Reggae music evolved from earlier Jamaican genres like mento and ska. In the 1940s, sound systems played American R&B and jazz music to attract patrons in Kingston, and this eventually became the main entertainment. In the 1960s, producers like Coxsone Dodd and Prince Buster began experimenting with accentuating the offbeat in the music, which helped define the ska genre. Ska gained popularity in Jamaica and abroad. Rocksteady emerged in the late 1960s with slower tempos and prominent electric bass. This eventually evolved into reggae in the late 1960s, characterized by slower tempos, new studio effects, and prominence of Rastafari ideology and Jamaican drumming styles.

1. Jamaican Music
Evolution and Creation of Reggae
www.stefanwalcott.com
Caribbean Composers’ Handbook – Amazon.com

2. Road to
Unique
Expression
 The idea of blasting music from the radio or a
record player-the best in American R and B or hot
jazz- through a configuration of open-air
loudspeaker cabinets became popular in the mid
1940s.
 Firstly done to attract patrons the music eventually
became the event.

3. Sound
System
 Apparatus used to amplify recorded music.
 Sound system parties became very popular in inner
city Kingston areas as entertainment source.
 Early system operators: Tom the Great Sebastian, V
Rocket, Count Smith the Blues Blaster, Sir Nick the
Champ, King Edwards or Lord Koos.

4. Sound
System Cntd.
 Music played was American R+B, Hot Jazz and even
Be-Bop.
 Louis Jordan was a favourite.
 Competition was intense as exclusivity was the
order of the day.
 The more obscure the better.
 Created micro-economy of importation and selling
of records.

5. Innovators
 Prince Buster –Voice of the People
 Coxsone Dodd – Studio One
 Duke Reid-Trojan
 Decided to produce their own artists locally thus
having exclusive access to the music produced.

6. The Musical
Innovation
W.I.R.L – introduced some Mento elements
in to the R+B music by stretching off-beats.
This concept was adapted and developed by
Coxsone where he wanted to take things
further by putting greater distance between
homegrown and imported music. He called
a meeting with Ernie Ranglin, and bass
player Cluett Johnson.
(Coxsone) deliberately wanted to keep the R
and B shuffle beat, but he moved the stress
to the afterbeat –the second and fourth
beats – to such a degree that it turned the
arrangement around. ….People used to call
in to stress it even more, and this off-beat
become the focus of all Jamaican music that
followed on after it.’
Track – Easy Snappin.

7. Addition to
Innovation
 Buster continued this theory with the accented ‘off’
beat.
 Introduced Rastafari to popular music through
seminal ‘Oh Carolina’
 Featured Folke Brothers singing and Count Ossie
drum group.
 Jamaican dialect and phrasing also introduced.

8. Ska
A couple of years into the 1960s
and the music had settled down
into what was to become classic
ska sound.
The new beat owed a lot to the
seminal band the Skatalites who
worked with the major studios
especially Studio One.
Lloyd Knibbs, Tommy McCook,
Lloyd Brevette and Jackie Mittoo.
Don Drummond was leader of the
group and important influence.

9. Ska the First
 Ska became the first unique and distinct popular
genre emerging from Jamaica.
 Gained national recognition as radio picked started
to broadcast it.
 Gained international appeal especially in urban UK;
‘Al Capone’ Top 20 British hit in 1967.

10. Instrumentat
ion/Texture
 Rhythm Section with Acoustic bass.
 Horns
 Voices

11. Artists  The Skatalites, Millie, Lord Tanamo, Prince Buster,
Jimmy Cliff.

12. Rocksteady
to Reggae
 Late 1960s saw the birth of a slower heavily bass
oriented type of music known as Rocksteady.
 Key element the introduction of the electric bass
and the now dominant, melodic place it took within
the ensemble.
 Electric organ also introduced.
 Horns were limited due to expense.
 Rocksteady dominated by vocal groups.

13. Instrumentat
ion/Texture
 Rhythm Section with Acoustic bass.
 Horns
 Voices

14. Artists  The Paragons, The Wailers, The Heptones, The
Maytals

15. Reggae
 Rocksteady changed in name and form in 1968.
 Slightly faster, with new organ pattern and studio
effects.
 Rasta ideology prominent as well as Burru and
Kumina drumming styles.

16. Aritsts
 The Israelites, The Royals, The Wailers, Dennis
Brown, The Ethiopians, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh,
Gregory Issacs, Beres Hammond, Barrington
Levy….

17. Sources
 Bradley, Lloyd. Bass culture: when reggae was king.
London: Viking 2000. Print.
 Katz, David. Solid foundation: an oral history of
reggae. New York: Bloomsbury 2003. Print.