dubplate

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See also: dub-plate, and dub plate

English

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WOTD – 6 February 2024

Etymology

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Seven-, ten-, and twelve-inch dubplates.

From dub (“style of reggae music involving mixing of different audio tracks”) +‎ plate (“music record, usually vinyl”).[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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dubplate (plural dubplates)

  1. (music, originally Jamaica) An acetate or vinyl record pressed in very limited numbers, especially one issued to disc jockeys in advance of an official release; specifically (and originally), one containing a piece of dub music (a style of reggae music, often instrumental, involving the mixing of different audio tracks).
    You heard that new Danny Weed dubplate?
    • 1986 April, Roger Steffens, “World Beat”, in Bob Guccione, Jr., editor, Spin, volume 2, number 1, New York, N.Y.: Camouflage Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 19, column 1:
      Their dub-plate (unreleased tracks on private pressings) battles are usually limited to JA [Jamaica] and the UK, but they have begun to invade the States with this unique form of entertainment.
    • 1988, Dick Hebdige, “Post-script 1: Vital Strategies”, in Hiding in the Light: On Images and Things (A Comedia Book), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 1990, →ISBN, section 4 (Postmodernism and “The Other Side”), page 215:
      The sound systems – the mobile reggae discos with their own d.j.s, their "specials" and "dub plates" (specially recorded rhythms owned by the system), their own local followings – are networks of live wires and speakers, sounds and affects.
    • [1989 June, “Groove Me: 20 Recommended Current Albums and Reissues”, in Bob Guccione, Jr., editor, Spin, volume 5, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Camouflage Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 66:
      Various Artists, Soundclash Dubplate Style (Taurus Jamaica)]
    • 1993 July 10, Maureen Sheridan, “Secrets of the Dancehall Laboratory: Top Groovemasters Drop Science about Reggae’s Tuffest Trend yet”, in Timothy White, editor, Billboard: The International Newsweekly of Music, Video and Home Entertainment, volume 105, number 28, New York, N.Y.: BPI Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page R-20, column 4:
      [Courtney] Cole, who finds his artists through talent shows held at his Ocho Rice Roof Club, says he tries out new tunes on a live audience "first on dubplate [special one-off mixes for sound systems and radio jocks], so we can test again before pressing it."
    • 1998, Simon Reynolds, “Roots ’n’ Future: Jungle Takes Over London, 1993–94”, in Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 264:
      The dubplate is a Jamaican idea: seventies sound systems pressed up their own tracks in order to outdo their rivals. Similarly, jungle's top DJs, desperate for exclusive tracks, spend more than two hundred pounds a week on dubplates—either their own productions or tracks by kindred-spirit producers. Dubplates are also a way of testing out a new track on a club sound system, of seeing how the crowd responds and what scope is for improving the record.
    • 1999, Eugene Lange, “dub”, in edited by Peter Childs and Mike Storry, Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture, London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 163, column 2:
      By the mid-1970s, companies had begun to release sneak previews of coming releases in dub form on acetates. These rare gems became known as ‘dub[-]plates’.
    • 2007, Michael E. Veal, “‘Every Spoil is a Style’: The Evolution of Dub Music in the 1970s”, in Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae (Music/Culture), Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, →ISBN, page 51:
      Mikey Dread defined the dub plate as "a little pre-release of the thing before it gets to the streets. Back in those days we didn't have CD burners where you could just go and get a copy. You'd have to wait months. So, the dub plate was just taking the same procedure from the mastering room [of the record manufacturing plant] and they just cut this little thing they called an acetate. They cut it right there [in the recording studio]."
    • 2006, Bill Brewster, Frank Broughton, “Reggae: Wreck Up a Version”, in Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey, updated edition, New York, N.Y.: Headline Book Publishing, Grove Press, →ISBN, page 127:
      [A]t Duke Reid's Treasure isle studio the engineer Byron Smith had cut the dub-plate with the vocals accidentally turned down. After rocking the crowd with the original vocal pressing of the song, [Ruddy] Redwood played them this new voiceless version. The crowd went crazy, singing along, and he played the song so many times that night that by morning the acetate was worn out.
    • 2022, Mark V. Campbell, “Dubbing the Remix and Its Uses”, in Afrosonic Life, New York, N.Y., London: Bloomsbury Academic, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, pages 94–95:
      Dubs originally referred to one-off acetates (eventually called dubplates) that were meant for previewing new music in the 1960s and the praise of an individual sound system in competitive sound clashes […]. Dubplates are prerecorded endorsements of a particular sound by a reggae artist; they usually follow the melody or lyrics of a popular tune (sometimes a tune sung by that same artist), inserting the name of the sound system and praise for that sound system's skills […]. In some cases, these improvised lyrics for a dubplate would be cut as records and sold or added to albums […].

Alternative forms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “dubplate, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2022.

Further reading

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