The Cause: Conversations on Music, History, and Democracy
The Cause: Conversations on Music, History, and Democracy
Podcast Description
In collaboration with the Center for African and African American Studies/The CAAAS at the University of Colorado Boulder, The Cause is more than a podcast—it’s a call to action. Guided by Dr. Reiland Rabaka, this inspiring series invites you to explore the transformative power of music, the wisdom of history, and the promise of democracy in the pursuit of racial justice.
Through courageous conversations, insightful reflections, and powerful storytelling, The Cause amplifies voices and stories too often unheard. Together, we’ll challenge injustices, break down societal misconceptions, and inspire each other to build a world where equality is not just an ideal, but a shared reality.
Join us in this movement. Listen to The Cause, and become part of the collective journey to create a more just, inclusive, and vibrant future for all.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast covers impactful topics including racial justice, music's role in social movements, and the history of democracy, with specific episodes discussing the cultural significance of funk music and in-depth interviews featuring artists like Otis Taylor, focusing on themes such as storytelling through music and the African roots of the banjo.
In collaboration with the Center for African and African American Studies/The CAAAS at the University of Colorado Boulder, The Cause is more than a podcast, it’s a call to action. Guided by Dr. Reiland Rabaka, this inspiring series invites you to explore the transformative power of music, the wisdom of history, and the promise of democracy in the pursuit of racial justice.
Through courageous conversations, insightful reflections, and powerful storytelling, The Cause amplifies voices and stories too often unheard. Together, we’ll challenge injustices, break down societal misconceptions, and inspire each other to build a world where equality is not just an ideal, but a shared reality.
Join us in this movement. Listen to The Cause, and become part of the collective journey to create a more just, inclusive, and vibrant future for all.
“Dub’s heavy use of reverb [serves] as a sonic metaphor for the condition of diaspora.” —Michael Veal, Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae
“Dub: The Golden Age of Dub Reggae, 1973–1983” enters the studio at the moment the studio became an instrument. Across Kingston’s mixing boards, sound systems, record shops, yards, and streets, producers assembled the riddim, musicians built its foundation, engineers deconstructed and reconstructed the recording, and selectors returned that transformed sound to the people. Dub turned bass into memory, echo into history, silence into testimony, and technology into a tool of Black radical imagination. This episode traces the revolutionary work of King Tubby, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Errol Thompson, Prince Jammy, Scientist, Augustus Pablo, the Revolutionaries, the Roots Radics, Sly and Robbie, and other architects of dub’s golden age. It asks: What happens when oppressed people seize the machinery they inherited from colonial empire and make it speak freedom in their distinct decolonial language? Can breaking a song open teach us how to break open a society? Can the studio become a rehearsal room for radical democracy?
Woven through the episode, the original poem “Scattered Sound Refuses Silence” hears dub as a metaphor for the African diaspora—dispersed but connected, wounded but creating, carrying Africa beneath the concrete jungle. A chronological thirty-six track companion playlist extends the journey through landmark recordings and essential rarities, revealing dub’s astonishing range across ten years of spiritual searching, sonic rebellion, and Black musical avant-gardism.
Enter the echo chamber, follow the bassline, and hear scattered sound refuse silence.
See full show notes and the Dub playlist visit our website
https://www.colorado.edu/center/caaas/podcast/episodes/episode-45-dub-golden-age-dub-reggae-1973-1983
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