Dub is the new black: modes of identification and tendencies of appropriation in late 1970s post-punk

Abstract

AbstractThis article examines the complex racial and national politics that surrounded British post-punk musicians’ incorporation of and identification with dub-reggae in the late 1970s. I analyse this historical moment from sociological, intra-musical and discursive perspectives, reading the musical incorporation of dub-reggae by The Police, Gang of Four and Joy Division against the backdrop of the era's music press discourse. I also unpack discursive representations of Jamaican musicians and ask: what role does subaltern performativity play in contributing to ‘imaginary’ critical conceptions of dub, particularly concerning the Jamaican melodica player Augustus Pablo? I conclude by suggesting that post-punk musicians’ incorporation of dub-reggae represents neither an unencumbered post-colonial socio-musical alliance nor a purely colonial one, but rather exceeds and therefore problematises these two positions.