right away....but yeah 1 week is a bit much still lol! Thanks for commenting!
Eddie Cochran meets Bowie meets Pistols (Anarchy in The UK), throw in Sigue Sigue Sputnik and there you go. There ain't no sound like the Sleng Teng Blues. 😝😝😝
Yeah, 2 live crew sampled it, as did hundreds of other songs. The 2 live crew song isn't very good though, to put it mildly lol...just a bunch of very bad fake Jamaican accents over Sleng Teng. 🤷♂️😆
BESIDES THE TAXI RIDDIM SLENG TENG IS TOP 5 RIDDIMS OF ALL TIME R.I.P TO THE LEGEND TENOR SAW & BUGGER MINOT AND REGGAE MUSIC DIDN'T NEED DAVID BOWIE TO INSPIRE ANYTHING... Bob Marley DID THAT
Bob marley didn't really have any influence over electronic reggae...he'd been dead about 4 years when Sleng Teng came out. 🤷♂️ Tubby, Jammy and the like were the driving force. As much as I love Bob Marley, he cannot be credited with everything reggae. 🤷♂️
For my money, the riddim sounds like it was influenced a lot by Cat Stevens' "Was Dog a Doughtnut" from 1977: ua-cam.com/video/iymSjz1JV0w/v-deo.html Probably not, but when you think about how many electronic pop records existed with a digital arrangement anything close to Sleng Teng, this is about as close as it gets. BTW, I did a basement remix of Shabba Ranks "Trailer Load" vocals against "Was Dog a Doughnut" and you can certainly see how well it works conceptually as Dance Hall in the spirit of what Sleng Teng initiated.
@@Traxploitation, ..I am 60 years old since 1967 I grew up ( in ) Brixton MARKET.. I am the only child that was in that market year after year ...I watched the EVOLUTION of ska into rocksteady then reggae...I was there ...ALL THE RECORD SHOP OWNERS KNEW ME at 7years old ..we owned " the BAKERY ", and we were one the first ' black pub landlords ," the angel", ..plus the owner of the " BAKERY ", my uncle sonny had a son named Ricky ', " YOU", know him as 'RIK,ROK, .." IT WASN'T ME ", ..( SHAGGY ) ...I COULD GO ON AND ON ...THE MOVIE 'BABYLON', WAS ' OBSERVER SOUND ", FROM THORNTON HEATH..IT WAS SHOT AT ST MATTHEWS CHURCH ..IWAS SUPPOSED TO BE IN THAT MOVIE.. I AM AN " AUTHORITY ", ON THIS MUSIC , PLEASE DO NOT CHALLENGE ME...you will lose very very badly , I have given you only a glimpse , please .. ( stay in ( YOUR ) LANE ..
woah! relax. Its not a contest, i'm sure your knowledge of reggae is deep. I'm not "challenging" you. But i do have my knowledge and experience too. I'm well into my 40s and grew up between UK and JAMAICA, my mum is Jamaican, I also lived for many years on the St Matthews Estate (and had neighbours that complained when i played reggae, hence my comment), I've also spent the last 30 years working in the music industry producing reggae, ska, dub and hip hop. Like i said, it's not a contest....but make no mistake this IS my lane too! :) Peace and love.
@@Traxploitation if you are so well versed why would you make a silly reply , I never said ' everyone likes ' reggae ', all I said it ( is ) the mecca of reggae and that david BOWIE comes from there...why even comment ...flex all you want bruv ..I will ' leng ' you with reggae knowledge I will put you into ' therapy ', p.s. my ( friend ) reggae legend ' earl moodie ', just died ' moodies records tapes ', .. in the Bronx NYC.. I am here right now in the bronx NYC..bruv you have no idea who you ' flexing on', p.s. do you ' know ',earl moodie or bullwackie..go and sit down man.
@@Traxploitation ...peace and love to you too bruv...please keep up your good work ..it made my day and ( I) learned a lot from you ..as you can see I am very VICIOUS when it comes to this music ..it is my life ..at 60 it is ( all ) I have ...reggae ..I am sorry . I apologize for my behavior.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. There are a few songs that can claim to be first. Sleng Teng was certainly not the first, as I said in the video, but it became the most popular of the early digital riddims.
Well there you go, you answered the rhetorical question in the title for yourself. 🤷♂️ 😆 In truth neither are credited with anything in the realms of reggae. 🤔
Aren't you? lol...just kidding...or am I? feel free to answer both those rhetorical questions too...seriously though, of course, you're allowed to answer a rhetorical question.😬😀 I'm just playing, why is everyone so serious in youtube comments?
