The death of a music genre has one reliable leading indicator: young women stop dancing to it. Weinstein traces this across jazz, blues, traditional R&B, and rock, arguing that EDM absorbed the dancing energy that once belonged to rock. Radio's collapse in the early 2000s and the atomization of music taste finished what the clubs started.
Where this was said
At 49:20 · chapter starts 36:40
Starting from a debate about Allan Holdsworth, the conversation expands into the life and legacy of Eddie Van Halen — whom Weinstein views as the greatest rock guitarist by far, held back from Allan Holdsworth-style obscurity only by David Lee Roth's commercial instincts. Jamie pushes back: rock is alive in arenas, with Korn playing to 50,000 in São Paulo. Weinstein has a theory to explain why it feels dead anyway: when women stop dancing to your music, your genre enters its death throes. He traces this across jazz, blues, and rock. Radio's collapse in the early 2000s eliminated the payola system that made genres monolithic. TikTok and Instagram Reels replaced it with micro-viral moments. The dancing energy migrated to EDM and then to country music, which Weinstein sees as a meaning-crisis vehicle — stories told through tropes in under three minutes, cowboys and county fairs as the antidote to cultural rootlessness. [1] — Eric Weinstein "Hot chick test for music genre death: Weinstein argues that when women stop dancing to a music genre, that genre begins its death throes — …" 56:20
Reggae didn't emerge from thin air — it was built layer by layer from mento in the 1940s, ska in the late 1950s, and rocksteady in the mid-1960s. Each stage absorbed new influences, from transistor radios picking up Miami R&B to the distinctive 2-and-4 rhythmic accent that defines the genre.
Before hip-hop existed, Jamaican DJs were already doing it. Electricity spreading across Jamaica enabled mobile 'sound systems,' and DJs developed toasting — speaking and singing over recorded music — a tradition that DJ Kool Herc brought from Kingston to the Bronx at age 12.
Joe Higgs is reggae's great unsung hero. This Kingston musician took teenage Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer under his wing and taught them how to sing, write songs, and make music — at a time when most artists would have focused on their own careers. Without him, the Wailers probably just would have sucked.
Reggae archivist Roger Steffens' analogy says it all: Bob Marley was reggae's Martin Luther King Jr., making the music universally palatable; Peter Tosh was its Malcolm X, inserting fierce militant political energy. Together, they gave the Wailers a depth no single voice could achieve alone.
King Tubby built his own hardware from cast-off recording gear to strip vocals and create dubbed-out instrumental reggae — essentially inventing electronic music in Kingston before Kraftwerk did it in Germany. The dubplate he created became the raw material for DJs to toast over, seeding hip-hop.
Two days before the 1976 Smile Jamaica anti-violence concert, gunmen shot Bob Marley in the chest and shoulder, shot Rita Marley, and wounded two others. He showed up and played anyway. The concert had already drawn accusations that Marley was a tool of the PNP government — a charge that frustrated him deeply.
Peter Tosh's killer was a man Tosh had taken in after prison, giving him shelter and food. The man repaid that generosity by holding Tosh hostage, torturing him for money, and shooting him in the head. It is one of the most brutal betrayals in music history.
The Windrush Generation brought Caribbean music to London after World War II, and reggae's 2-and-4 rhythm lodged itself deep in British culture — giving birth to ska bands like The Specials, pop acts like UB40, and even punk. Johnny Rotten was a reggae fan, and Public Image Limited has the dub influence to prove it.
Reggaetón didn't come from nowhere. It emerged from underground Spanish-language reggae-rap scenes in Panama and Puerto Rico, drawing directly on Jamaican reggae's rhythms and attitude. The line from Kingston to Bad Bunny's Super Bowl performance is a straight one.
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