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Voices of Resistance: Geraint Jarman and the Roots of Reggae in Welsh Popular Music PWYLL AP SION Geraint Jarman has been regarded since the late 1970s as one of the principal exponents of reggae in Welsh popular music. Although Jarman has written and recorded songs which display a variety of popular styles and approaches, it is arguably within the field of reggae music that his work has yielded the most profitable and inter- esting results, in both commercial and aesthetic terms. At first glance, the location of a 'foreign' style such as reggae within the uncharted territory of Welsh pop music may seem culturally disconnected, if not somehow misplaced and contrived. Reggae music, however, acquired a certain potency and immediacy of expression in many indigenous pop songs in Wales, particularly during the 1980s. This article attempts to chart the context in which reggae became relevant to Welsh subcultural trends and its music. Conclusions are drawn in relation to Geraint Jarman's songs in this genre, in particular from his album Fflamau'r Ddraig (The Dragon's Flames) released in 1980.1 Before dealing with some specific examples from the repertory of reggae it is necessary to undertake a short excursus in the reception history of the term as it has appeared in Welsh newspapers and pop magazines. During the 1980s the term became increasingly ubiqui- tous in reviews, notes, conversations and writings dealing with the music of Geraint Jarman. But the origin of the word, or at least its use within the Welsh language is, not surprisingly, comparatively recent. The writer Eurof Williams described a song by the popular Welsh rock group Edward H. Dafis namely 'Hi Yw' ('She Is') as one which belonged 'somehow to the "family" of "reggae'2 and Hefin Wyn claimed to hear "reggae" touches' imbuing an earlier song by Geraint Jarman, 'Lawr yn y Ddinas' ('Down in the City').3 Such examples point to the often cautious and transient use of the word 'reggae', as if the term itself was strange and unfamiliar to the phrases and constructions of the Welsh language (and also, by