Reggae

Reggae took shape in Jamaica in the late 1960s, following the development of ska and the shorter-lived rocksteady style. The transition was not a simple borrowing from one genre: Jamaican musicians drew on earlier local forms and on Caribbean, North American and Latin musical influences. Researchers also identify the importance of imported rhythm-and-blues recordings and radio in the development of Jamaican popular music. The sound-system scene—mobile sound systems that played records at dances—helped circulate music and connect performers, producers and audiences. Reggae emerged from this Jamaican setting and became a central form of popular music on the island.

Many reggae recordings give the bass and drums a strong, spacious role while guitar or keyboard accents mark the offbeat, creating a loping, syncopated feel. The precise rhythm and arrangement vary across performers and styles; reggae is not a single fixed formula. Scholarship on Jamaican popular music describes an emphasis on the offbeat or afterbeat as a defining feature shared by reggae and earlier ska. Rocksteady, reggae's immediate predecessor, generally used a slower pace than ska, and reggae developed its own balance of rhythm, bass, vocals and instrumentation. Dub later foregrounded and manipulated recorded instrumental tracks, while dancehall became a related but distinct Jamaican popular style.

Reggae has encompassed songs about love and everyday life as well as spiritual ideas, injustice and resistance. Roots reggae, especially prominent from the late 1960s into the following decades, became closely associated with Rastafari and with expressions of Afro-Jamaican identity, historical memory and social criticism. This connection is influential but does not define every reggae artist or song. UNESCO describes the music's development in a cultural space associated with marginalized communities, particularly in western Kingston, and notes its continuing roles in social commentary, spiritual practice and cultural transmission. The combination of local histories and broader themes helped reggae speak to listeners well beyond Jamaica.

Reggae became internationally prominent in the 1970s, carried by artists including Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Jimmy Cliff. Its global circulation helped make Jamaican music and cultural perspectives more widely known, and musicians outside Jamaica adapted aspects of its rhythms and production. Reggae also developed into a diverse family of styles, including roots reggae and dub, while related genres such as dancehall grew in Jamaica. In 2018, UNESCO inscribed the Reggae music of Jamaica on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, recognizing the music as a living practice transmitted and renewed by performers and communities.