Bluebeat was the name of a record label in UK that licensed a lot of Jamaican music so, mostly out of laziness, Jamaican music got called bluebeat 🤷♂️🤦♂️
Cool History they left out a key part though. The riddim all the way down to the drums is almost entirely the Japanese woman's design. She designed the riddim that way to pay tribute to reggae's rolling bassline. Amazing stuff
🤔 pretty sure I mentioned that. And played a video of the preset directly from the keyboard. The japanese woman, Hiroko Okuda is her name, actually designed the rhythm around a song by a "British rock star" which is why the preset is called "Rock" and not "Reggae" although she did listen to a lot of reggae in the 70s so it isn't surprising that it fits so well.
I love when Jamaican retell a story. “So dare is a man name sunny, who go a broad and meet a guy name front-foot, who was the second cousin to big Wayne who is half cousin to black Mike. That is Sheryl second room mate in college…..” six hours later “and that is who I got the name Juky!”
Lol
And end it “…and so it go.”
Lies lies
@@DreamFearEternal I miss listening to the elders talk like that when I was a kid.
I see an interview about that Casio keyboard sound maker, a Japanese woman.
All these things make the music world interesting 😊
Amazing, after over 36 years, that riddim still sting. What helped blow it up was the famous Rodigan/Barry G clash in Spanish Town which then aired live on Capital Radio.
Whaaaat. Mind blown . One of my favourite Bowie tunes too.
Right!? once you hear it, it seems so obvious but for decades I never noticed!
That is flippin amazing.
Being a lifelong Bowie fan and reggae fan i can see the similarity.
Much love!
🎉🎉😂 memories love it ,sleng teng riddim , still a timeless riddim
As a DB fan I can say with certainty that DB would have been delighted and bemused that his song influenced reggae in this way. DB was always an advocate for the black community and our music, he was fearless when he took on MTV regarding their lack of black artists and challenged them head on, he supported his Godson who is mixed race and his Godson's mother, a black woman and kept them from hardship after Marc Bolan died suddenly. I have a lot of love and respect for David Bowie as both a man and an artist.
As a Roxy Music fan, this is plus one for Bowie #KeeponRising - 355
Bowie is a legend ❤️
DB would certainly have appreciated it if at least the black community stopped talking about RACES.
Again for (at least) the 100 thousandth time:
Within humanity there are no RACES. If there were to be different races, people of different color of skin could not procreate amongst themselves. It's simple 1+2=3 science.
What an informative and well produced explainer video! Stumbled onto this video from another about the Casio that started it all. Looking forward to checking out more of your content.
What unlikely confluence of cultures and influences! I come here from 300 gec whose latest "most wanted person in the United States" uses this riff to amazing effect.
Wow. I had that keyboard when I was a teen, and used to spend hours playing around with that rock preset. I didn’t have the creativity to turn it into an actual song. This story is amazing.
Awesome video, awesome research. When reggae turned digital is when it captured my attention, with the stripped down sound, it sounded like nothing before it. Incredible.
hello thank for sharing this. I prefer Dancehall music over traditional Reggae so its nice to see where the it came from!
Glad you enjoyed it
Very interesting, my favorites were buddy bye and pumpkin belly. I first heard riddim on a mixed cassette from Jamaica and I was hooked first time listening.
And so it go. The first time I heard Under mi Sleng Teng and Pumpkin Belly there was no going back. The bass and rhythm I was hooked.
Wow, what a story! Great job! Peace.
Thanks for this, wow, I knew only about King Jammy on this
This is really beautiful and classic. Thank you for putting it up ❤️
Can't believe I only just caught this one. Another quality film Thank you Lotek.
These reggae videos are absolutely super keep them coming bet they take off big time very soon
Heard 'Under Me Sleng Teng' a couple of nights ago at a Dancehall event after a many years...the crowed went absolutely nuts!! This riddim is still one of the best and definitely not forgotten! So glad to have stumbled on this video....thank you soo much!...its give us inspiration to create something similar...watch out!!
I think I've still got my old Casio keyboard in the spare room. Maybe I should dig it out and create a new genre 😂🤣😂
Somebody needs to do something, I tell you 😜🤣😂
@@mas.f.g9958 Leave it to me 🤣
@@RaphaelDawkinsCombatRadio gwarn , get on it.
