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Jimmy Cliff
Jimmy Cliff starred in and provided much of the soundtrack for 1972's The Harder They Come, a Jamaican film that became internationally influential in introducing reggae music to audiences well beyond Jamaica and the Caribbean, particularly in the United States and United Kingdom. His songs "The Harder They Come" and "You Can Get It If You Really Want," both featured prominently in the film, became international hits that helped establish reggae as a commercially viable genre for global audiences years before Bob Marley's own international breakthrough later in the decade. Cliff's musical style incorporated a broader range of influences than some of his contemporaries, blending reggae with soul, gospel, and pop songwriting sensibilities in a way that gave his music a somewhat different, more crossover-friendly sound than the more strictly roots-reggae approach of artists like Peter Tosh. His continued international touring and recording across more than five decades, along with his role in The Harder They Come specifically, established Cliff as one of the foundational figures in bringing reggae to global prominence, and he remains one of only a small number of reggae artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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Lee "Scratch" Perry
Lee "Scratch" Perry was one of the most significant record producers in reggae history, and his pioneering studio techniques at his own Black Ark Studio in Kingston during the 1970s are widely credited with helping create dub, an experimental, remix-focused subgenre built around stripping down and reconstructing existing reggae recordings using innovative studio effects. Perry produced some of Bob Marley and the Wailers' most significant early recordings before Marley's international breakthrough, and his innovative use of tape delay, reverb, and unconventional mixing techniques directly influenced the development of dub, a genre whose production techniques later proved foundational to hip-hop, electronic music, and remix culture more broadly. His eccentric, often surreal public persona and unconventional studio methods — reportedly including burying microphones in the ground and using unusual objects as recording tools — made Perry one of reggae's most singularly idiosyncratic figures, distinct from the more straightforwardly commercial approach of many of his contemporaries. Perry's own 1983 fire that destroyed his Black Ark Studio, an event some accounts suggest he may have set himself during a period of personal and psychological turmoil, ended one of the most creatively significant studio operations in reggae history, though Perry continued producing and recording music internationally for decades afterward until his death in 2021.
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