Brum beat.....

Many famous Birmingham bands and musicians have contributed to the British music scene for over a century. The city's diverse miscellany of musical styles and influences have often been difficult to label with many smaller scenes evolving or individual supergroups taking the limelight rather than the city itself. By all accounts the city is without doubt a heavyweight of the British music industry and continues to supply an endless array of professional artists to a wide variety of bands from the underground to the popular.

Birmingham has one of the largest West Indian populations in the UK and one of the largest Rasta populations in the world outside of the West Indies. From this many talented musicians have emerged such as mid 70's Roots Reggae band Steel Pulse whose ground-breaking album "Handsworth Revolution" tackled difficult subjects such as racism on Britain's streets. UB40 picked up the gauntlet in 1979 when they released their "Signing Off" album with tracks such as "King" and "One in ten", they were the first mixed-race dub reggae band and later found commercial success. Musical Youth formed in the early 80's out of early soundsystem bands and also enjoyed much chart success. The 2 Tone scene emanated from the West Midlands with bands such as The Beat, The Specials and the Selecter who drew their influences from Mod, Punk and Jamaican ska music. Artistes from the region include Rasta MC Chesire Cat (who rapped on the Leftfield album "Rhythm and Stealth".), Bitty Maclean, Pato Banton and Dub Poet Benjamin Zephaniah.