Needs doing 👍🏾🎧🎵🎶🥂
That's some real quality content. Good Job 👈
Loved this! Can't get enough of reggae history
the last 3-4 minutes are really fascinating
RIP WAYNE SMITH
Top video production, a great ability to explain the history and a magnificent script. I dont have words for explain my feelins now.
Thanks, thanks, thanks!
So glad you enjoyed it!
Long before stumbling across this video, I already came to the conclusion that "Sleng Teng" was the GREATEST most "Ridden" Riddim of all time. (just didn't know it was at that magnitude 450+)
The mud up riddim a my fav
Hace poco conseguí ese teclado no sabía que tenía historia wujuu!!!
カシオの開発者、奥田さんの卒業論文のテーマはレゲエでした。デビットボーイの音楽の原点もレゲエ。2人は、レゲエで繋がっていたのですね。
ご覧いただき、コメントをお寄せいただきありがとうございます。
実際、デヴィッド・ボウイは、レゲエは彼の音楽に影響を与えていないと言いました。彼がラジオのインタビューでこれを言っている録音があり、それはこのビデオにあります。
7:31
それが、彼とスレン テンとのつながりについて驚くべきことです。
@@Traxploitation 返信ありがとうございます。ボウイはレゲエに影響されていない、と言っているのですね。
ブリティッシュロックを好きだった奥田さん。彼女の作ったカシオのリズム音が、その後、レゲエの代表的なリズムになったというのは、とても興味深いです。
音楽は、国境を超えて、新しいものを創造していきますね。
Excellent mini doc !
Great video. Thank--you!
Thanx for sharing! Anyone that wants to hear that keyboard used to the max, listen to Prince Jammy's dub lp of Wayne Smith's "sleng teng" lp
Best video on YT
I wanted to do something like this... This is amazing!!!!
OMG, I always thought Anarchy in the UK by the Sex Pistols was the originator.. Doh! Great video, thanks.
Love it man👍
Well done.
Great influence!
Bowie did do a couple of reggae-esque songs. The most notable was Yassassin which has been described as "Turkish Reggae", combining the rhythms of the Caribbean with the melodies of the middle east. He did have a hit the following year with a song that started out in a reggae style...Ashes To Ashes, however the song evolved in the studio to the version that was released, but Bowie's initial intention was for it to be a reggae song.
That "Hang On to Yourself" riff was also used by the Ramones in their song "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement".
Great people think alike so they say
WOW that's really interesting
This is tuff!!!!!
Excellent vid, cheers bud 👍
Glad you enjoyed it
@@Traxploitation so many good memories of StPauls blues and carnival.. 🇯🇲 🔈🔉🔊
thoroughly interesting
First thing that came to mind for me was Caress Me Down by Sublime.
That’s where Sublime got it from 😉.
Really dope. Thank you
Glad you like it!
Lodge is a good tune to shake the walls. 💣
And when they started playing Reggae on a calculator it was officially over.
Between this and 303s, 808s and 909s existing, we owe much of modern music to some Japanese corporate employees as much as the greatest artists we can name. At least the lady who made the sound was recognized after all these years.
Absolutely!
I'm actually researching Roland Corporation Yamaha, AKAI and Casio for a video about exactly that! Just Roland is responsible for inspiring at least 3 distinct genres by way of creating ground breaking equipment...
Im a sound engineer myself and much of the gear in my studio is Japanese.
@@Traxploitation The way I see it, some Japanese people put work into some gear and afterwards some people take some pills (or sth), play around with the thing and BOOM, 30 years of music is born.
Facebook now called meta sent me here because they used the sleng teng riddim in their new ad
thought King Tubby sent the Mad Professor to New York to investigate electronic instruments and Under Mi fat Ting was the track that started Digital Reggae . Don't know where I got this from it might have been in the blurb on the reissue album Firehouse King Tubby in a Digital Era . Thank you very much for the time and effort put in to making this excellent documentary .
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. I really appreciate it. 🙏
Doesnt "Under Mi Fat Ting" have a live band, Black Roots, playing all the instruments? It's not a digital riddim AFAIK 🤷♂️ and it came out after under mi sleng Teng...
Wicked content
So the Bowie "Hang On to Yourself" not ONLY inspired one of the biggest reggae beats of all time - but helped birthed the sound of punk rock, since the Ramones borrowed the riff for "I Don't Want to Go Down to the Basement" on their first album.
quite right, and the Sex Pistols used the riff too right? It's quite amazing how influential Bowie was!
