A musical genre developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term reggae is sometimes used in a broad sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, although the word specifically indicates a particular music style that originated after the development of ska and rocksteady.
Reggae is based on a rhythm style characterised by regular chops on the off-beat, known as the skank. The tempo is generally slower than that found in ska and rocksteady.
Reggae is often associated with the Rastafarian movement, which influenced many prominent reggae musicians in the 1970s and 1980s. Reggae song lyrics deal with many subjects, including faith, love, relationships, poverty, injustice and other broad social issues. The word reggae may have been first used by the ska band Toots and the Maytals in the title of their 1968 hit Do the Reggay.
Reggae is always played in 4/4 time or swing time because the symmetrical rhythm pattern does not lend itself to other time signatures such as 3/4 time. Harmonically, the music is often very simple, and sometimes a whole song will have no more than one or two chords.
A standard drum kit is generally used but the snare drum is often tuned very high to give it a timbale-type sound. Rim shots on the snare are commonly used and tom-tom drums are often incorporated into the drumbeat itself. The bass guitar often plays a very dominant role in reggae, and the drum and bass is often called the 'riddim'. The central role of the bass can particularly be heard in dub music, which gives an even bigger role to the drum and bass line, reducing the vocals and other instruments to peripheral roles. The rhythm guitar in reggae usually plays the chords on beats two and four, a musical figure known as skank. The lead guitar will often add a rock or blues-style melodic solo to a song, but much of the time it plays the same part as the bass line, an octave higher, with a very dampened and picked sound. Other common instruments include keyboards and horns.
Reggae's origins are in traditional African and Caribbean music, American rhythm and blues and in Jamaican ska and rocksteady. In 1963, Coxsone Dodd of Studio One asked Jackie Mittoo (pianist of the Skatalites) to run recording sessions and compose original music. Mittoo, with the help of drummer Lloyd Knibbs, turned the traditional ska beat into reggae by slowing down the tempo.
Bob Marley, who played an important role in popularising reggae worldwide, recorded ska and rocksteady records early in his career.
By the late 1960s, reggae was getting radio play in the UK on John Peel's radio show, and Peel continued to play much reggae during his career. Reggae has always had a fairly large following in the UK, especially during the 1970s and 1980s. In the second half of the 1970s, the UK punk rock scene was starting to take off and some punk DJs played reggae records during their DJ sets. Certain punk bands, such as the Clash, also incorporated reggae influences into their music.
Reggae includes several subgenres, such as roots reggae, dub, lovers rock and dancehall. The toasting style first used by 1960s Jamaican artists also led to a new genre that became known as hip hop or rap.