Wha'ppen? is the second studio album by the English ska band the Beat (credited on the US release as "the English Beat"). It was released in 1981 on Go-Feet Records in the United Kingdom and Sire Records in the United States. After the critical and commercial success of I Just Can't Stop It (1980), which mixed ska, reggae and punk rock with social lyrics, the band changed direction on Wha'ppen?, taking influence from many other musical styles, including African, steel band and dub music, while keeping reggae at its core. The fast pace of the band's previous work is put aside for a slower, mid-tempo pace. Accompanying the music are socially conscious, political lyrics. The band recorded at Roundhouse Studios with producer Bob Sargeant.
Released in May 1981, Wha'ppen? was a commercial success, peaking at No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart, though its singles were the least commercially successful the band had released to date. Fans' reaction to the album was mixed, with some finding the band to have "mellowed out," though the album gave the band a larger American audience than before. Critics were generally favourable towards the album's musicianship and lyricism. NME named it the 4th best album of 1981, while Robert Christgau named it the 5th best album of 1981.
Wha'ppen? has been re-released and remastered several times.
Background and concept The Beat formed in 1978 and, according to Chris Woodstra, became "one of the earliest and most important ska revivalist groups" with their multiracial line-up and alternating lead vocals from toaster Ranking Roger and guitarist Dave Wakeling. They were part of the two-tone music scene in the Midlands that mixed ska, reggae, punk rock and politically and socially conscious lyrics. They briefly signed to 2 Tone Records for their debut single, a Top 10 cover of "Tears of a Clown," before creating Go-Feet Records, on which they released their critically and commercially acclaimed debut album I Just Can't Stop It (1980), which mixed political and personal lyrics with rocksteady and a punk energy.
After I Just Can't Stop It, the band felt they had to change their sound for their second album. Ranking Roger of the band felt this may have been because of fellow two-tone band the Specials changing their musical style on their second album More Specials (1980). He felt that while the first Specials album was "very punkish with an edge," More Specials "was like Muzak, hotel music! Obviously they’d been on the road too long, that’s what we thought. We thought they’ve been on the road too long cause this is the kind of music we hear in them hotels when we tour round America – everywhere! But it still had a message and that was really successful for them. And maybe it was more successful for them because they challenged to change."
Whereas the Beat had listened to reggae, dub and punk rock bands like the Clash and Devo when touring in preparation for their first album, several band members had become tired of the heavy bass work of dub music and the "thrashy" nature of punk rock when touring in preparation for their second album. Instead, the band began listening to West African music, the influence of which can be heard on Wha'ppen?. Ranking Roger noted: "What you listen to on your bus could dictate what your next album sounds like." The band's idea for Wha'ppen? was "not to keep the same, but to keep changing." Consequently, the band made Wha'ppen? more relaxed than its predecessor, while retaining the "melodies and catchy hook lines." Ranking Roger later described Wha'ppen? as "the most relaxed Beat album" and noted that "Californians and surfers, people like that – that album was made for them."
Writing and recording After touring with the Pretenders, the Beat began jamming to curate ideas for Wha'ppen?. During this period, the band read letters from their fan club, one of which was from an American woman who told the band she attempted to use their music in fitness lessons but found it too fast. Roger noted: "It was a lovely written letter so we decided to tone it down a bit in the way that The Beat became what we call 'one-drop', where the rim shot and the snare hits at the same time and that’s the main emphasis. So we did 'Doors of your Heart' and 'Monkey Murders' and along with a few others and that was the kind of style for that album in the end."
The band found it difficult to write lyrics while on tour, so they each bought a notepad, jotted down ideas, kept them for several days and then passed them onto other band members, who then wrote their own ideas onto the sheet. This communal fashion of writing songs was not unlike their approach to writing I Just Can't Stop It, as the lyrics of both albums were created when several band members would propose lyrics, and after passing these lyrics around the group, the whole band decided on what to retain and reject. As the band's musical influences were disparate, the band wrote the music in a more complex fashion, where, "[a]s a consequence, through playing an embryonic song over and over, 'everybody sort of jostles for position' until [the band agreed] upon a satisfying arrangement." Bruce Dancis of Mother Jones believe this contributed towards the gentler, moodier sound of Wha'ppen? in comparison to I Just Can't Stop It.
Wha'ppen? was recorded at Roundhouse Studios, London, in 1981 and produced by Bob Sargeant. While this was the same studio that the band's debut album was recorded in, Wha'ppen? was recorded in only half the time and half the budget, due to the expenses of digital recording and the pressures placed on the band by Arista Records, who owned the band's label Go-Feet Records. Five guest musicians appear on the album, most notably guest keyboardist Dave "Blockhead" Wright, who was 38 when working on the album and had taken with him many years of experience, having notably worked with XTC and playing in the Saint Kitts steel band the Casanovas. The album was engineered by Mark Dearnley and mastered at The Town House.
