music genre
A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. Genre is to be distinguished from musical form and musical style, although in practice these terms are sometim ...
that originated in
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
around 1966. A successor of
ska
Ska (; , ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a w ...
and a precursor to
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...
, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish reggae, including harmony groups such as
the Techniques
The Techniques were a Jamaican rocksteady band (music), vocal group mainly active in the 1960s.
History
The group was formed by Winston Riley in 1962 while still at school, with the initial line-up also featuring Slim Smith, Franklyn White, and ...
,
the Paragons
The Paragons were a ska and rocksteady vocal group from Kingston, Jamaica, initially active in the 1960s. Their most famous track was "The Tide Is High", written by band member John Holt.
Career
The Paragons were originally Garth "Tyrone" Ev ...
,
the Heptones
The Heptones are a Jamaican rocksteady and reggae vocal trio most active in the 1960s and early 1970s. They were one of the more significant trios of that era, and played a major role in the gradual transition between ska and rocksteady in ...
and
the Gaylads
The Gaylads are a Jamaican vocal group. They were one of the top rocksteady vocal groups active in Jamaica between 1963 and 1973.
History
The group, formed in Kingston, originally consisted of singers Harris "B.B." Seaton, Winston Delano St ...
Delroy Wilson
Delroy George Wilson CD (5 October 1948 – 6 March 1995)
Greene, Jo-Ann, " Delroy Wilson Biography, allmusic.com, Macrovision Corporation
was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer. Wilson is often regarded as Jamaica's first child s ...
, Bob Andy,
Ken Boothe
Kenneth George Boothe OD (born 22 March 1948) is a Jamaican vocalist known for his distinctive vibrato and timbre. Boothe achieved an international reputation as one of Jamaica's finest vocalists through a series of crossover hits that appeal ...
and
Phyllis Dillon
Phyllis Dillon (27 December 1944 – 15 April 2004) , ''
; musicians such as
Jackie Mittoo
Donat Roy Mittoo (3 March 1948 – 16 December 1990), better known as Jackie Mittoo, was a Jamaican-Canadian keyboardist, songwriter and musical director. He was a member of The Skatalites and musical director of the Studio One record label.
...
,
Lynn Taitt
Nerlynn Taitt (22 June 1934 – 20 January 2010) was a guitarist born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, who later moved to Jamaica and became a pioneer of rocksteady music.
Biography
Born Nerlynn Taitt, in San Fernando, Trinidad, he got h ...
and
Tommy McCook
Tommy McCook (4 March 1927 – 5 May 1998) was a Jamaican saxophonist. A founding member of The Skatalites, he also directed The Supersonics for Duke Reid, and backed many sessions for Bunny Lee or with The Revolutionaries at Channel ...
. The term ''rocksteady'' comes from a popular (slower) dance style mentioned in the Alton Ellis song "Rocksteady", that matched the new sound. Some rocksteady songs became hits outside Jamaica, as with ska, helping to secure the international base reggae music has today.
Characteristics
The Jamaican musicians and producers who developed rocksteady had grown up learning and playing jazz and had played through ska. In a similar way to what happened at Motown, the musicians responsible for playing this new sound would go jam in a jazz club after work.
Other influences were: most notably, American
rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...
- Fats Domino, Louis Jordan and many others -
mento
Mento is a style of Music of Jamaica, Jamaican folk music that predates and has greatly influenced ska and reggae music. It is a fusion of African rhythmic elements and European elements, which reached peak popularity in the 1940s and 1950s. ...
,
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from Afro-Trinidadians during the early- to mid-19th century and spread to the rest of the Caribbean Antilles by the mid-20th century. Its rhythms can be traced back ...
and African Drumming feature, too. By the time rocksteady came around American Soul music was strong and that had an influence as well.
The tempo became slower with the development of rocksteady than it had been in ska. The guitar and piano players began to experiment with occasional accents around the basic offbeat pattern.
