Music Before Reggae

Music Before Reggae is a blog dedicated to exploring the origins of reggae music. We’ll be delving into the history of the genre, highlighting the key artists and songs that have shaped it.

The Birth of Reggae

Reggae is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term reggae was first used to describe a style of music that developed from ska and rocksteady. Reggae is often characterized by a 4/4 time signature, offbeat rhythms, and a Jamaican patois-influenced singing style.

The Ska Era

The Jamaican music scene in the 1950s was dominated by American R&B, which was mostly sung by people of African descent. In the early 1960s, a new style of music called ska emerged and quickly became popular. Ska is a Jamaican music genre that combines elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and R&B. The original ska sound was created by Jamaican artists such as Prince Buster, Clement Coxsone Dodd, and Duke Reid.

In the late 1960s, ska began to decline in popularity, but it experienced a resurgence in the 1970s with the rise of reggae. Reggae is a genre of music that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. Reggae is heavily influenced by ska and rocksteady, two other Jamaican music genres that emerged in the 1960s. Reggae often features a distinctive rhythm section which includes drums, bass guitar, and electric guitar. The most well-known reggae artist is Bob Marley, who helped popularize the genre around the world in the 1970s.

The Rocksteady Era

In 1966, while ska was still the dominant rhythm in Jamaica, a new style began to develop. This new style was called rocksteady. Rocksteady was slower than ska and it had a different feel to it. The lyrics were often about love and the instrumentation was often minimal, featuring only drums, bass, guitar and sometimes piano.

The rocksteady era was short-lived, lasting only from 1966 to 1968. But during that time, some of Jamaica’s most beloved musicians recorded some of the island’s most cherished songs. Alton Ellis, Ken Boothe, Delroy Wilson and many others recorded hits that are still played today.

The rocksteady era came to an end in 1968 with the advent of a new style called reggae. Reggae was faster than rocksteady and it had a rougher feel to it. The lyrics were often about social issues and the instrumentation often featured horns and keyboards in addition to drums, bass and guitar.

Reggae would go on to conquered the world in the 1970s with the help of Bob Marley & The Wailers. But that’s a story for another time…

The Reggae Era

Reggae is a style of music that developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. It is a fusion of African and Caribbean music. Reggae is usually played with drums, bass, guitar, and keyboards. The lyrics are often about social issues such as poverty, racism, and violence.

The Golden Age of Reggae

The 1960s and early 1970s were the golden age of reggae, when the music’s international reputation was first established. At this time, ska music had morphed into rocksteady, a slower and more soulful style that was often characterized by flowing, easy-going rhythms and bluesy guitar playing. Reggae developed from rocksteady, and essentially retained its predecessor’s instrumentation and basic rhythmic feel while amps were turned down, chords were played less frequently, and the playing became sparer and more fluid. The golden age of reggae coincided with the rise of Rastafarianism, an Afrocentric religious movement that arose in Jamaica in the 1930s. Rastafarians added a spiritual dimension to reggae with their distinctive chants (“I-man”, “irie”) and their interpretations of biblical stories (“Noah’s Ark”, ” Exodus”).

The Dancehall Era

The Dancehall Era is considered to be the Golden Age of Reggae music. Spanning the late 1970s to the early 1990s, this period saw the rise of some of the genre’s most iconic artists, including Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, and Gregory Isaacs. This era also saw the birth of Reggae’s signature sound – a catchy, upbeat style characterized by heavy use of percussion and bass. With its feel-good vibes and easy-to-dance-to beats, Dancehall quickly became a favorite among party-goers and quickly spread beyond its Jamaican roots to become a global phenomenon.

The Modern Reggae Era

Before we can discuss the modern reggae era, we need to establish what reggae is. Reggae is a music genre that developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The style is characterized by a strong rhythm section, guitar, and drums playing off of each other. The lyrics are often about love, peace, and unity.

The Rise of Dubstep and Reggaeton

In the early 2000s, a new sound began to emerge from Jamaica that would come to shape the course of reggae music for years to come. This new style, which came to be known as dubstep, was characterized by its use of heavy basslines and sped-up drum patterns. While it shared some sonic similarities with dancehall, dubstep was distinguished by its slower tempo and more atmospheric sound.

In the same decade, another new style of reggae was taking shape in Puerto Rico. This music, which came to be known as reggaeton, blended the sounds of reggae and hip hop with Spanish lyrics. Reggaeton quickly became hugely popular in Latin America and the Caribbean, and would go on to have a significant influence on the sound of contemporary reggae.

The New Wave of Reggae

In the 1970s, a new wave of reggae artists broke onto the scene, many of them embracing a more Rastafarian-inspired message. One of the most popular and influential of these artists was Bob Marley, whose upbeat songs and messages of peace, love, and unity helped make reggae one of the most popular music genres in the world. Other famous reggae artists from this era include Jimmy Cliff, Dennis Brown, and Burning Spear.