ENTITY · PUBLICATION
Black Echoes
Well supported
British weekly music tabloid launched in January 1976 covering soul, funk, reggae and northern soul for Black British readers; it was renamed Echoes in 1992 and later published monthly, and its reggae writers included Penny Reel.
At a glance
- Type
- publication
- Confidence
- Well supported
- Era
- Open era →
Connections
Debate & reception
How people argued about the music — praise, criticism and public debate. See all debate & reception →
commentary
The end of the specialist reggae magazine: critical loss or natural move online?
Long-running print titles that once anchored reggae criticism and reporting - The Beat (US, closed 2009 after 28 years), Reggae Report (Miami, ended print in 1999), Black Echoes/Echoes (UK) and Germany's Riddim (ended print in 2026) - have each given way to digital-only coverage. Some see the closures as a loss of edited, long-form criticism and advertising-supported reporting; others note that sites such as DancehallMag, United Reggae, LargeUp and Reggaeville have kept specialist reggae/dancehall journalism alive, and reach a larger, faster-moving global audience than print ever did. Sources: World Music Central; Reggaeville; Jamaica Gleaner; Wikipedia (Black Echoes).
Stance: a loss of edited long-form criticism vs a natural, more accessible move online
debate
Telling reggae's story: Jamaican domestic press or international specialist outlets?
Reggae and dancehall have long been documented on two tracks: Jamaican outlets such as the Gleaner reporting the culture as home news, and international specialist titles - Germany's Riddim, the US's Reggae Report, Britain's Black Echoes, and today's Reggaeville - interpreting it for overseas audiences. Some value the international press for the global visibility and dedicated column inches it gave the genre when mainstream music media largely ignored it; others argue the fullest, most contextually accurate account of the culture has always come from Jamaican journalists closest to it. Sources: Jamaica Gleaner; Reggaeville; ReggaeReport.com; Wikipedia (Black Echoes).
Stance: international specialist press expanding global visibility vs Jamaican domestic press's closer, more contextual authority