The slowing that occurred with rocksteady allowed bass players to explore more fat, dark, loose, slow tones than ska bass. The slower tempo and smaller band-sizes in turn led to a much larger focus on the bass line in general, which eventually became one of the recognizable characteristics of Jamaican music. In rocksteady, the lead guitar often doubles the bass line, in the muted picking style created by
Lynn Taitt
Nerlynn Taitt (22 June 1934 – 20 January 2010) was a guitarist born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, who later moved to Jamaica and became a pioneer of rocksteady music.
Biography
Born Nerlynn Taitt, in San Fernando, Trinidad, he got h ...
(as on "Run for Cover" by
Lee "Scratch" Perry
Lee "Scratch" Perry (born Rainford Hugh Perry; 20 March 1936 – 29 August 2021) was a Jamaican record producer, songwriter and singer noted for his innovative studio techniques and production style. Perry was a pioneer in the 1970s development ...
).
Lyrics
Due in part to the heavy borrowing from US soul songs, many rocksteady songs are love songs; e.g. "Sharing You" by
Prince Buster
Cecil Bustamente Campbell (24 May 1938 – 8 September 2016), known professionally as Prince Buster, was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and producer. The records he released in the 1960s influenced and shaped the course of Jamaican contemporary ...
, which is a cover of a soul singer
Mitty Collier
Mitty Lene Collier (born June 21, 1941) is an American church pastor, gospel singer and former rhythm and blues singer. She had a number of successful records in the 1960s, of which probably the best known is "I Had A Talk With My Man".
Early l ...
's original, and "Queen Majesty" by
the Techniques
The Techniques were a Jamaican rocksteady band (music), vocal group mainly active in the 1960s.
History
The group was formed by Winston Riley in 1962 while still at school, with the initial line-up also featuring Slim Smith, Franklyn White, and ...
, which is a cover of "Minstrel and Queen" by
the Impressions
The Impressions were an American music group originally formed in 1958. Their repertoire includes gospel, R&B, doo-wop, and soul.
The group was founded as the Roosters by Chattanooga, Tennessee natives Sam Gooden, Richard Brooks and Arthu ...
.
There are rocksteady songs about religion and the
Rastafari movement
Rastafari is an Abrahamic religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control of the movement and much ...
, though not to the same extent as in reggae. Rocksteady coincided with the rise of
rude boy
Rude boy is a subculture that originated from 1960s Jamaican street culture. In the late 1970s, there was a revival in England of the terms ''rude boy'' and ''rude girl'', among other variations like ''rudeboy'' and ''rudebwoy'', being used t ...
s and some rocksteady songs reflect this (usually negatively) such as "Rude Boy Gone A Jail" by
the Clarendonians
The Clarendonians were a ska and rocksteady vocal group from Jamaica, active initially from the 1960s and 1970s before reforming in the 1990s.
History
The Clarendonians were originally Fitzroy "Ernest" Wilson and Peter Austin (who would also ...
and, most famously, "Judge Dread" by Prince Buster.
Alton Ellis was anti-rudie, and Alton Ellis and the Flames' "Cry Tough", released before the term rocksteady was in vogue, urged Jamaicans in the ghettos to stay tough through the hard times.
History
As a popular musical style, rocksteady was short-lived - the genre's heyday only lasted about two years, from around summer 1966 until spring 1968. However, its influence can still be heard in rhythms used today.
Also, in the middle to later part of the decade, as ska began to fade in popularity and the optimism that accompanied Independence in 1962 dwindled, young people from the Jamaican countryside were flooding into the urban
ghetto
A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other ...
s of
Kingston
Kingston may refer to:
Places
* List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated:
** Kingston, Jamaica
** Kingston upon Hull, England
** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia
** Kingston, Ontario, Canada
** Kingston upon Thames, ...
—in neighborhoods such as Riverton City, Greenwich Town and
Trenchtown
Trench Town (also Trenchtown) is a neighbourhood located in the parish of St. Andrew, part of which is in Kingston, the capital and largest city of Jamaica. Today Trench Town is the location of the Trench Town Culture Yard Museum, a National He ...
