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UCF | Wellness > Mental Health

This is Your Sign to Add Reggae Music to Your Rotation

Raiya Shaw Student Contributor, University of Central Florida
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UCF chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

If you’re feeling terrified and hopeless watching the current events unfold from your phone screen right now, then don’t worry, you’re not alone. I’ve been setting record-breaking hours on my screen time control apps by devouring political news articles, videos, and posts and it’s had me feeling so, completely, utterly, depressed. 

Oddly enough, what’s been keeping me sane these past couple of days is my reggae playlist. I have always loved reggae artists for their relentless insistence on keeping their eyes open. In 2007, Stephen Marley sang “Don’t let them mold your mind, they want to control mankind; seems like their only intention is to exploit the earth – and you trust in their deceit,” on the track “Mind Control” from the album of the same name. In 2024, seventeen years later, Protoje sang “System yah design fi make the people lose them mind; just to live, man turn to crime,” before asserting in the chorus, “The system yah rough – everybody wicked and tough” on his track titled “Barrel Bun.” 

At a time where the truth is being steadily repackaged and sugarcoated to us in the media, it feels like the release of a great burden to hear someone simply say the truth- and this time, packaged in a song with a beat to make it stick. 

This makes me wonder, though: how many times will reggae artists have to sing about oppression before the rest of the world wakes up to what they’ve been saying for years, not only about their countries but about the world? After all these years, I can’t help but feel as if nobody listened and nobody will continue to listen. I hear “Welcome to Jamrock” by Damian Marley, a passionate critique of Jamaica’s poverty, violence, and government corruption, played on DJ mixes at an American club’s Caribbean night. 

Seriously? 

While listening to these tracks with lyrics that seem to have hardly changed over the years, I wonder how much hurt a country can tolerate before the words of their inhabitants start to resonate, before something starts to grow and take off without being cut down. I wonder how many more artists will have to sing about cycles of violence they can’t escape from before someone who can rectify it steps up. Or how many more of their songs will have to be released before we listen to them, instead of songs from pop artists that they release with no intent to bring awareness to a situation or make a substantial impact on anything but their own net worth? 

man singing on stage
Photo by Mazin Omron from Unsplash

And before you say it – yes, musicians don’t need to speak out about injustice, politics, corruption, etc.- but they always have. Michael Jackson, Nina Simone, SinĂ©ad O’Connor, John Lennon, Hozier, Bob Marley – these are just some of the artists who consistently made music responding to the trials and tribulations of their respective times. Music and politics have always gone hand in hand because of their shared ability to influence mass audiences- but nothing can happen unless someone listens. 

While these reggae musicians are largely singing about government corruption, poverty, and injustices in Jamaica, in the wake of recent political events, I can’t help but apply some of the lyrics to current U.S. politics- and they still ring scarily true. At a time when watching current events occur in real-time on social media can feel isolating and overwhelming, it feels refreshing to hear those same emotions reflected and worded perfectly alongside a calming melody. I feel seen, and immediately at ease after making that realization. Seriously – according to Vocal Media, reggae music is reported to be more than just a vibe – the powerful lyrics and soothing rhythms can reduce anxiety and stress, increase relaxation, and overall improve a person’s mental well-being. 

So, in the words of Bob Marley on his track titled “Positive Vibration,” “make way for the positive day.” Let this article be your sign to wake up- in more ways than one- and snap out of your depressed slump. Any of the songs mentioned in this article are worth adding to your rotation, and here is one more lyric from a bonus uplifting song titled “Skanking Sweet” by Chronixx: “for every pain there’s a melody, for every trouble there’s a harmony that brings everything together- so make we sing together.” 

Raiya Shaw

UCF '26

Raiya Shaw is an undergraduate student at the University of Central Florida double majoring in Sociology and English, Creative Writing with a certificate in service-learning. She has interned for the Florida Senate, The Florida Review, and the FL LEADS Project, and has been published in Blue Marble Review, Of Poets & Poetry, FLARE Magazine, and IMPRINT Magazine, among others. When she isn't reading or writing articles, she loves writing poetry, solving Sudoku puzzles, and knitting.