Composition Music Wha'ppen? moves the Beat into a variety of musical directions as they incorporate disparate influences into their music. While, like its predecessor, Wha'ppen? still uses the basic elements of reggae at its core, it uses the genre as a foundation for rhythmic experiments. The album was greatly influenced by the band members' growing individual collections of African music as well as instruments from African and Chinese music, and is less abrasive and more mellow, mid-tempo and maturely paced than I Just Can't Stop It, which featured a punk rock-styled dense, hectic pace. The Beat felt that a one drop rhythmic emphasis on simultaneous rim shot and snare hits dominates the album.
The album incorporates Afrobeat percussion, steelpans and notable usage of studio space, as well as midtempo grooves drawn from an array of Third World cultures. According to Robert Christgau, the album is a worldbeat record with "snaky grooves" and a variety of rhythms beyond the group's signature riddims, which are retained only in part. Saxa's saxophone work guides the album and displays an eclectic style, with both loud and quiet parts, while his "long-growl ballad solos" are resumed on the album from the Beat's previous work. Guest musicians contribute trumpets and marimbas to the album.
"Doors of Your Heart" is a dreamy pop song dominated by saxophone and laced with dub music. "Monkey Murders" incorporates Spanish guitar in a high-stepping fashion. Sung in Dominican Creole French, "French Toast (Soleil Trop Chaud)" is a cover of "Soleil Trop Chaud" (1974) by Dominica-based Gramacks which mixes Cadence-lypso and Afrobeat. According to Jo-Ann Greene of AllMusic, "Drowning" and "Dream Home in NZ" combine reggae with art rock experimentation reminiscent of Gang of Four. "Walk Away" is influenced by the Motown Sound, while "Over and Over" builds into a steel band groove. One critic described "Cheated" as being in a "bellicose dub" style." "Get-a-Job" is a pop song with influences from funk.
Lyrics Wha'ppen? continues the socially-concerned, angry lyrics from the Beat's previous work, with songs displaying downbeat views of numerous social and personal troubles. Ed Ward of NPR Music felt the album was more strongly political than its predecessor. The album was released during the 1981 England riots, and according to Milo Miles of Rolling Stone, the songs address relevant issues to the riots including the "fears tearing daily life apart" and "the tactics, however brutal, that everyone uses to cope," with several songs in particular being cautionary and dread-ridden with a plea for unity. Angst is prevalent throughout the lyrics of "All Out to Get You", "A Dream Home in NZ" and "Monkey Murders", while "Drowning" is also downbeat. "I Am Your Flag" intensely attacks jingoism and nationalism, while "Over and Over" attacks the "cult of violence." Beyond the political themes, several songs also concern depressed romances.
According to Christgau, opening song "Doors of Your Heart" is a "unity rocker" where "love means eros and agape simultaneously, and Wakeling finds that dread blocks the way to both, and Roger advises him to stop his fighting." In the song's reggae toast, Ranking Roger draws similarities between eros and agape, where "everybody looks the same when the lights are out". The song features guest falsetto vocals from Jamaican musician Cedric Myton. "All Out to Get You" and "Monkey Murders" highlight tensions raised by "a society in quiet desperation," while "Drowning" is about the death fantasy of a harried business man. According to Greene, "Cheated" and "Get-a-Job" both "take headers into the paucity of British life and opportunities in general." Of the two songs, "Cheated" tackles Rupert Murdoch's dominance over the British media, while "Get-a-Job" concerns unemployment. "French Toast (Soleil Trop Chaud)" is sung in Dominican Creole French.
Miles felt the "bracing fervor" of the music turns the lyrically bleak songs into "sharp exhortations to dance all over one's troubles," with "Drowning" being an "eerie variation" in regards to its gliding and dipping, breezy beat and "suicide-is-sensuous fable" lyrics. Trouser Press shared these sentiments, finding the loping music, effervescent sax and playful mixing of vocalists to "almost obscure the songs' depressing views of personal and social troubles," something they felt was "not out of character" for the band." Ranking Roger noted: "The music was happy, the lyrics sad. We always had a yin-yang thing going."
Release and promotion Careful consideration went into the album title, and proposed albums names included, among many titles, Misdemean and Dance Yourself Stupid. The final name, Wha'ppen?, is a Jamaican term – frequently used by Ranking Roger to his bandmates – meaning "what's going on?". Heather Augustyn, in her book Ska: An Oral History, found the name to be very similar to "Wha'up Skavoovie?", a 1960s Jamaican phrase used by Cluett Johnson of Clue J & His Blues Blasters which is believed to have inspired the name 'ska'. The album cover was designed by Hunt Emerson and the Beat. Exemplifying the lighthearted side of the band, the back cover of the album shows snapshots of the band in sunny weather.