Also this sounds suspiciously similar - ua-cam.com/video/xI8S1Nn6NRk/v-deo.html
I never knew that Bowie song but when that came on there I was like "Hey Daddy-oh!" .... yeah what a rip!
@@laravelisbullschitt3281 Yup. That said - for the most part the Ramones were highly original and innovative, but Bowie gets some credit too.
hey alright, no
Well, Bowie did release one reggae-esque track, Yassassin (from Lodger), though infused with heavy Turkish/Berlin influences...
Actually prior to Sleng Teng he created a riddim called Computer Rule which is considered the precursor to Sleng Teng. Both were produced in 1985. Computer Rule was early and Sleng Teng later in the year. So I wouldn’t say David Bowie inspired it. I would say the creation of Computer Rule started the newest trend.
👍
La verdadera creadora es la japonesa Okuda Hiroko trabajadora y desarrolladora en la empresa casio, fue un ritmo que implemento en los teclados casiotone
sí, y Okuda Hiroko, dijo que la música fue inspirada por un músico de Gran Bretaña. esto se explica en el video.
The Bowie 1986 quote is probably answering a question about the 'Tonight' album, which features some reggae grooves, mainly on the title track.
The question was "has reggae influenced your music?" He rephrased the question in the answer so I didn't feel the need to keep the question in.
Great video! Would love to know more about the interview Okuda gave in the 90s about this. Any more info on that source?
Since making this video a few people have reached out to me and sent me more info, and just a month ago a Japanese blog posted an interview (in Japanese) with her done recently and she provided lots of pictures that weren't available when I was making the video. So I'm going to make a profile of just her... I feel she deserves a bit more attention than I was able to give her in this video.
I'll go back through my notes and try to find the 90's interview I cited here...and post a link.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
@@Traxploitation awesome thanks. I think there's a chance you came across my story about this as some of the info in the video lines up. This is a topic of great interest to me so always excited to see people with new takes/info.
I dont think so, but it's possible. I do most of my research in text rather than video...I spend a bit of time at the British Library and then look for photos and videos to illustrate afterward... i just did a search for your name and "sleng teng" and found your Engadget article, is that what you mean? it doesn't look familiar, and there's some details in yours that i wasn't aware of until recently. Like the preset being in the SA76, which I have since bought.
I'm glad they line up though...it means we both did our research well :)
@@Traxploitation ah ok. Mostly it's the line about "It's a 70s British rock star and if you heard the song..." which is almost exactly what she told me and (AFAIK) I was the first to interview her in English online media since... well I haven't found any prior interviews. (Would love to know if there are some though!). Though that story is also a key source in the Wikipedia page too. If she said that bit somewhere else though would love to read it as, again, I really do want to crack this mystery haha.
Wow in that case yes, i'm quoting your interview, but i think i'm quoting an article that quotes you (and maybe they incorrectly said it was a 90s interview? i'll check my notes) ! Would you be keen to collaborate on a profile of her? As you've interviewed her personally we can share the story somehow...we can work out a way to make it work for both of us?
I really enjoyed this do much ...it ended too abruptly ..shouldda finished a little ' smmooovvvah ...
Thanks for the feedback, will try be more schmoooooove in the future :)
Wow!!!
@traxploitation What version of 'This is Reggae Music ' is featured at the end of this video? I really like it, but it sounds different from Zap Pow's original. Great video, incidentally.
It's a version I made.
You can hear the whole thing here.
ua-cam.com/video/jFtNmYG11CM/v-deo.html
Also available on all streaming platforms, even got some vinyl of it too 🙃😎
@@Traxploitation Excellent! Sounds great.
Wow never knew it was David Bowie wow
Only Okuda Hiroko knows 100% for sure, but I think the evidence that it's a Bowie song is pretty compelling.
Bowie had little to do with it, also the lady who did the presets had it under Rock, it was the creativity of Wayne Smith and his friend and King Jammy created the new genre.
Back n those days the casio had prerecorded melodies on them I had a Casio
It was pretty common then, and still now, to have presets in keyboards.
That's not what's interesting. What is, is that simple little "rock" melody preset was part of a revolution in reggae music.
