History YMMV / BobMarley

** Marley is spectacularly popular in the Pacific island of New Caledonia. The same can be said about reggae in general. How popular? When one walks the streets of Nouméa, about one in four people is usually wearing Rastafarian colours and/or a Bob Marley T-shirt, and young people carry around transistor radios playing Bob Marley all the time. I caught a bus from one end of the island to the other and most of the way there were three separate radios playing different reggae tracks at all times! This appears to be identification with a fellow island culture, helped along by the fact that, as Melanesians, the native Kanaks are darker in skin-tone than most other peoples of the Pacific.

** A majority of people who claim to be Bob Marley fans only seem to be this because it gives them an excuse to smoke marijuana while listening to his music. In fact: even people who don't listen to Marley or reggae for that matter seem to believe that it is basically only for stoners.
** Some people, especially those who don't speak English that well, frequent misinterpret "No Woman, No Cry" as a MisogynySong, thinking it means that without women there would be no reason to cry. A lot of idiots find this incredibly funny, but the last laugh is actually on them, because the song is simply about a man telling a woman not to cry, despite their misery.

* RefrainFromAssuming: "Three Little Birds" is often called "Don't Worry About A Thing" or "Every Little Thing Is Gonna Be Alright". The song's lyrics overall are about the optimistic [[AnAesop Aesop]] being sung by the titular birds in their melodies, but the birds themselves are only mentioned twice, while their message sticks more in the minds of listeners.

* SignatureSong: "One Love (People Get Ready)", "No Woman No Cry" (in the version of ''[[Music/LiveBobMarleyAlbum Live!]]'').

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: He was popular in France considerably before his mid 70s breakthrough, so many of his older recordings can be found there that can't be found in most places outside of Jamaica. France was even the first country where an attempt was made to collect all his 1967-1972 material, hence The Complete Wailers [=LPs=] have French liner notes (there are US CD versions which don't).

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: It's easy to forget now, but "Zimbabwe" was written at a time when [[UsefulNotes/{{Zimbabwe}} the country]] was still called Rhodesia, and to use the intended African name in a song was considered quite revolutionary. In fact, the song was so popular in then-Rhodesia that it was banned there. What really hammers the point home is that the single sleeve features Robert Mugabe, who was campaigning for the institution of majority rule. He was successful, but he turned the country into a dictatorship riddled with cronyism and incompetence, [[HarsherInHindsight which he ruled for 40 years.]]

** He also is widely liked amongst an African-American audience compared to when he started playing shows in America. Many black people at the time were interested in soul and funk music and felt reggae was primitive in comparison. You wouldn't know this now, because he's had a profound influence on hip hop and soul music.

* TearJerker: "Redemption Song" partly due to its status as the final track placed on the last album he performed in while alive (''Music/{{Uprising}}''), partly due to the song itself.
** "Wisdom", atypically for its era, is an absolutely beautiful rocksteady ballad.
** "Stand Alone" - you can't help but feel moved by the line 'How could I be so wrong, to think that we could get along?'

* FaceOfTheBand: To the point that people often forget that he had a huge band behind him.
** Interestingly this wasn't the case during 1966 when he temporarily left the Wailers to work in America. Music/PeterTosh and Bunny Wailer were the face of the band for several songs each during this period.
*** Further expansion: Bob sang lead on, and wrote, most of The Wailers' 60s and early 70s material. By 1970, the band were being credited as Bob Marley And The Wailers even when Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer sang and contributed their own material. Chris Blackwell insisted that ''Music/CatchAFire'' and ''Music/{{Burnin}}'' be credited to The Wailers in order to give all the members equal credit, but Trojan and Studio One's releases from the same time period credited Bob Marley And The Wailers. When Peter and Bunny left a couple of years later, the band officially became Bob Marley And The Wailers again and initially, it made very little difference to their sound (female vocalists, I-Threes, replaced them on harmonies and none of Peter or Bunny's songs were used, with the exception of previously recorded ones being played live). As time went on, the I-Threes vocal style became less about harmony and more about call-and-response, which differentiated Marley's later work from the earlier work.

* MisBlamed: A number of fans seem to think that Chris Blackwell was the sole cause of the Wailers' breakup. In fact, Chris was the one who advised Bob *against* a solo career (which he had been attempting at CBS with Johnny Nash), bringing the rest of the Wailers along. It was only because Bunny and Peter disagreed with Bob's increasing plans for worldwide fame and distrust of Blackwell that they left the group (the backing band, including longtime members Aston and Carlton Barrett, stayed). Furthermore, Peter Tosh himself said as much, noting that The Wailers never 'broke up' as they were like brothers, and that he and Bunny just refused to be part of the Island contract. They still sporadically collaborated later on.