ABSTRACT
The history and tenets of Rastafarianism are central to the discussion of reggae as cultural expression. The infusion of Rastafarianism and music in the 1970s effects the interpretation of reggae as the only essentially religious popular music in the world. The message propounded in reggae of exile, of Ethiopia and Babylon, are understandable from the perspective of a number of marginalized communities. For all the cultural and social parallels between Jamaican and Welsh communities, the religious element of reggae music presents an unusual problem for Welsh popular music. There was a cultural time-lag evident in the early days of Welsh pop; but with the work of Geraint Jarman, notably his 'Welsh trilogy', the political, social and cultural ramifications of life in twentieth-century Wales found expression in a contemporary popular musical idiom. This differs from the music of Dafydd Iwan on a number of stylistic levels; on an ideological level, it suggests a type of folk-realist opposition.
