The rise of King Jammy's sleng teng riddim ended the 12 year rule of the one drop riddim in the dancehalls with the digital (or digi) riddim. Reggae mutated into another subgenre under the amophous umbrella of "worldbeat" music which blended elements of hip hop,international, socca, reggae and even synth pop.
Digi riddims refer to riddims created around the time that Jamaican producers began to use the drum machine and the ubiquitous Casio synthesizer. Three major digi riddims, sleng teng, ragga (or raggamuffin) and raggaeton began to displace Carelton Barrett's organic one drop to the snare riddim he developed with the Upsetters.
Producers, instead of performers, became front and center with the rise of digi riddims and skilled musicians playing old school roots reggae became irrelavant to both the production of and the performance of music.
I don't like the post reggae era (from 1986 and beyond) any more than I like post rock and roll era. Nearly all of the real authenic roots genres of popular music have devolved into digitalized parodies of the real thing. Even electronica and dub music have become subgenres of "dance music" in the music marketing nomenclature.
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There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt
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