. Many of them became delinquents who exuded a certain coolness and style. These unruly youths became known as
rude boy
Rude boy is a subculture that originated from 1960s Jamaican street culture. In the late 1970s, there was a revival in England of the terms ''rude boy'' and ''rude girl'', among other variations like ''rudeboy'' and ''rudebwoy'', being used t ...
is sometimes said to be the father of rocksteady for his hit "Rocksteady"; however, other candidates for the first rocksteady single include "Take It Easy" by
Hopeton Lewis
Hopeton Lewis (3 October 1947 – 4 September 2014) was a Jamaican born singer of rocksteady and reggae, an arranger, and radio music presenter.
Biography
Lewis was born in Kingston, Jamaica. He sang in church from an early age, and started ...
, "Tougher Than Tough" by
Derrick Morgan
Derrick Morgan OD (born 27 March 1940)Walters, Basil (2012)A New Day – Songs heralding JA’s Independence", ''Jamaica Observer'', 3 June 2012, retrieved 3 June 2012 is a Jamaican musical artist who was popular in the 1960s and 1970s. He w ...
and "Hold Them" by
Roy Shirley
Ainsworth Roy Rushton Shirley (18 July 1944 – July 2008), better known simply as Roy Shirley, and also known as King Roy Shirley and The High Priest, was a Jamaican singer whose career spanned the ska, rocksteady and reggae eras, and whose "Ho ...
.
One account of rocksteady's inception comes from the film "Studio One Drummie and the history of rocksteady music": rock steady music started at Studio One in 1966 because when Joe Isaacs at age 15 replaced Skatalites drummer Lloyd Knibbs, Isaacs could not play drums fast enough to keep up with the pace of ska - music director Jackie Mittoo (The Mozart of Jamaica), slowed down the tempo.
Another account comes from a Jamaican radio interview, pianist
Gladstone Anderson
Gladstone Anderson (18 June 1934 – 3 December 2015), also known by his nickname "Gladdy", was a Jamaican pianist, keyboard player, and singer, who played a major part in the island's musical history, playing a key role in defining the ska sou ...
said that bandleader
Lynn Taitt
Nerlynn Taitt (22 June 1934 – 20 January 2010) was a guitarist born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, who later moved to Jamaica and became a pioneer of rocksteady music.
Biography
Born Nerlynn Taitt, in San Fernando, Trinidad, he got h ...
made a suggestion to slow the music down whilst recording "Take It Easy". Taitt backed this up in a 2002 interview, stating: "I told 'Gladdy to slow the tempo and that's how Take It Easy and rocksteady came about. Rocksteady is really slow ska."Campbell, Howard (2012), Gladstone Anderson: Key player in rocksteady’s genesis , ''
Jamaica Observer
The ''Jamaica Observer'' is a daily newspaper published in Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by ...
'', 1 June 2012.
Rocksteady's dominance meant that all record labels of the time released music in the genre; Studio One, Treasure Isle, Bunny Lee and Prince Buster were predominant.
The
record producer
A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...
Duke Reid
Arthur "Duke" Reid CD (21 July 1915 – 1 January 1975) was a Jamaican record producer, DJ and record label owner.
He ran one of the most popular sound systems of the 1950s called Reid's Sound System, whilst Duke himself was known as The Tr ...
released Alton Ellis' "Girl I've Got a Date" on his Treasure Isle label, as well as recordings by
the Techniques
The Techniques were a Jamaican rocksteady band (music), vocal group mainly active in the 1960s.
History
The group was formed by Winston Riley in 1962 while still at school, with the initial line-up also featuring Slim Smith, Franklyn White, and ...
