MOVIE MATTERS
Why The Harder They Come changed everything
When it comes to the question of when reggae burst out from the confines of Jamaica to become a global music phenomenon, Lloyd Bradley has no doubts as to the key cultural moment that changed everything. “It’s The Harder They Come. It’s that simple,” he tells us.
“The Harder They Come was huge in London because there’s a huge Jamaican population there, and in other cities like in Coventry and Bristol and so on. From there it spread outwards: it spread to the Continent – to France, Italy and Germany – and to Scandinavia.”
Released in 1972 and starring Jamaican ska and reggae singer Jimmy Cliff, The Harder
They Come follows a Jamaican outlaw named Ivan (loosely based on a real-life figure called Rhygin) as he tries to make a name for himself as a musician. Bradley explains that as the hippie generation was fading out, reggae offered the new sound of rebellion for the next generation: “There was another generation of consumers coming up that expected their pop music to mean something, or it was a bonus if it did. I think The Harder They Come showed the world that reggae could mean something and that was the moment. People talk about the meteoric rise of Bob Marley, but
The Harder They Come was before that and it’s unlikely that his rise would have been accepted the way it was had The Harder They Come not created the environment.”
What really made this the moment reggae broke through, however, was that as a film it offered a window into what Jamaica was really like. “It wasn’t just records that someone was going to play on the radio,” says Bradley. “It’s an exceptionally wellmade film considering the circumstances it was made under. And it really is quite immersive with that fantastic soundtrack. It’s like you’re right there. There’s no golden beaches and that sort of thing – you really are inside the reggae music industry.”