Reggae is not just a genre. It is a way of seeing the world, of resisting, of celebrating and of connecting communities that have never seen each other but that feel the same when a roots bass line plays. From Kingston to Guadalajara, from Trench Town to Bogotá, reggae culture is still alive and mutating. Here we document that history: the one that already happened and the one that is happening right now.
What is Reggae Culture?
Reggae was born in Jamaica in the late 60s as a direct evolution of ska and rocksteady. But from the beginning it was more than music: it was the language of those who had no space in the official media, the soundtrack of the Rastafari movement and the most honest expression of what it was like to grow up on the margins of the Caribbean.
Bob Marley brought it to the world. Peter Tosh radicalized him. Burning Spear rooted him in African history. And since then, artists from all over the planet have taken those three words —roots, culture, consciousness—and they made them their own.
The Sound that Crossed the Ocean
Latin America did not take long to absorb the message. Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, Argentina and Brazil developed their own reggae scenes — not copies of Jamaica, but local versions with deep roots in their own traditions of protest and community.
The Mexican scene has its own names that the reggae world should know. The Colombian scene produces artists who masterfully mix Jamaican roots and Caribbean folklore. Reggae in Spanish has its own weight.
At Pull It Up Radio we cover it all: the story that comes from Kingston and the one that is built every weekend in the sound systems of Latin America.
Sound System Culture: The Heart of Everything
Before streaming, before YouTube, reggae music traveled in wooden boxes loaded with woofers. The sound systems were the first musical distribution network for reggae: massive events where the selecta chose the tunes and the massive decided if they deserved a pull up.
That tradition lives on. And in every article in this section, we honor her.
What You Find in This Section
- Stories of roots reggae and its connection with the Rastafarian movement
- Analysis of subgenres: roots, cultural, conscious, digital, lovers rock
- Profiles of artists who have shaped reggae culture globally
- The Latin American scene: Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, Argentina and more
- Sound system culture: history, events, selections and tradition
- Interviews with key actors of the scene