The 1967 edition of the Dictionary of Jamaican English lists reggae as “a recently estab. sp. for rege“, as in rege-rege, a word that can mean either “rags, ragged clothing” or “a quarrel, a row”. Reggae as a musical term first appeared in print with the 1968 rocksteady hit “Do the Reggay” by The Maytals, but there are many different theories as to how the term originated. The music itself was faster than rocksteady, but tighter and more complex than ska, with obvious debts to both styles, while going beyond them both.[4]
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.
Reggae is most easily recognized by the rhythmic accents on the off-beat, usually played by guitar or piano (or both), known as the skank. This pattern accents the second and fourth beat in each bar (or the “and”s of each beat depending on how the music is counted) and combines with the drums emphasis on beat three to create a unique feel and sense of phrasing in contrast to most other popular genres focus on beat one, the “downbeat”.[1] The tempo of reggae is usually felt as slower than the popular Jamaican forms, ska and rocksteady, which preceded it.[2] It is this slower tempo, the guitar/piano offbeats, the emphasis on the third beat, and the use of syncopated, melodic bass lines that differentiates reggae from other music, although other musical styles have incorporated some of these innovations separately.
Although strongly influenced by traditional African, American jazz and old-time rhythm and blues, reggae owes its direct origins to the progressive development of ska and rocksteady in 1960s Jamaica. An important factor in this development was the influence of Rastafari, with Rasta drummers like Count Ossie contributing to seminal recordings, bringing the influence of these rhythmic patterns into the music.[7]
Ska arose in the studios of Jamaica in the late 1950s; it developed from the earlier mento genre.[4] Ska is most easily characterized as a quarter note walking bass line, accentuated guitar or piano rhythms on the offbeat, and a drum pattern that places the emphasis on the 3rd beat of the bar. It is very memorable for its jazz-influenced horn riffs. Jamaica gained its independence in 1962 and ska became the music of choice for Jamaican youth seeking music that was their own. It is also worth noting that ska gained some popularity among mods in Britain.
There have been many interesting theories as to why Jamaican musicians slowed the ska sound to make rocksteady, including the singer Hopeton Lewis simply being unable to sing his hit record “Take It Easy” at a ska tempo.[4] By 1968, many musicians had begun playing the tempo of ska slower, while utilizing more syncopated bass patterns and smaller bands. This new, slower sound was called rocksteady, a name solidified after the release of a single by Alton Ellis. The rocksteady style is most often indistinguishable from reggae, although reggae tends to focus lyrically more on lyrics based on black consciousness, Rastafari and the effects of poverty. Some reggae also introduced a much slower tempo than rocksteady. The “double skank” guitar strokes on the offbeat were also part of the new reggae style.
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