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Is Peter Tosh loosing relevance to the reggae genre? On Sunday, The Jamaica Observer reported that internet searches for Peter are on the decline, compared to the last few years. Tosh had previously held a strong second place (behind Bob) in searches for popular reggae musicians. It seems since April, Tosh has been outpaced by relative newcomers like Vybz Kartel and Mavado. In fact, Vybz Kartel is being searched for a significant 37% more than Tosh. Check out the article (link below) for a more detailed breakdown. I beg to differ with the auther. I suspect the decline in online popularity has a lot to do with the Tosh’s smaller online footprint. His official site isn’t much more than landing page at the moment (althought it looks like a full site is set to launch soon) and his social network pages have just recently become active. Peter Tosh is an icon and a legend, and more relevant today than ever, I suspect.

What do you think? Is this a sign that the younger generation of reggae fans hold Tosh in less regard or is the new generation of artists better at using the internet to reach their audience?

Check out the Jamica Observer article here:
Tosh's popularity waning? - JamaicaObserver.com

Peter Tosh doesn't have 6 or 7 kids carrying on the legacy like Bob Marley
does. And contemporary Jamaican music has changed greatly since Tosh
was alive. I would be willing to bet that Peter Tosh is more popular among
American college students than their West Indian counterparts and that
even though he is still living there are fewer searches on Bunny Wailer.

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You took the exact words out of my mouth that Tosh doesn't have children that carry his legacy in the manner Marley's children do for their father. But if you even look back Bob was always more popular than Tosh. Peter even felt that after Bob passed it actually gave other artists a better chance of receiving their proper shine.

Hmmm....interestingly though the 3 or 4 that he does have are not actively involved in music. He's still failry prominent throughout Africa, Australia and New Zeland..but his impact has waned because of his message..Peter defined his talent relative to that of Bob's and the moment you do that you will always be secondary..He was reknown for being hostile about other acts talents in interviews and in many of his lyrics he was openly resentful...There is an Annual Peter Tosh Lecture at UWI Mona. and his lyrics are taught on the course 'Music, Politics and Society'....If we used google searches to define impact then I guess we could say he no longer has relevance...but his lyrics represent core parts of political teachings in many universities.

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"We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality"... .Albert Einstein