,
the Silvertones
The Silvertones (who also recorded as The Valentines, The Gold Tones, The Admirals and The Muskyteers) are a Jamaican reggae harmony group formed in 1964, best known for their recordings for Lee "Scratch" Perry in the early 1970s.
In 1964 thre ...
,
the Jamaicans
The Jamaicans were a ska/rocksteady group formed in Jamaica in 1967, consisting of members Tommy Cowan, Norris Weir, Derrick Brown and Martin Williams.
Career
The Jamaicans originally started out in 1964 as the Merricoles, consisting of Derri ...
and
the Paragons
The Paragons were a ska and rocksteady vocal group from Kingston, Jamaica, initially active in the 1960s. Their most famous track was "The Tide Is High", written by band member John Holt.
Career
The Paragons were originally Garth "Tyrone" Ev ...
. Reid's work with these groups helped establish the vocal sound of rocksteady. Some would consider the rocksteady years to be Treasure Isle's best.
Notable solo artists include
Delroy Wilson
Delroy George Wilson CD (5 October 1948 – 6 March 1995)
Greene, Jo-Ann, " Delroy Wilson Biography, allmusic.com, Macrovision Corporation
was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer. Wilson is often regarded as Jamaica's first child s ...
,
Ken Boothe
Kenneth George Boothe OD (born 22 March 1948) is a Jamaican vocalist known for his distinctive vibrato and timbre. Boothe achieved an international reputation as one of Jamaica's finest vocalists through a series of crossover hits that appeal ...
and
Phyllis Dillon
Phyllis Dillon (27 December 1944 – 15 April 2004) , ''
(known as the "Queen of Rocksteady"). Other musicians who were crucial in creating rocksteady included keyboard player
Jackie Mittoo
Donat Roy Mittoo (3 March 1948 – 16 December 1990), better known as Jackie Mittoo, was a Jamaican-Canadian keyboardist, songwriter and musical director. He was a member of The Skatalites and musical director of the Studio One record label.
...
, drummers Joe Isaacs and Winston Grennan, bassist Jackie Jackson and saxophonist
Tommy McCook
Tommy McCook (4 March 1927 – 5 May 1998) was a Jamaican saxophonist. A founding member of The Skatalites, he also directed The Supersonics for Duke Reid, and backed many sessions for Bunny Lee or with The Revolutionaries at Channel ...
. When ska band
the Skatalites
The Skatalites are a ska band from Jamaica. They played initially between 1963 and 1965, and recorded many of their best known songs in the period, including "Guns of Navarone (song), Guns of Navarone." They also played on records by Prince Bus ...
disbanded (64/65—accounts vary) McCook went to work at the Treasure Isle label and Jackie Mittoo went to the Studio One label—these two artists/arrangers became instrumental in the way these two labels became dominant and helped to form the sound of Rocksteady.
Despite its short lifespan, rocksteady's influence is great. Many reggae artists began in rocksteady (and/or ska)—most commonly reggae singers grew out of rocksteady groups, e.g., Junior Byles came from the Versatiles, John Holt was in the Paragons, both Pat Kelly and Slim Smith sang with the Techniques (Pat Kelly sings lead on "You Don't Care") and Ronnie Davis was in the Tennors while
Winston Jarrett
Winston Jarrett (born 14 September 1940)Thompson, Dave (2002) ''Reggae & Caribbean Music'', Backbeat Books, , p. 423 is a Jamaican reggae singer who was part of Alton Ellis's group The Flames in the 1960s before recording with The Righteous Fla ...
was in the Righteous Flames. The Wailing Wailers were similarly a vocal harmony trio (modelled on the Impressions) who came from ska, through rocksteady and became a reggae band with just the one main vocalist.
