Lover's Rock
It's back to the 1970's for a celebration of Lover's Rock and its impact on Black British music culture.
Formed in the 1970s, the hybrid sound of lovers’ rock was inspired by an increasingly popular strain of reggae, perhaps best exemplified by releases like Domino Johnson’s take on "Summer Time".
People Sound Record Shop (2021-04-26/2021-04-26) by Naomi FitzsimmonsNotting Hill Carnival
The exact date of the sound's inception is disputed, and it’s even harder to pinpoint it to one specific record, but it’s more or less agreed that the sound really crystalised towards the end of the '70s.
The name 'lovers' rock', however, is much easier to pinpoint: that was in 1977, when Dennis Harris and Dennis Bovell founded Lovers Rock Records to house a new sound born right here in the UK.
People Sound Record Shop (2021-04-26/2021-04-26) by Naomi FitzsimmonsNotting Hill Carnival
At the time, much of Black Britain, especially those that came over in the Windrush generation and those who followed in the immediate years, imported its wax from North America and the Caribbean.
People Sound Record Shop (2021-04-26/2021-04-26) by Naomi FitzsimmonsNotting Hill Carnival
On the one hand, they sourced the rocksteady and roots reggae records that had overtaken ska as the predominant Jamaican exports, while on the other they looked to the explosion of soul in Chicago and Philadelphia.
Soon, the two began to mix and when Harris and Bovell founded their new record label, this homegrown contribution to Caribbean culture finally had its name.
From its South London roots, lovers’ rock had grown to dominate the bass bins of London's soundsystems, like Chicken Hi-Fi, Success Sound and Soferno B. Most of the first wave of vocalists were Black British women— namely Janet Kay (see: "Silly Games").
It wasn't long before the men jumped on the mic and its appeal broadened. Soon, Jamaican artists like Horace Andy, Junior Murvin, Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown and Sugar Minott started to take their cues from the sound.
They found their own success in the UK charts with lovers' rock classics like Brown’s "Money In My Pocket" and Minott’s "Good Thing Going", either side of the turn of the decade.
Bob Marley and Don Letts in London (1976-06)Bob Marley: Legend
Joe Strummer and The Clash co-opted the sound early thanks to figures like Don Letts, igniting a surprising but enduring connection between punk and post-punk artists and their Caribbean counterparts.
However, the influence of lovers' rock endures to this day, stretching far beyond its '70s origins. Artists like Sade and Estelle both have albums named after the genre.
A Music Studio session Part 1 (2021) by Blaz ErzeticTRENCH
The echoes of its soulful, soundsystem-ready tales of heartbreak can be heard to this day in everything from Afroswing to modern dancehall and R&B on both sides of the Atlantic.
This digital work has been produced in collaboration with PRS Foundation and POWER UP. The article first featured in TRENCH x Union Black's Chapter One: Game Changers zine.
Words by James Keith
Videos by EarlySounds45s, RootsCali831, Pakuzow, BBC Music, TOTP, Betaman31252, Topofthepopsfan5259, Softladification and Sade SME.
Commissioned by TRENCH
