Rasta Music

Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of Ska and a precursor to Reggae, Rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish Reggae. For example, harmony groups such as The Techniques, The Righteous Flames and The Gaylads; singers such as Delroy Wilson, Phyllis Dylon and Roy Shirley; musicians such as Jackie Mittoo, Tommy McCook and Lynn Taitt all performed Rocksteady.

Ska (/ˈskɑː/; Jamaican: [skjæ]) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to Rocksteady and Reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean Mento and Calypso with American jazz and Rhythm and Blues. It is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the off-beat.

Lovers rock is a style of Reggae music noted for its romantic sound and content. While love songs had been an important part of Reggae since the late 1960s, the style was given a greater focus and a name in London in the mid-1970s. Despite the name, Lovers Rock is not a Rock subgenre or related to it.

Roots Reggae is a subgenre of Reggae that deals with the everyday lives and aspirations of the artists concerned. They sang about the spiritual side of Rastafari and the honoring of God, called Jah by the Rastafari. It also is identified with the life of the ghetto sufferer, and the rural poor. Lyrical themes include spirituality and religion, poverty, black pride, social issues, resistance to government and racial oppression, and repatriation to Africa.

The "early Reggae" era can be traced as starting in roughly 1968. The influence of Funk music from American record labels such as Stax began to permeate the music style of studio musicians. These pioneers slowed the tempo that  developed with Rocksteady, allowing musicians more space to experiment with different rhythmic patterns.

Dub is a genre of reggae that was pioneered in the early days by studio producers Lee 'Scratch' Perry and King Tubby. It involves extensive remixing of recorded material, and particular emphasis is placed on the drum and bass line. These techniques resulted in an even more visceral feel, described by King Tubby as sounding "jus’ like a volcano in yuh head." Augustus Pablo and Mikey Dread were two of the early notable proponents of this music style, which continues today.

Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer, songwriter and musician who became an international icon, blending Reggae, Ska and Rocksteady in his Pop music compositions. Starting out in 1963 with his group The Wailers, he forged a distinctive songwriting and vocal style that would later resonate with audiences worldwide. The Wailers would go on to release some of the earliest Reggae records with producer Lee "Scratch" Perry.

The Dancehall genre was developed in the late 1970s, by pioneers such as Yellowman and Eek-A-Mouse. The style is characterized by a deejay singing and rapping over riddims and was originally developed in the sound system culture in the wake of the increased popularity of early pioneers like Big Youth.

Raggamuffin, usually abbreviated as Ragga, is a subgenre of Reggae that is closely related to Dancehall and Dub. The term Raggamuffin is an intentional misspelling of ragamuffin, and the term Raggamuffin describes the music of Jamaica's "ghetto youths". The instrumentation primarily consists of electronic music.