I have subscribed
I think Ed Cochran's Summertime Blues is the song which inspired Sleng Teng
It does have some similarities 🤔 but she did say it was "British Rock"...that being said she may just think Eddie Cochran was British 🤷♂️ he did die here. 🤔 the Bowie song mentioned sounds like another Cochran song...so he's definitely a link in the chain.
Damn I had this exact idea of vid planned for my channel, you beat me to it ha
You can still do it, your videos are great and have a slightly different angle to mine.
@@Traxploitation Oh cheers man, I might just do that! Found the old story board from October 2020 😊
big tune! ;)
Just the other day I was reading a report on "sensi addict" by Horace Ferguson being the very first digital tune, of course not that it became influential as sleng teng but a good piece of information indeed. Check release dates.
It's a while since I made this, but pretty sure I'm not really talking about it being first. I'm careful never to say anything is the actual first, instead I'll say "one of the first" or "thought by many to be the first".
There's little question over the fact the Sleng Teng is the one the caused and electronic riddim explosion.
I don't really think first is always that important. The "first" dj to scratch records was Grand Wizard Theodore....well I did some gigs in Europe on the same bill and he is an absolutely awful scratch DJ. 🤷♂️ just terrible.
So yeah, sleng Teng may not be first but its certainly the most influential of the early digital riddims 😁
Produced By Prince Jazzbo on Ujama Label.
Always thought it was stalag rhythm name after stalag 17 movie tenor sew was amazing
Ring the Alarm was on the Stalag Riddim. Tenor Saw also voiced the Sleng Teng riddim with the track "Pumpkin Belly".
Stalag 17 By Ansel Collins came as a instrumental originally. General Echo & Yami Bolo was 2 of the first artists on the riddim.
Hiroko Okuda, a Japanese Casio employee in 1980 was behind the creation of the Casio machine that had the presets that made the sleng teng riddim
Yes, that's right, sort of, she didn't create the entire keyboard, just the presets, the keyboard itself was already in development when she started at Casio....and that's exactly what the video says....but it doesn't stop at that very basic fact, It also goes deeper and talks about what may have influenced her, using her own words as clues, and also the evolution of the Sleng Teng riddim track itself.
Buddy Bye #1 🔥🕺
Jamaicans are so musically talented
True!
But I'm biased 😃
Craaaaazy
Anybody a clue on what the audio track is at the very last 5 seconds of this video?
I'm assuming you mean the reggae/hip hop track rather than the jazzy hip hop outro (which is the Traxploitation theme music) The track is Lotek ft Daddy Speedo "This Is...(The Rebirth of Rude)" ua-cam.com/video/jFtNmYG11CM/v-deo.html it's an update of "This Is Reggae" by Zap Pow.
@@Traxploitation No, i actually meant the jazzy snippet 😉
Wayne slengteng smith documentary of slengteng soon be here
Sounds like the intro bass line for that sublime song caress me down
Yeah it's identical.
They will have copied it from Sleng Teng, no doubt. They frequently cover reggae songs..."caress me down" is based on a song of the same name by reggae artist Clement Irie, who they don't actually credit as a writer...so they're plagiarists. 🤔 tsk tsk. 😒
👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾🔥🔥🔥🇯🇲🇿🇼
So to be fair, only the rhythm pattern chord-wise is similar to "Hang on to yourself". Sleng Teng is 1- - -1 - 4 3, whereas Bowie's song is 1 - - - 1 - 5 4. Bowie's chord progression is typical of 3-chord rock'n'roll, meanwhile Sleng Teng riddim is closer to the punk era, compare with the chord progressions in God save the queen and Anarchy in the U.K. by Sex Pistols which are both similar, and God save.. has the same bend-feel when playing the root chord as heard in most early rocknroll songs btw! Additionally, many other rock songs deliver same rhythm pattern, e.g. Ramones' "Loudmouth" in the parts before the verses. Sweet uses the pattern too, and it's really a common effect to accentuate the last two quarter notes in second bar as a round-up heard this way. So I'm not going along with the myth, but it's fun to discuss :-)
oh for sure, it could by anything, it could be nothing. The only person that knows for sure is Hiroko Okuda and she's not saying. She couldn't really, if she ever said that she intentionally copied another song to put in a keyboard that was sold all over the world and was used on thousands of recordings... it would open up a giant can of copyright worms! But yeah, fun to speculate.
The French/German Tv station “arte” had a segment recently about the origins of the sleng teng riddim and in it Hiroko Okuda says that see had listen to the sex pistols a lot during this specific era.