Derrick Harriott
Derrick Clifton Harriott OD (born 6 February 1939) is a Jamaican singer and record producer. He was a member of the Jiving Juniors with Herman Sang before embarking on a solo career. He has produced recordings by Big Youth, Chariot Riders, ...
noted, "Ask any Jamaican musician and they'll tell you the rocksteady days were the best days of Jamaican music."
Transformation into reggae
Several factors contributed to the evolution of rocksteady into reggae in the late 1960s. The emigration to
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
Jackie Mittoo
Donat Roy Mittoo (3 March 1948 – 16 December 1990), better known as Jackie Mittoo, was a Jamaican-Canadian keyboardist, songwriter and musical director. He was a member of The Skatalites and musical director of the Studio One record label.
...
and
Lynn Taitt
Nerlynn Taitt (22 June 1934 – 20 January 2010) was a guitarist born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, who later moved to Jamaica and became a pioneer of rocksteady music.
Biography
Born Nerlynn Taitt, in San Fernando, Trinidad, he got h ...
—and the upgrading of Jamaican studio technology—had a marked effect on the sound and style of the recordings. Bass patterns became more complex and increasingly dominated the arrangements, and the
piano
A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
gave way to the
electric organ
An electric organ, also known as electronic organ, is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has since develop ...
. Other developments included horns fading farther into the background; the introduction of a scratchier, more percussive rhythm guitar; the addition of African-style hand drumming, and a more precise, intricate and aggressive drumming style.
Also around this time (1969–70) the use of a vocal-free or lead instrument-free dub or B-side "version" became popular in Jamaica; at the beginning this involved the use of rocksteady tracks, most notably with U-Roy
deejaying
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music festivals), mobile DJ ...
over Treasure Isle rhythms (made by a young Osbourne Ruddock, later known as
King Tubby
Osbourne Ruddock (28 January 1941 – 6 February 1989), better known as King Tubby, was a Jamaican sound engineer who influenced the development of dub music in the 1960s and 1970s.
Tubby's studio work, in which as a mixing engineer he achiev ...
, beginning with "Wake the Town"). Indeed, this collaboration provided rocksteady with an afterlife as U-Roy rocksteady-based songs rode high in the charts (1970–71), even as reggae began to establish itself as the new sound.
By the late 1960s, the
Rastafari movement
Rastafari is an Abrahamic religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control of the movement and much ...
became more popular in Jamaica and rocksteady became less popular. Many reggae songs became focused less on romance and more on black consciousness, politics and protest. The release of the 1972 film ''
The Harder They Come
''The Harder They Come'' is a 1972 Jamaican crime film directed by Perry Henzell and co-written by Trevor D. Rhone, and starring Jimmy Cliff. The film is most famous for its reggae soundtrack that is said to have "brought reggae to the world ...
'' and the rise of Jamaican superstar Bob Marley brought reggae to an international level that rocksteady never reached.
Although rocksteady was a short-lived phase of Jamaican popular music, its influence on what came after: reggae, dub and
dancehall
Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots reggae, roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2 ...
is significant. Many bass lines originally created for rocksteady songs continue to be used in contemporary Jamaican music. Such as the rhythm from "Never Let Go" by
Slim Smith
Slim Smith (born Keith Smith; 1948 in Kingston, Jamaica – 1972) was a ska, rocksteady and reggae singer. In their book ''Reggae: The Rough Guide'' (1997), Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton described Smith as "the greatest vocalist to emerge ...
(sometimes known as the 'answer rhythm') and "Real Rock" both from the Studio One label; "My Conversation" also sung by Slim Smith, produced by Bunny Lee; "Queen Majesty" sung by the Techniques and "Lonely Street" by the Conquerors, both for Treasure Isle label.
See also
*
List of rocksteady musicians
This is a list of notable bands and musicians who performed primarily rocksteady music for a significant portion of their careers.
*Bobby Aitken
*Roland Alphonso
*Gladstone Anderson
*Bob Andy
*Ken Boothe
*The Cables
*Cornel Campbell
*Carlton an ...