August 6th 2012 marks fifty years of Jamaican independence, and on this blog I'll be celebrating the occasion with a 50 day musical countdown, posting a piece of Jamaican music from each of the last fifty years, which if I've added it up correctly should take us right up to August 6th. On the day itself I'll be dropping five new mixes in quick succession: a tribute to Dennis Brown, a tribute to the Greensleeves label, a new roots & dub mix, a mystic/experimental dub mix, and an hour of across the board JA 7's.
Politically the last half century has been pretty rough: as many ex-colonial countries have found, independence doesn't mean escape from the powers of imperialist countries, and Jamaica has suffered much, particularly as a result of the USA's proxy war to stamp out socialism in the 70s, which also led to the CIA creating the gun and cocaine gang culture that continues to hurt the country today.
Politics aside, Jamaicans can of course boast to having created so much incredible music over these years, whose influence has rightly spread right across the globe. As we count up through the years its amazing to see how quickly things change, and how much innovation was going on. Certainly my world would be so much emptier without music from JA, and I'm far from the only one who feels that way.
With so much incredible music to choose from the selections will be a variety of personal favourites, landmark tunes, obscurities, classics, as well as the occasional track produced abroad. Each track will be posted on the facebook page here: www.facebook.com/mikusmusik, which should also show up in the sidebarI'll also be posting them up on two forums, Blood & Fire and u75. Feel free to add your own favourites in any of those places.
Really hope you enjoy the countdown. Happy anniversary Jamaica, and here's hoping for a peaceful and musically fruitful future.
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