So you might just have discovered it
ua-cam.com/video/x8RQMtyPB0s/v-deo.html - at 4:08 she mentions anarchy in the uk.
@@fabssta814 Wow thanks for linking to that. That is very interesting. I detected Anarchy in the UK immediately in Sleng Teng, when first hearing Wayne's version, but of course couldn't know if there was an actual source of inspiration on Okuda's part. They don't talk very long about it in the segment. Do you think it's significant?
@@CarinaPrimaBallerina Sex Pistols copied the same Eddie Cochran riff that Bowie/Mick Ronson did. The connection there is clear, they even recorded a cover of Cochran's "Come On Everybody" in 1979.
@@Traxploitation Oh there's no connection really. You're right about the cover versions, and the Sex Pistols covered many old rock'n'roll songs! Eddie Cochran wasn't the inventor of the 1-4-5 chord progression. Literally thousands came before him that Eddie was inspired by. But this doesn't apply to Anarchy in the U.K. which is a 1-4-3 progression not related to the standard blues and rock progression!
David Bowie sounds a bit confused at the end (7.35) It went from Ska to "Rock Steady" to Reggae. Blue Beat was a British record label...
He's definitely confused, not sure why he even bothered commenting on the evolution of a genre he, by his own admission, "never got"...
But he wasn't the only one, for a short time many people in England referred to ska and early reggae as bluebeat, as that label did license a large amount of reggae songs, they averaged around 1 a week for 7 years.
It's kind of like Motown, people will often say they like Motown but then start mentioning Stax artists or major label artists like Aretha Franklin as to them Motown is a sound not just a label. 🤷♂️
Doesn't make it any less wrong tho 🤦♂️😁
@@Traxploitation Yeah, I had some treasured BB 45's when I was a kid. 😃
So this also inspired Sublimes caress me down?
Yup.
It took him a week to find the demo tune😂 absolutely wicked sound though 🙌🙌🙌
Its not actually a "demo" its a preset riff and drum beat. To get it playing you have to select the root note and then start the preset. It's not entirely obvious right away....but yeah 1 week is a bit much still lol! Thanks for commenting!
Eddie Cochran meets Bowie meets Pistols (Anarchy in The UK), throw in Sigue Sigue Sputnik and there you go. There ain't no sound like the Sleng Teng Blues. 😝😝😝
👍
The day and time reggae music embrace that kind of rydim was the biggest mistake reggae had made reggae is and most always be instrumental
2 live Crew "Reggae Joint".
Yeah, 2 live crew sampled it, as did hundreds of other songs. The 2 live crew song isn't very good though, to put it mildly lol...just a bunch of very bad fake Jamaican accents over Sleng Teng. 🤷♂️😆
sounds quite similar to david bowie. but I'm not hearing the resemblance to eddie cochran. can somebody explain please? maybe my ears are dumb
BESIDES THE TAXI RIDDIM SLENG TENG IS TOP 5 RIDDIMS OF ALL TIME R.I.P TO THE LEGEND TENOR SAW & BUGGER MINOT AND REGGAE MUSIC DIDN'T NEED DAVID BOWIE TO INSPIRE ANYTHING... Bob Marley DID THAT
Bob marley didn't really have any influence over electronic reggae...he'd been dead about 4 years when Sleng Teng came out. 🤷♂️
Tubby, Jammy and the like were the driving force. As much as I love Bob Marley, he cannot be credited with everything reggae. 🤷♂️
This proves that no one ethnicity owns musical beats
For my money, the riddim sounds like it was influenced a lot by Cat Stevens' "Was Dog a Doughtnut" from 1977: ua-cam.com/video/iymSjz1JV0w/v-deo.html
Probably not, but when you think about how many electronic pop records existed with a digital arrangement anything close to Sleng Teng, this is about as close as it gets. BTW, I did a basement remix of Shabba Ranks "Trailer Load" vocals against "Was Dog a Doughnut" and you can certainly see how well it works conceptually as Dance Hall in the spirit of what Sleng Teng initiated.
That's a classic tune! Used to get spun alot for the breakers in the 80s.
Seen a few MCs rock it too.
Where can I hear your Shabba remix?
,..FACT : DAVID BOWIE IS FROM "BRIXTON",.. LONDON U.K ...A MECCA OF REGGAE.
True, sort of (there's a large jamaican population there) but also a fact...not everyone from Brixton, Bowie included, likes or liked Reggae.
