ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes that dub may also be understood as an “aesthetic,” one that could have a broader application and influence the direction of future musical styles. Dub’s legacy outside of reggae more apparent than in hip-hop and electronic dance music, where producers have completely absorbed the essence of dub’s studio manipulations and tricks. Dub had its beginning in the mid-sixties, when Jamaican disc jockeys first started making funny noises through their microphones in time to the records they played; this eventually found its way onto the records themselves. One’s overriding impression, on initial exposure to dub at the high volume for which it is intended, is that this is the nearest aural equivalent to a drug experience, in the sense that reality is being manipulated and distorted. Dub offers a range of new playing and recording gimmicks which could be plagiarised and thereby enliven all kinds of styles, from Chinn-and-Chapman to Anthony Braxton.
