Shout outs to both Marleys and a little bit of Uprooted Funk

Jamaican music–reggae, dub, dancehall, rockers, roots and not to mention the seminal influence on dubstep and drum and bass– there's something infectious about this small island's rhythms that have caught on around the globe and now in China. In fact, the indelible Bob Marley's "Legend" album was officially released in China in January, while his son Ziggy will perform in Shanghai and Beijing this March.

In the past year, Shanghai has also seen a growing number of Jamaican music parties. A few years ago, Monkeyfunk at Mural introduced locals to rare oldies and classic hits, but after Monkeyfunk skipped town, there was a year or so when we struggled to find reggae on a night out except for a few nights at the now closed Pegasus.

A year ago, Uprooted Sounds (and Sunshine) started a monthly party at divey little C's Bar and sparked a mini reggae revolution. Now there are at least two weekly reggae/Jamaican nights–Logo Bar on Fridays and Mural on Thursdays. And on Jan. 13, the Uprooted Sound System's second "Shanghai By Bus" (formerly at Blue Ice Club) packed the entire night. A team of seven DJs, two MCs, seven live drummers, and tripped-out dub effects sent warm positive vibes into the winter night, for a large, diverse crowd. Certainly a climax for the reggae scene.

If Jamaican music seems far from the realities of life in Shanghai, it's a circular irony that some of the original Kingston studios were bankrolled by Chinese living in Jamaica, back in the 1950s (Google: Leslie Kong, or check this article: www.danwei.org/chinese_reggae_pioneers.php). Did the Chinese really invent everything? Likewise, it should come as no surprise that China's reggae scene is being driven primarily by French and Japanese expats. But not entirely. Beijing's veteran music explorer Wang Lei has been experimenting with dub sounds for years, working with a groovy blend of dub reggae and Sichuan opera.

The latest Jamaican-inspired sub-genre to swiftly catch on here is dubstep–one of the godfathers of the genre, Kode 9, recently played Phreaktion's Bonbon monthly. A slow, spacey, very bass-heavy twisted sister of drum and bass and dub, dubstep might not be instant party-rocker music, but the sound is curiously catching on.