@@Traxploitation, ..I am 60 years old since 1967 I grew up ( in ) Brixton MARKET.. I am the only child that was in that market year after year ...I watched the EVOLUTION of ska into rocksteady then reggae...I was there ...ALL THE RECORD SHOP OWNERS KNEW ME at 7years old ..we owned " the BAKERY ", and we were one the first ' black pub landlords ," the angel", ..plus the owner of the " BAKERY ", my uncle sonny had a son named Ricky ', " YOU", know him as 'RIK,ROK, .." IT WASN'T ME ", ..( SHAGGY ) ...I COULD GO ON AND ON ...THE MOVIE 'BABYLON', WAS ' OBSERVER SOUND ", FROM THORNTON HEATH..IT WAS SHOT AT ST MATTHEWS CHURCH ..IWAS SUPPOSED TO BE IN THAT MOVIE..
I AM AN " AUTHORITY ", ON THIS MUSIC , PLEASE DO NOT CHALLENGE ME...you will lose very very badly , I have given you only a glimpse , please .. ( stay in ( YOUR ) LANE ..
woah! relax. Its not a contest, i'm sure your knowledge of reggae is deep. I'm not "challenging" you. But i do have my knowledge and experience too. I'm well into my 40s and grew up between UK and JAMAICA, my mum is Jamaican, I also lived for many years on the St Matthews Estate (and had neighbours that complained when i played reggae, hence my comment), I've also spent the last 30 years working in the music industry producing reggae, ska, dub and hip hop. Like i said, it's not a contest....but make no mistake this IS my lane too! :) Peace and love.
@@Traxploitation if you are so well versed why would you make a silly reply , I never said ' everyone likes ' reggae ', all I said it ( is ) the mecca of reggae and that david BOWIE comes from there...why even comment ...flex all you want bruv ..I will ' leng ' you with reggae knowledge I will put you into ' therapy ', p.s. my ( friend ) reggae legend ' earl moodie ', just died ' moodies records tapes ', .. in the Bronx NYC.. I am here right now in the bronx NYC..bruv you have no idea who you ' flexing on', p.s. do you ' know ',earl moodie or bullwackie..go and sit down man.
@@Traxploitation ...peace and love to you too bruv...please keep up your good work ..it made my day and ( I) learned a lot from you ..as you can see I am very VICIOUS when it comes to this music ..it is my life ..at 60 it is ( all ) I have ...reggae ..I am sorry . I apologize for my behavior.
Get flat Bloodfire Posse first digital
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment.
There are a few songs that can claim to be first. Sleng Teng was certainly not the first, as I said in the video, but it became the most popular of the early digital riddims.
Surely, if Ronson mimicked Cochrane, then Cochrane should be credited as "indirectly inspiring digital reggae?"
Well there you go, you answered the rhetorical question in the title for yourself. 🤷♂️ 😆
In truth neither are credited with anything in the realms of reggae. 🤔
@@Traxploitation I not allowed ro ask a rhetorical question!
Aren't you?
lol...just kidding...or am I?
feel free to answer both those rhetorical questions too...seriously though,
of course, you're allowed to answer a rhetorical question.😬😀 I'm just playing, why is everyone so serious in youtube comments?
@@Traxploitation sure...I am being tongue'n cheek....with my original comment also
Bluebeat is Ska. Bluebeat was just the English name for Ska. Ask a Jamaican what is bluebeat and they won't have a clue.
Bluebeat was the name of a record label in UK that licensed a lot of Jamaican music so, mostly out of laziness, Jamaican music got called bluebeat 🤷♂️🤦♂️
That’s a lot of words for I used a preset
Buddy bye
The thruth must be told that's all I am saying mr James took all da credits that's not right come mek we reason
Cool History they left out a key part though. The riddim all the way down to the drums is almost entirely the Japanese woman's design. She designed the riddim that way to pay tribute to reggae's rolling bassline. Amazing stuff
🤔 pretty sure I mentioned that. And played a video of the preset directly from the keyboard. The japanese woman, Hiroko Okuda is her name, actually designed the rhythm around a song by a "British rock star" which is why the preset is called "Rock" and not "Reggae" although she did listen to a lot of reggae in the 70s so it isn't surprising that it fits so well.
oh , the casiotone riddim was already made, they just used the keyboard sound as is programmed by a japanese lady
anarchy in the uk - the sex pistols